Has anyone noticed a trend in retail stores and shops?
It’s been going on for some time but right now it seems to be everywhere. I’m talking about the “are you alright?” culture that has grown like a virus. Most customers want two things:
1. Good signposting to get to what they want
2. Zero hassle
Unfortunately, shops seem to drive towards the polar opposite of these needs, probably due to some highly ineffective sales/marketing advice from an industry expert who has no idea what they’re doing – it happens a lot. Happy customers spend money, and come back to spend more money, but this seems to have been forgotten.
Don’t rock the boat
If a customer enters a store that is well signposted and want to get in and out quickly, do they really want or need a question “Can I help?”. If anything, this is distracting and a customer who was well on their way to buying a product quickly, is now in a position where they’re slightly irritated, maybe losing a train of thought or even being so incensed as to leave the store after a brief look.
Staff are also trained to greet customers as they enter a store, and are marked down for not doing so. There’s a problem with this. UK retail staffing models rarely include a specific host, and staff are generally doing something “unproductive” like selling products or helping customers.
One of the first rules of sales is that you do not distract a customer on any key part of a sales journey, unless they have a question. When they do have a question, it should be very easy for that question to be answered.
How do we fix it?
At the moment we have customers being asked questions which they don’t want to answer, staff asking questions they know they shouldn’t ask and just when you need a staff member they’re generally otherwise disposed, in a wrong area of a store or just not there.
Annoying right?
What we really need is two things:
1. Much better signposting in shops and retail outlets. If stock changes constantly, give staff a good, quick way to change signage themselves – most people can read and write.
2. Train staff to interact with customers upon eye contact only. Customers who don’t need help don’t need hassle either. If the “Can I help?” question is security related (to deter thieves) give staff better training to spot nervous people that are would-be opportunist thieves. Skilled professional thieves will never be spotted, and nothing will deter them, and if anything they’ll probably engage in conversation to distract a staff member while an accomplice steal something.
We are not the USA and never will be. Methods that are accepted across the pond aren’t accepted here in the UK. As American companies own our UK shops, they need to take cultural difference into account, and differentiate in their methods. It would cost a little more (probably) but would inevitably lead to happier customers who spend more money.
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