A couple of years ago, I was looking for a digital voice recorder that sounded good and had a microphone input, so I could record my speeches and lectures. I came across a flyer from a well-known electronics retailer that had a sale on a Panasonic digital voice recorder with it's own microphone for $69.99. I wanted to run an get it that moment, but I had to wait until a day off.
Since I have about four days off per week, on average, I wasn't in any hurry to shop for the best product at the best price and I went to the retailer with the flyer in hand. I looked around and the store was not very busy (it was Tuesday before noon, after all). I saw a person coding merchandise, a fellow with a customer at the checkout desk and a couple of young staff members talking about what they did last night.
I managed to find the product I saw in the flyer, but it was locked behind a glass door. Since nobody seemed to notice me, I stood in front of the glass for eight minutes until somebody came over and asked me what I was looking for. I pointed to the flyer and then to the merchandise and said I wanted to buy it, but not before I could listen to the quality of it with the microphone.
The sales person went to find the box for the display item, but could not locate it. He said he didn't want to open a new package and that I could buy a new, boxed item, try it out then bring it back if it didn't sound good enough. I explained that I wanted to avoid that process and that I could tell right away if it was of good enough quality by simply listening to it. He couldn't help me, he was too busy with other people (the two young guys were still talking, so they couldn't help me, either).
We could do all sorts of math on how many people like me experience the same sort of thing and how much money walks out the door, but it's safe to say that I'm not alone. Many thousands of dollars are walking out of the doors of even the most prominent retail establishments and staff continue to let it happen. We can't please EVERY customer EVERY time, I know that, but there is little excuse for letting a customer walk when the flyer brought them in!
The Solution
Staff need to know that sales come first - before chatting, before pricing, before 'targeting the bigger spenders', etc. How do you do this? First of all, they have to be treated well. Second, they have to understand how the business works - they are there to help people by providing them with solutions and your store has the solutions (otherwise, why are the customers there?).
How you get this idea across is up to you, but it isn't difficult to learn a few things to improve your bossing skills in order to motivate your staff.
Staff are not simply 'workers' to do what is mandated; they are people that have been hired to perform designated tasks and they should at least partially enjoy what they are doing. People have dreams and ideals and often people who work at the retail level think they are destined for something better and/or simply do not understand the opportunity they have been given. Some will excel and grow with the company and some will move one, but they can all get results, if you can motivate them to do so.
Stay tuned for more!
- Buck Moore
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