I usually do a bit of shopping at a local supermarket and I’ve picked some signals with the attitude of the people. It is obvious from their work culture that they are not sensitive to customer needs, or perhaps they lack the expertise to discern when customers require assistance.
I would normally find cliques of sales assistants on the shop floor chatting, with some “doing their own thing” completely oblivious of customers and other visitors walking around them. You literally need to put in an extra effort to get their attention, which should not be the case! It is a busy supermarket though, obviously enjoying the benefits of price and location advantage and raking in as much sales as possible for now. But have they considered the future and where retail is gradually edging towards? Customer buying behavior is evolving by the day and customer experience is eventually turning out as a huge determining factor in sales and eventually customer loyalty.
This particular supermarket is not a lone culprit of the said predicament. Poor attention to customers is widespread in our retail circles and I find similar situations even in shops that I rarely visit.
Do not sit unconcerned if you are looking to drive your brick and mortar business to the next level in this digital age. With so much noise about the convenience of online shopping, your people’s inattentiveness will push customers to coil in the comfort of their homes and acquire what they can from an online portal. This is effectively lost sales to you!
Coach and train your people to remain alert and attentive to every store visitor, for you to remain in the minds of customers. There is a good reason why I would love to visit my local store for household essentials, because of the “special attention” and assistance I will get. Alertness does the trick and will certainly get your customers coming back for more.
Have a great week selling!
Another relevant retail tit-bit: Retail Watch: What Does Performance Culture Mean for your Retail Outlet?
Author: Amma Antwi, M-DoZ Consulting
M-DoZ Consulting houses a team of experts in Training & Organisational Development in Retail Operations. Our contacts are: Ph: +233247-247-200, +23320-1196-080 E: hello@m-doz.com, W: www.m-doz.com & Facebook: mdozghana
