Customer Service. Every consumer looks for it. Every retailer strives to provide it.
But the term is so overused and so under-executed that I have tired of hearing and thinking about it. In my own consumer life, there have been so many missed opportunities by individuals and stores where I have shopped to provide excellent customer service that I'm just about at the point where I want - no, need - to give noogies to every retail salesperson / clerk / customer service representative that I come into contact with.
[Having said that, here are two recent examples of good customer service which were provided to me:
(1) The woman at the cosmetics counter at my neighborhood Walgreen's (it's often quicker to check out there than at the main cashier check-out) keeps a file of manufacturer's coupons for typical products sold at Walgreen's. I'm talking about Tylenol and toothpaste and Prep H and the like (I regularly buy two of those three items...you'll have to guess which ones). So when I bring a basket full of goodies to buy, she pulls out her little filing system and looks for coupons to give to me so I can use them. I don't believe anybody told her to do this, she simply does it to be of service to her clients.
(2) I stopped at a Holiday store last week. Although I've mostly given up donuts (even though donuts are one of the most desirable foods in existence), last week was it was a real treat to stop in the middle of the day and buy one. The chocolate glaze was sort of drippy and gooey and wet. When I bought the donut, the convenience store clerk brought me a couple wet wipes in anticipation of my need for one after I sat in my car and consumed my little morsel of sugar and fat.]
So customer service is a good thing in retail. But it should be a no-brainer for companies and individuals to take every opportunity to reach out to customers to make their lives more pleasant.
But if customer service is a good thing, selling is an even better thing for a retail business.
Selling is the art and science of getting prospects to voluntarily give you money in exchange for a product or service. Since all retail businesses are in business solely to get money from customers and then provide a good or service in exchange for that money, it puzzles me why more retailers don't have front-line salespeople who can and do sell.
> What if the clerk at Lowe's actually sold a barbecue grill to one out of ten barbecue grill browsers? What would that do for revenue?
> What if every clerk at Office Depot asked every single customer if they needed any printer paper as they checked out, then offered to carry a box out to their car for them?
> What if every clerk at Dick's Sporting Goods sold customers on the benefits of $120 sneakers instead of buying $49 sneakers?
> What if every clerk at the wine shop tripled the number of customers to whom they sell a case of wine instead of a couple of bottles of wine?
> What if the clerk at Home Depot sold an assortment of screws to every customer that bought a new cordless drill/driver?
Consumers want to buy things that make their lives more meaningful, easier, fun, and better. If retailers would just take a moment to figure out how to do a better job of that using PEOPLE to sell goods and services that accomplish these things (not just marketing, promotions, customer loyalty programs, merchandising, fancy displays, but the sales PEOPLE who engage their shoppers and customers), retail would be in a better place today.
Retail customers love good salespeople. They love to buy. They want and need things. When we use sales PEOPLE to sell these things, everybody wins.