Tips for Engaging Customers in a Retail Setting
by Larry Slusser on March 31st, 2008
Spending time with your staff and observing how they go about their business can help tremendously. More specifically, there may be a small adjustment needed on a task that has ‘always been done that way’ and is no longer effective. Small changes to the simplest of details can pay off some of the biggest dividends. Below are some tips for engaging with customers in a retail setting.
Instead of positioning yourself where you would have to approach the customer, stand in the middle of the store. This will give you a better opportunity to greet and engage customers without the customer feeling threatened or put on guard. Specifically, people will begin to become defensive if a sales person starts to walk towards them. Their first instinct is to run the other way. By standing in the middle of the store it is easier for you to engage the customer and create a less threatening atmosphere, yet still be available for questions the customer may have.
In trying to focus on making multi-unit sales, there have been better responses from customers when the sales person will walk towards the items that he or she is talking to the customer about, or just talk about it where they are standing. The lowest amount of sales from talking about other products within the store is when the customer and sales person are walking towards the register. It is much easier for the customer to say no at that point, already being at the counter than walking towards the spot where the product is located.
The best way to sell products is for the salesperson to get the products into the hands of the customer. When a salesperson just points out the product or stand in front of it without getting the actual product into the customer’s hands, this usually did not result in a sale.
Most often customers will say that they are just looking when they enter a store, usually to keep the sales people at bay. However, when this occurs, a salesperson’s enthusiasm level may drop upon hearing this from a potential customer. Another approach would be to teach yours sales staff to maintain the same level of enthusiasm, thanking the customer for coming in, and give them a brief overview of the store and what makes it unique. Even if this does not result in a sale, this approach is non-threatening and will leave the customer with a positive experience.
The last tip is to teach your sales staff to reinforce the customer’s purchase during checkout, linking the purchase back to something that the salesperson had learned from the customer during their time together. This will have the customer leaving knowing that they just made a great purchase, plus leave them with a positive experience that the salesperson was truly interested in them ensuring that the purchase was a good one and not just trying to sell something. This will also help to reduce the amount of returned items.
When you take the time to observe how the sales staff is operating, making tweaks here and there will help to increase your sales as well as the confidence of your sales staff.