10 "What" Questions Retailers Ask About Retail
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When done right, great customer service creates an exceptional experience and shouldn’t really look like anything.
The retailer should be letting the customer know that they are the most important person in the world for those few minutes. They are treated open-heartedly by employees inclined to meet new people, share something about themselves, and help someone.
All that should be so seamless that all the customer thinks when walking away or hanging up the phone is Wow! That was an exceptional experience!
A feeling. The best brands can be captured in a few words, much like a movie’s main theme. For E.T., it was getting home; for most detective films, it’s finding the girl. For consumer brands like Ralph Lauren, it’s an idealized Americana; for Prada, it’s the luxury lifestyle; for Eddie Bauer, it is the spirit of adventure. Brands that you can’t quickly pinpoint the feeling they are selling will struggle.
A great location in retail is the difference between success and failure. You can lease a shop 100 feet off the main drag in your hometown to save money, but you’ll give those savings back in promotions, ads, and a constant drive to get people in the door. Leasing a killer location next to a busy restaurant will only help if you can be open all the hours it is open.
Much like the outline of a book, retail sales techniques tell the associate how a sale should progress from greeting the customers, building rapport, showing them around, presenting the merchandise, closing the sale, and inviting them to return. These sales techniques ensure a thoroughly satisfying shopping experience. Without retail sales training, employees look at sales as hit or miss.
It will take longer to become profitable than you first think; ensure you have enough money. You don’t want to look at every customer like they have to buy something or no one will.
Customers want to be where it is busy. New stores and newly remodeled stores attract customers, just like new merchandise. That’s partly why location is key but also why training your employees to move throughout your store is so important. Shoppers want to see they won’t be the only ones in that store.
It is easier to increase sales because sales depend not on getting more customers but on getting more out of the customers you already have. Marketing stops at the front door, and there is little an employee can do to alter foot traffic. But once a customer steps through your brick-and-mortar doors, a well-trained salesperson can increase conversions dramatically.
Employee theft. The hand's five fingers take the merchandise and hide it; i.e., steal it.
Also referred to as visual merchandising, this describes how you arrange the products in a store. It could be everything from the display fixtures and signage to the type of products and how they are displayed.
And if your question is how to convert more lookers to buyers and create a store your customers will love, check out my online retail sales training program, SalesRX.
