Article

Opinion: Retailers giving lip service to customer service

Noted retail trainer and author discusses how the concept of customer service has been watered down by many retailers.

May 6, 2009

The writer of this piece is known to many as "The Retail Doc"; he is also the author of "You Can Compete: Double Sales Without Discounting." — Ed.

Customer service. We've all heard the need for it. We've all tried to manage it. We've all felt a lack of it.

America is hurting, stores are shuttering, consumers are wary. So can we finally put the words "customer service" out to pasture?

Can we agree that "customer service" has provided a sea of gray in a world that should be black and white?

The Golden Rule is the backbone of servicing a customer; it exists in many languages, cultures and religions. I think the Greek philosopher Thales said it best: "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing."

Yet we retailers have kept doing it. Ignoring customers. Trying the hundreds of "tried-and-true ways to close the sale." Dropping prices like some reality show contestant willing to do anything to win. Lying to them. And underappreciating what it takes for them to buy our wares.

That's because we've had a movement called "customer service," which has made many authors, trainers, speakers, consultants and department heads well-paid.

But in the end, results have gone down. Why is that?

Because we left the sale out of the service. Merchants used to be the ones who wanted all of your business and actively controlled the sale by being on the floor, engaging customers, talking up their best finds and giving the orders, "No one leaves here without buying something." That may seem pushy, but we have swung to the opposite end of the spectrum.

"Customer service" is not being left alone to browse, being asked, "Debit or credit?" or, as we're walking out the door, "Did you find everything okay?"

"Customer Service" is not propping up your crew by saying, "Oh, it's not your fault, it's the economy, that's why no one's buying." When did you ever have a coach in sports give the team the loser's limp?

When I was growing up, you either won or lost a game. Now there are no winners or losers — "everyone's a winner." Everyone who enters gets a trophy, not because they deserve it, did anything special or competed — they simply showed up.

If we taught that selling was the important part of the customer interaction, we'd be able to train an exceptional interaction, because a sale is an act of completion. Customer service is an act. In many cases, customer service is an illusion higher-ups tell themselves they passionately support. But in reality, they don't devote the time or money to train it, especially in the current climate.

Instead of complaining about the state of the economy in general and retail in particular, go out on your sales floor and see the folly of your "customer service" program as employees text each other about how bored they are. Count the number of customers an employee actually walks up to and the number of transactions. Then count the number of times an employee added one thing to the sale — I'll bet it is zero.

Instead of looking to fancy studies and "best practices" of your competitors, look in the mirror and see that the failure to buy is often the failure to sell.

If we can admit that, we can truly get back to the role of a merchant: to sell the merchandise.