Understanding the relationship between retail staff and the customer

Tom Foley May 13th, 2020

When a retail business cuts down on staff and customers can’t find help, do you think it affects sales? When a large retail chain either does not support and train their staff properly and/or doesn’t understand how important customer phone calls are, do think that hurts sales? Look at Compuserve, out of business. Look at JCP Penny, looks like they are in trouble. What happened to Circuit City?

Retail is a great business if you take the time to understand your customers, actually care about them. One needs to understand current changes in needs and markets and change with the world instead of falling behind and losing the game of the retail business. But there is also the elephant in the room; poorly trained retail staff. A poorly trained retail staff that either ignores the customer or gives poor help because they really don’t care does great damage to the retail store, the chain and the brand itself. One bad retail staff employee could create a daisy chain effect where the customer who feels badly treated will tell other friends and family who then in turn tell others and so on.

So what can a retail company do to achieve a good relationship with their customers? We all know good prices and smart advertising are going to help but if you don’t have a good staff, you’re out of luck. There has to be a dual strategy that tops everything and that is the coupling of staying on top with the changes and a well trained staff. Your great prices believe it or not are going to be secondary. Why is this… you might ask. I will tell you one anecdotal story that will explain it all. We have all heard (and I personally know quite a few of these stories) where someone says, “Their prices are a little higher than the rest but their staff is great and I really like the store itself.” Anyone in the bar business will tell you that the bartender is probably the number two reason if not the number one reason why a person frequents a specific bar. If you don’t know this, than you don’t know the bar business. But for the rest of us, this is rule #1. You have to weed out bad bartenders and keep the good ones to grow a bar business. Retail is the same. Train your staff well but get rid of the bad apples.

The most important thing a retail store needs to do is make sure the staff are well trained to know to always help the customer, the customer is always right, and never leave a problem or situation and follow along with the customer until it is either resolved or another employee has taken over. This is what I learned and I learned from the best back in the day when I was a sales person in NYC. If I picked up the phone and it was not my customer but another’s customer, it didn’t matter. I followed the issue all the way to it’s proper conclusion. If you go to some of the better retail stores, like Trader Joe’s, most of the staff will be helpful and happy with your question or situation.

It’s important that I start a new paragraph to show you a few good examples (using the Trader Joe’s employee as an example) versus a few bad examples. Most of us have experienced having a question and we go to a staff member at Trader Joe’s and say, “Can you tell me if you have (some item) and where I can find it.” Most employees will walk you to where it is. Some will tell you exactly where it is which is also helpful (like… aisle 5 in the middle left side). Now I am going to give you what most of us experience every day at places like (Target, K-mart, Home Depot, etc…). I have to say one thing which bares mentioning; most of the bad experiences that I have had and most people I know who have had the same are the stores in the city or around the city like the suburbs near the city line. When you go upstate or in the rural areas, they are usually more helpful and nicer. This is not a racial thing by no means. I have had great help from all type of people in a rural area in North Carolina and I think that is because southern people (white and black ) are raised to be much more polite and helpful. Now that pains me to say that being raised in the north but it is mostly true. I love the Bronx and all of NYC but there’s too much poor service from everyone from all walks of life. It’s a simple reason why for me. Poor training. So being in or near the city really sucks most of the time for most of us who want to deal with a large retail store. So here is an example of what happens when you go to someone in big retail in or near the city; “I’m looking for this specific item (could be anything). Can you help me?” They then point in a general direction saying “Over there.” Wow. Seriously? You’re pointing in the general direction of about 20 aisles and I’m supposed to figure this out. Some times you look back to the person who you just asked and guess what? They’re gone. This is so bad on so many different levels. And THIS is why some retail giants fall. The staff doesn’t really care and THAT comes from the management who trained and are supposed to oversee their staff.

Here is another example; the phone. Comp USA went out of business a long time ago. I actually cheered when that happened. “Why is that?” you might ask. Most people I know, including myself, have had very bad experiences with that store (just like many today) where a person picks up the phone…. sometimes… and then puts you on hold after you ask your question and no one ever picks up again. Best Buy is notorious for this. Once again, I was trained to take a phone call and follow it to the conclusion. So if someone would call and I needed to transfer them, I’d (#1) make sure someone actually picked up the phone and (#2) I would make sure the issue was resolved. That’s called “follow through” or “following up.” Every staff member needs to know it and do it. If not, your business will suffer and eventually, people (like me) will cheer when you go out of business. Calling Comp USA was like thinking you may end up in a back hole. We all knew there was a 70-90% probability that if you called, you would be put on “eternal-hold.” Not good.

So a well trained staff goes a very, very long way. Cashiers that say, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Or, “How re you doing today?” This all helps.

The last question and point is, will Amazon put retail out of business? The short answer to this is “no.” People (like myself) want to touch merchandise. People want to know they can return something without having to deal with a shipping company. And if you know this and believe this, then that is good because guess what; Amazon is now looking to have retail space. So that pretty much sums up the question, “Will brick and mortar stores disappear?” Only the poorly trained and badly run ones will go out of business and when they do, some of us will cheer.

Good luck and Godspeed as they say. It’s a big world and there is plenty of room for many different types of retail.

Tom Foley

543 Consulting