5 Key Components of Successful Retail Customer Service
Being the owner of a retail business can be both rewarding and very demanding. At the center of your success is the customer. They must want to come into your store and know they can trust you to take care of their needs and have great customer service. If your employees do not know how to handle the customers correctly, or how to properly give customer service, they can make or break the business. Training your employees from the get go on great customer service ideals is critical to keeping your business up and running. Teaching them skills as they are working for such as how retail packaging, boost retail business and how they can handle customer conflicts will make your store a better success than the one down the road. Here are a few things you should make sure your employees know when it comes to handling their customers.
Be Ready With A Smile –
A friendly employee will make happy customers. No one wants to shop where they feel they are not wanted. A customer wants to be recognized when the walk in the store. They don’t want to be followed or hovered over but a nice “hello, welcome to our store” is always appreciated. Have your smiles ready and your friendly attitude on deck whenever a customer opens the door.
Know Your Store’s Inventory –
Nothing can be more frustrating for a customer and the employee than not being knowledgeable on what you are selling. If your employees are constantly asking questions of others or do not know what is going on in the store, it makes you look bad. Make sure they are trained thoroughly and that they know what they are doing in the store. Everyone understands if they are a new employee. The new employee statement wears off after awhile and they should be able to help a customer out without second guessing themselves.
Leave Your Personal Problems At The Door –
While this is not easy to do it is a must for store employees. Problems do go on at home but they have no place in your customer’s world. You should be able to separate what you are dealing with from what your customer needs. They should not hear you discussing it with other employees either. You want a professional environment in there at all times.
Handle Customer Conflicts –
No matter what you do some customers will never be happy. Be sure your employees are trained on how to handle these conflicts in the proper manner. You can handle these issues without making a huge deal out of it. Do what you can to make the customer satisfied with the resolution to the problem. Always be quick to deal with issues as well. If you leave it for a while and never respond it only escalates the situation.
Quick Service –
Be sure that you are servicing customers in a timely manner. They should not have to hunt you down to ask a question or to pay for their purchases. Be sure you are accessible and always within their view to insure they know where you are. You can be accessible without hovering over them.
These are key components you need to make sure your retail customer service is successful. Make sure these are in place and train your employees. You will see your sales rocket if your customer service is what it should be!
Tess Young has been dealing with customer service for over 11 years. She has been in all facets of customer service and understands what it takes to help business grow and customers keep coming back. She writes on topics such as Retail Packaging
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Category: Business
