Is Retail Staff Excellence a Myth?
It has happened to me – not once but many a time! And I am sure you may have experienced it too!
You are all set to enthusiastically buy something, you have spent the time select your desired object and you are pretty pleased with your find and then craaaasssh…. Your spirits take a dive and you decide not to go ahead with the buying process. Why? Because the retail staff said something which made you crouch or they behaved in a way you did not like, or their facial expression was not right or their body language was rude or sometimes yes at times their body odor was just so smelly. Stinky!
And the irony is that at most times none of the above would be intentional. The retail staff did not mean to offend you. But the end result is the business owner lost a sale! Just because the retail staff did not know better! Or perhaps did not care.
I have personally stopped going to some of the favorite eating joints because the server had body odor. Pretty repulsive! Though one could see the person was busy, running orders and errands for multiple guests and may have been working hard for long time.
However in spite of their sincere efforts, the deal goes kaput!
And there are retail staff who may not be even putting their sincere efforts. But we will discuss that later.
For the time being let’s focus on the ones who are doing their best and if we can maximize their potential to close a deal especially with a willing customer.