Sell Customer Service First
I recently visited a major chain store that sells musical and audio equipment. I wanted to buy a microphone pop-screen for some audio work…
I recently visited a major chain store that sells musical and audio equipment. I wanted to buy a microphone pop-screen for some audio work I am planning.
I found the item I needed and also discovered a microphone shock-mount. I walked to the cash register which was an area marked off by a large group of glass display cases arranged into a square with cash registers/computers on two of the four cases and room for cashiers inside the space.
One employee inside the square, with his back to me, was talking to a customer about microphones, going on and on to a man who was not buying anything. Another came over to the other cash register/computer to look up some number, passing me, looking through me, he never acknowledged my presence or reason for being at a cash register/computer. He did his inventory research with his back to me. I continued waiting. There was no “someone will be right with you sir,” or “I can help you over here,” nothing. I am waiting there, debit card in hand, just needing to pay for my items. If there was a self-service register, I would have paid and finished my transaction, there was not and I continued to be ignored.
After waiting and being ignored long enough, I finally left my items on the counter and walked out, never to return. I then went to Amazon and found the same items for a cheaper price.
According to recent reports, that chain is on the list of companies many believe will not be around in a year or two. It would not surprise me.
In today’s world, customer service is essential in brick and mortar stores.
After I got out of the Navy, I ended up for a time working for one of those temporary employment companies, there I got to see how other companies operated. One international chain of coffee and pastries runs by a simple principle: If you are one of their vendors, you supply the best of your products. If you give one bad shipment to this company, you are dropped from their vendor list.
If you run a brick and mortar store, whether its a chain or a mom and pop operation, do you not think that your customers think the same way?
Customer service is one of the reasons that people walk into your store. If you do not supply it, then they can find another store online that will give them the item they want and probably at a cheaper cost. However, when they walked into your store that was not their motive, it was to buy the item through the customer service mechanism. If it is not there, then you do not give a customer a reason even to enter your store.
The customer maybe wanted to actually see the item in hand before buying, maybe he or she had a question about the item or maybe the person had a positive customer service experience in the past. It does not matter. The customer walked into your store for possibly several reasons, bad customer service, including ignoring the customer was not one of them.
In my case, I found the item I needed, found another item I did not plan to buy, but chose that too and walked to the cash register. Ignored, I now had a good idea what I could buy on Amazon because that store supplied me with what I needed to know to shop online, at no cost to Amazon, but that was not my intention. In fact, I do not buy something online after checking it in a store, I buy it from the store if that is possible, or even another brick and mortar store, if it is not available there. However, the customer service to finish the transaction was not there.
Amazon may sell things at a cheaper price (not always) but, there is no in person customer service there. That is what differentiates your store from the online retailers. A simple smile when you are ringing something up, treating the customer as a welcome neighbor, as the reason why you have a job, just good work ethics, all of these are a reason to treat the customer well and differentiate you from the online operations. The most important thing you offer is your customer service and that will bring the person back because it is this that Amazon cannot supply online, person to person interaction and assistance.
There is a local hardware store that literally sits about two blocks from a large box hardware chain. When I need something, do I go to the box store? No, I go to the local hardware store for one reason, their customer service is outstanding. They have the same things as the box store somewhere in their much smaller plant. If you do not find it, they will find it for you and they will find it in their store. I do not have to walk through aisles ten feet high looking for something. The store employees are more than happy to get you what you need. This kind of customer service is what keeps them thriving almost literally in the shadow of a box store. You add a friendly, homey atmosphere and you have a hardware store thriving while others failed.
Even in the service business, this is important. I visit one of two restaurants in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Alone, I will eat dinner at the bar. The two restaurants are on either side of the highway facing each other. One is a national brand, the other is one of several restaurants in a small local chain to the Western Massachusetts, North Western Connecticut area. Both are great restaurants. However, when I went to the national chain, immediately the bartender made me feel welcome.
“My name is J__, what is your name? . . . Good Bob, what can I get you? Do you need a menu? Great, Bob, I will take your order in a minute.”
Now having enjoyed dinner in both excellent restaurants, I go to the one where I feel they treat me not as one coming to eat, but as a neighbor welcome in the establishment. The tiny bit more of customer service can make a big difference. All the bartender does that is different is he calls me by my name and makes me feel welcome at the bar.
In these days of online shopping, which began not long after the telephone was invented. (Remember the Sears catalog?) It may be more efficient, but it is customer service that makes the difference and if you run a business you are not only selling products or services, you are first selling friendly, efficient, person to person customer service. If you do not offer that, then people can buy their products and services where there is no in person customer service and that is actually better than bad service.
If that music/audio equipment chain I visited eventually does go out of business, many will blame Amazon. Remember, however, Amazon cannot compete online with good personal customer service. That is always the difference.