In the past few months, I have experienced much longer wait times than necessary in a retail environment and they all involved a phone. I stood patiently and waited while I watched two employees in particular go back and forth with a phone on their ear, trying to help me out while having a conversation and not really seeing what it was I needed until I pointed it out.
Four multitasking problems worth mentioning (postal outlet, electronics retailer, musical instrument retailer and fast food franchise).
The Postal Outlet Multitasker
In Toronto, Canada Post allows some retail stores to operate a postal business out of them with non-Canada Post employees; it gives us a small town, friendly neighborhood feel. The one closest to my house is in a picture frame shop and the guy who runs it with his wife is usually very efficient, courteous and ensures you get every piece of paperwork when you're done. But he has to learn how to handle phone calls when customers are present.
One day, I went to pick up an eBay shipment from India, and since I'd ordered the same thing before, I had a pretty good idea of what size the package might look like. The gentleman behind the counter took my delivery notice and began looking for my item - then the phone rang! He was talking to someone who sounded important and he kept going back and forth expressing himself with his hands while looking for my package. I said: "Psst! It's small. Probably in that drawer of small things." He looked in the drawer, trying to match the numbers, then he looked on the other side of the counter.
He came back to the drawer, looked again as he talked, then looked elsewhere. I then saw it in the drawer (or, at least what I though might be it - and I was right). Five minutes passed and I just wanted my package because 'time is money'. There were a couple of other customers waiting with me at that point and I just pointed to it; he 'half heard' me and went back to the drawer a third time. I said: "I think that's it." He looked at it closely, matched the numbers and took it from the drawer.
He then hung up the phone and rang the order through. What could have been a one minute transaction took almost ten minutes! I don't even blame the phone, I blame the way the situation was handled. Sometimes, even the most seemingly conscientious people can inadvertently be caught up in a time-waster like that.
There are three other similar situations that come to mind including an electronics retailer employee who was on the phone while I was trying to point out the product I wanted behind the counter (she finally clued in after three minutes), a music store employee who kept me waiting while he was on the phone, handling another customer and even offering to help another customer who 'just walked in' (I had been there for about 15-20 minutes by that time) and finally, a fast food cashier who had to make the food without washing his hands because his manager was in the back taking a break (okay, I admit to the fast food, but I was on the road and got hungry).
So, multitasking clearly doesn't work. If I were less tolerant, I would either complain loudly or never shop at those places again until I had nowhere to shop, but I'm not like that. I always tolerate it because I want to observe the process and develop solutions to these obvious problems. I can't tell you how much money is left behind each and every day by retailers from coast to coast, but if I were to just estimate an amount based on only these four incidences, it would be $1269.00 (that's exactly the amount I purchased).
If we were to divide that by 4, it would be: $317.25. Since I didn't pay anything at the postal outlet and only six bucks at the fast food place, let's just keep it at a loss of $317.25 for two retailers. I should mention that I shop at the latter two business all year long and the last time I counted, I spend A FEW THOUSAND DOLLARS BETWEEN THEM each year. But let's just say one person (me) represented a $300.00 loss per business. If there were 50 other people over the course of a year who didn't spend their money and walked out, that would be a $15,000.00 per year loss for each business (50 x 600/2 = 15,000).
If a busy place gets 50 people through the door each day, on average (I'm low-balling here) and they close on Sundays, that equals 300 people per week and 15,000 per year (based on only a 50 week year due to holidays, etc). 50 unsatisfied customers equals .003% of 15,000. That sounds unrealistic, though, so let's just say that only 2% of people are unsatisfied and 98% of customers are completely happy with the service at both places.
15,000 x .02 = 300 (unsatisfied customers who walked out)
300 x 600/2 = $90,000.00 of lost sales every year for each business!!
And that's with a 2% customer walkout rate (CWR). I tried to low-ball this as much as possible and I wouldn't say it's highly scientific, but I must ask: How much money is walking out your door every year due to multitasking or other inefficient processes at your store?
Solutions
Train your staff how to handle busy situations, give them a reason for going to work and getting something out of it and discuss, rationally, how important it is to have great customer service.
Anybody who takes phone calls at work on a regular basis while in front of customers should have a polite way of telling a customer that it is possible they may have to take a call sometime during their transaction. Nobody wants to hear a gritted-teeth comment like "I'm with a customer" when they're paged to take a call. Instead, the sales person should have a pre-planned script for typical situations ready so they can get off the phone and back with the customer that is standing in front of them.
Stay Tuned for 'Phone Call Etiquette for Busy Salespeople'.
- Buck Moore
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