How often does it happen? You are in front of your television watching your favorite college football team playing a game and your spouse starts talking to you about their day or what you need from the grocery store. Then suddenly the conversation takes a nasty turn and you are asked for input about the conversation you weren’t really engaged in. The textbook reply, “Yes Dear” or “Sounds good Honey” are the first line of defense but your spouse is suspicious of your response and asks, “What did I say?” Oops, you’re caught, you weren’t listening and you really have no idea what was said. The same thing can happen in retail but with a much different outcome and one that can cost you money. With your spouse you may be in the doghouse and it can be uncomfortable for a bit but usually things have a way of working out in the end. For a retailer, it may end up with an exasperated customer who won’t shop at your store any more.
Actively listening is critical for ALL retail associates. It requires paying attention to what your customer is saying and sometimes keeping an ear out for what is not being said. It is a skill that often has to be taught because we do not always give our full attention to what others say to us as I gave in my example of above. How does one really actively listen? By asking clarifying questions and repeating back what the customer has said to you. Here are some examples:
- A customer is returning a shirt. A simple situation right? Do the refund and give the customer their money back and everything should be good. Not necessarily. What was the reason for the return? Was the merchandise defective? Did it not fit the way the customer thought it would? Did someone fail to give them proper assistance when they were looking for the shirt in the first place? By asking the right questions you may turn a bad experience into better one. If the merchandise was defective, what was the defect? Is it possible to prevent a bad experience for others by pulling that shirt brand and style from the floor and requesting a credit from the vendor? What appears to be a simple problem may have underlying issues that you would not know if you aren’t listening and asking customers questions about their returns. Doing so let’s the customer know you do care about them.
- Perhaps you are selling jewelry to a customer. Showing your shopper merchandise is fine but learning about the customer and what they need the jewelry for can build an invaluable rapport with your clients. Is the jewelry for a special occasion? What style and color of outfit is being worn? How about inquiring if the client is allergic to any metals? You may need to look for hypoallergenic jewelry. It is possible by asking the right questions you might be able to accessorize the sale or better yet sell the entire outfit.
A key part of active listening is the inquiry process and asking the probing questions that lead to a clear picture of what a patron wants.
In addition to the probing questions another essential part of active listening is repeating what the customer has said to you. Sometimes when we are listening to someone we hear one thing but what the customer meant was something totally different. Here is a good example from a social media post I saw the other day:
- I want to eat Grandma
- I want to eat, Grandma
Both have the same words but two TOTALLY different meanings. When we repeat back what we have heard in the form of a question we ensure we truly understand what our customer is asking for. We can ask our customer, “So, if I understand you correctly you want to eat your grandmother, would you like that with or without ketchup?” Our customer can then make it clear they do not want to eat grandma at all, that wouldn’t be very nice. The patron can rephrase the question and give more details on what they want. Giving our full attention helps us give our clients exactly what they want and need as we make recommendations based on what they have told us.
Focus on customer service by listening to your customers and make them the center of your attention. They will return the favor by coming back to shop time after time and spreading the word to their friends.
We’ve all been there, we are on our way to work and the next thing you know you come to a standstill. Cars backed up as far as you can see and no one is going anywhere. The clock is ticking away and you begin to worry knowing you are going to be late getting to the office. You look for a side street to try to get out of the mess then, someone with a little bit of guts and a four-wheel drive truck pulls onto the shoulder of the road and speeds by everyone to get to their destination. Everyone gets to where they are going but some people are determined not to let obstacles get in their way and they take the fast track to get there. They went the same route they just overcame the obstacles that would get in their way.
Turnover for many businesses can be a real headache. You take the time to post job ads, review job applications, set up interviews and then conduct the interviews. Your new hire starts and within a couple of weeks they quit. It happens far too many times and it is a pain. Why did the person quit? Did they have a propensity for job hopping already and you missed it on the job application? Did they start stealing from you and got enough money or merchandise and quit before you caught on to their schemes? Perhaps it was a young employee on their first job and they wanted more weekends and night shifts off so they could “hang out” with their friends. All of these are reasons for high turnover in retail stores especially. Lose too many people at once and it can cripple your business, stretch the staff you currently have and it may potentially lead to more employees quitting.
Retail shelving along with store design has a huge impact on shoplifting losses. Typically a shoplifter likes and needs privacy even if only for a moment. So why not keep that in mind when designing or remodeling your store. Your shelving and isles can work for you by simply considering several factors.
Growing up did you ever do something dumb and your mom or your dad would ask you, “What were you thinking?” Having lived in south for the past 32 years I have learned of the local colloquialism when someone does something stupid, “Didn’t your momma teach you better?” Unfortunately, as a young boy I did a lot of dumb things making me wonder if my brain developed a lot later in life than most people. For example, I had a propensity for walking behind batters warming up to go to the plate for my father’s teen baseball teams. I ended up with more than one fat lip from my stupidity…obviously not learning the lesson the first time. I had a fascination with electrical outlets and wires and old rotary dial telephones…I won’t go into details but no they didn’t work when the wires were pushed into the outlet, I was not injured but I had one very busy guardian angel.
Loss Prevention Officers and Managers catch shoplifters and dishonest employees. That is a common perception and in some stores it may be a true picture of what Loss Prevention departments do, with the additional caveat that they may have uniformed people who conduct receipt checks. If this is all that the department does it can be hard to sell store managers on the value of having them on staff if the budget for them comes directly from the store. It is even more difficult for small, independent retailers to justify hiring a Loss Prevention Officer although if the store is in a high crime area they may contract a security guard. There was a time when there was an “us versus them” mindset between store managers and Loss Prevention teams. Over time some larger companies have focused their Loss Prevention teams more on operational issues. For example, I worked for a company that had Loss Prevention conduct food product out of date audits. Their position was that this was a safety issue so it fell to the Loss Prevention team. I had no problem doing the audits, but as I looked at the amount of out of date items I was finding I had to question what the freight team was doing when they were stocking. Who was auditing their work because there were a lot of FIFO (First In First Out) issues I was identifying that were causing out of date problems.
In the United States alone, there are over half a million shoplifting incidents everyday. The losses are in the billions and the deaths associated to shoplifting incidents are numerous. Whether you have a store policy where every shoplifter is prosecuted, or whether your store prosecutes only if the amount stolen is over a hundred dollars, the policies and procedures have to be crystal clear for every employee that works in your store.