{"id":100,"date":"2011-03-17T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/2011\/03\/17\/peevish-customer-service\/"},"modified":"2011-03-17T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-17T12:30:00","slug":"peevish-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/peevish-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Peevish Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pet peeves. We\u2019ve all got them. Cars that swerve into our lane without the courtesy of a turn signal. When people say \u201cI could care less\u201d instead of the correct \u201cI couldn\u2019t care less\u201d (and don\u2019t even get me started on \u201cirregardless\u201d). Store clerks who are more interested in talking to co-workers about their personal lives than helping the customers. Hmmm. Let\u2019s expound on the latter peeve, shall we?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest. There is a lot<\/em> of competition out there so it\u2019s important to put our best foot forward at all times. What do we do to attract and keep customers? We stock our stores with merchandise that people want and price that merchandise competitively. We try to make our place of business appealing to customers by keeping it clean and organized. We hire staff who are courteous, friendly, honest and, if not knowledgeable right off the bat, at least eager to learn. Let me tell you, the experience customers have with the staff can be the difference between \u201cThis place was nice and I\u2019ll come here again\u201d and \u201cI am going to tell everyone I know just how rude the help is at this place!\u201d Here is an important fact: people are much more likely to talk about a negative experience they\u2019ve had than a positive one.<\/p>\n

So what can business owners and their employees do to ensure customers have a pleasant experience, as far as customer service goes? First off, smile. A smile can go a long way. I recall times when I\u2019ve stopped into a store worn out, cranky and longing for home, and a cashier with a warm, sincere<\/em> smile and sincere<\/em> \u201cHow are you doing today?\u201d honestly gave me a little pick-me-up. Also, people like to be acknowledged. When someone walks into a store, being greeted with eye contact, a smile and \u201cHello! What can I help you find today?\u201d is very pleasant. We like to know that there is someone available to help us when and if we need the help buuuuuuut\u2026we don\u2019t want to be stalked while walking around the store. Regarding eye contact; people are less likely to shoplift if the staff makes eye contact with them because direct eye contact is a distinct indication of the staff\u2019s attention. It\u2019s true. I wouldn\u2019t lie to you.<\/p>\n

Another thing that is important is tone of voice. Studies have proven that the tone in which something is said is more important than the actual words spoken. Think about that. You can hear in a person\u2019s tone of voice if they are angry, happy, sarcastic, combative, etc. Smile when you answer the phone. The person on the other end will be able to hear it and will respond to it. One thing your customers do not<\/em> want to hear is chatter about an employee\u2019s lying spouse or financial trouble, how much a coworker is disliked, how drunk someone was at a party and any other number of topics that are not appropriate for discussion while helping customers.<\/p>\n

The focus of the employees should be on the customers. Period. Those customers are the reason we are in business and that is something owners and employees need to remember at all times. No one wants to be rung up, basically ignored by the cashier until he or she barks out the total and then barely receive a \u201cthank you\u201d because said cashier is too busy gossiping or talking on the phone to provide quality service. Save the talk about personal and operational issues for home or the break room. And I say that with a smile. <\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pet peeves. We\u2019ve all got them. Cars that swerve into our lane without the courtesy of a turn signal. When people say \u201cI could care less\u201d instead of the correct \u201cI couldn\u2019t care less\u201d (and don\u2019t even get me started on \u201cirregardless\u201d). Store clerks who are more interested in talking to co-workers about their personal Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-merchandising-insights"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialtystoreservicesblog.com\/testblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}