Customer Service

With all this talk of a recession and retail sales being down, customer service plays an even larger part of retail success.

I have only one requirement from my customers....be nice. You don't have to buy anything and you may linger for as long as you want, you can bring your children in, your dogs even your husbands, but you must be nice.

I have many requirements of my sales staff and myself. Greet each customer as they come in the store, don't hard sell but don't ignore the customer, don't talk on the phone while customers are in the store, do know our products and be able to address questions with a knowledgeable answer and always thank them for stopping by. Even our return policy is customer friendly....basically, if you bought it here, you may return it here (I did have one customer try to return an item that we had never carried and she insisted it was ours because the gift arrived in one of our brightly colored yellow gift bags!) and our gift certificates never expire (this one always gets me, a dollar amount is a dollar amount, why should it expire?).

It is difficult for the small retailer to compete with the major stores, but if you offer a service that the "big boys" can't, you can have the advantage and customers will feel that their business is appreciated and wanted. For the most part, I have wonderful customers! I know them, their families and their needs. When I attend gift shows, I buy with them in mind. It is not a coincidence that they can always find something in my store that they just can't live without.

How do I handle the customer who breaks the one requirement of them? Well, I remember this one gentlemen who kept trying to bargain on an item that we had just received. Now, I'm not against someone trying to entice me to offer a lower price (but how come no one does this in Nordstroms?), especially if this item has been in the store for a length of time (although normally anything that doesn't sell within 4 months goes on the sale rack anyhow), but this customer kept pushing...in a rude way. We are talking about a $38 jute rug. It is one of my best sellers and I am able to keep the price low to begin with because I buy them in such large quantities. So...here's how the conversation went:

customer "I'll give you $30."

me "I'm sorry, Sir, I can't come down on the price, it is $38"

customer "Well how much is it if I buy 2?"

me "$80.00"

customer "that doesn't make sense"

me "I know, neither does this bickering over a $38 rug" (big smile)

He sorta laughed and bought 2 rugs at full price. Maybe he'll shop with me again, maybe not, but the other customers in the store saw I could find humor in the situation and I didn't lose my temper...they will come back.