Serving The Customer
You can always tell when a customer is making a decision to buy or not to buy.
In my retail store, after the initial greeting of the customers, we leave them alone to browse through our store. We give them their personal space but we are always ready to serve the moment they reach a decision making point.
The moment we offer our services is when we see the customer do the following:
- Spends a length of time looking at one particular item.
- Compares two items side by side.
- Search through a stack of the same item.
- Obviously is looking for a product.
- Looks around for a sales staff.
“May I help you?” is a natural and comfortable phrase for a staff to use to address a customer. We want to be the one that offers our service, not to have to be asked. We want to show that we are attentive to their needs. If it gets busy during peak hours, we still do this for as many customers as we can. We want them to experience the same level of courteous and helpful assistance every time they shop with us. This is our benchmark.
During our peak hours, we don’t do anything else except provide service to our customers. This is our selling point; we are your neighborhood store. We treat you the way we want to be treated ourselves. This is the standard we set for every staff on the selling floor. We tell them to use their best judgment when approaching customers.
Stop for a minute and draw upon your own experience. When was the last time you were actually sold something in a retail store? When was the last time you were promptly approached and acknowledged? In many cases, you have been ignored in retail stores more often that you care to think about. I know I have.
“May I help you?” might not the best opening line, but it beat saying nothing. First contact is made when the shopper enters our store. It lets them know that there is someone there that could assist them when they are ready. Approaching shoppers and acknowledging them also acts as a deterrent to shoplifters, as they will know that our staffs are aware of their presence.
This may seem simplistic to some, but this is what works for us. Many retailers have dedicated too little in the way of resources to training staff. Enabling our staff to approach everyone that comes into our store is our way to increase sales and closing ratio.
