Improving customer service

Last week I was in a local department store looking for a scarce item: a salesperson. After a few minutes of searching, I was able to find one who seemed genuinely offended that I wanted her to ring up my purchase.

It never ceases to amaze me how low a priority customer service appears to be for many retailers.

With the holiday season already upon us, this is crunch time for retailers, many of whom generate 70 percent or more of their annual sales between Thanksgiving and New Year's. With the increased number of customers who are willing spenders during the holidays, retailers need to pay particularly close attention to customer service. Here are some of my suggestions.

Make it easy for your customers to buy something from you. No one wants to spend more time waiting to pay for their purchases than they did shopping for them. Ensure that there are enough registers and sales clerks to keep waiting to a minimum. Sales clerks should be cheerful, courteous, and apologetic if waiting cannot be avoided.

Make it easy for your customers to find something they may want to buy from you. A salesperson is a marketing position, and the best resource you have to make a sale. If you walk through a store, it is pretty easy to distinguish customers who know what they want from those who are browsing or need assistance. A good salesperson will be able to deliver the kind of service each customer needs.

Give your salespeople the training they need to be successful. Many retailers hire part-time salespeople for the holiday shopping rush and then fail to give them adequate training. Although on-the-job training is a practical necessity, you don't want to break in new people during exceptionally heavy periods. This just tells your customers that you don't mind making guinea pigs out of them. Until a new employee learns the ropes, make sure a manager or senior person is nearby to ensure that your standards of customer service are being met and problems can be resolved before they become more significant.

Treat your customers the same way you would want to be treated. Retailers need to realize that customers remember how the service is in each store that they visit. A holiday shopping experience will carryover to the future, when people are shopping for birthdays, anniversaries, or other holidays. The holiday traffic represents a significant opportunity for retailers to attract new customers for the rest of the year and into the future. A negative experience could mean losing a customer forever.