This is so true with quick service retailing.

We have all experienced the customer service representative that ignores us in favor of their computer or POS screen. Trying to make eye contact or just get a response from someone absorbed in data entry can be annoying.

But here’s the thing most retailers don’t realise.

Even if a customer doesn’t remember being ignored, they may (subconsciously) associate your business with an (unknown, but felt) sense of frustration, distance or lack of ‘connection’. Those feelings will build up unbeknownst to the client and they may eventually take their patronage elsewhere.

Customer Service With A Smile

The sad part of all of this is it all happens without conscious knowledge or intent. The client simply has no compelling reason to want or desire to return so he or she simply doesn’t.

That’s a killer for a retailer.

So what can you do to optimise the necessary POS data entry while offering outstanding customer service?

POS Customer service Tip #1:

Explain what you’re doing to the customer while you so it. That means as you’re typing, you say “I’m pulling up your account file to make sure our records are up-to-date” By doing that, the customer is INVOLVED in the process. Engaging the customer in the task CONNECTS you to him/her. As the information comes up, you can mention something like “Just to make sure, you’re still at 123 Main Street right?” You can then add a personal anecdote “I used to live near there, the dog park was great when I had my golden retriever…” Adding a personal anecdote builds rapport within the process that otherwise alienates the customer. Of course, if you’re really systemised, you’ll start to input your customer’s tastes and predispositions such as “ dog or cat owner, single, has children, tennis player, classic car enthusiast, etc. That will help you become more specific in your marketing campaigns.

POS Customer service Tip #2:

This customer service tip is obvious, but needs to be repeated – look up from the screen and make frequent eye contact with your customer. It may slow down your typing, but this is a key component to establishing rapport and a personal connection.

POS Customer service Tip #3:

A savvy customer service person will use the time the computer takes to load or perform a transaction to chat with the customer. This needs to be systemised within your sales process. The more natural it is, the better the outcome, but it does need to be part of the process as much as getting a credit card slip signature.

So there you have it, 3 simple customer service tips that can help you make a difference to your retail sales – especially the valuable repeat sales that are a must for any retailer to build a profitable business foundation for the future.

Your Customers Are Made of Money

I HAVE to break this to you, businesses cannot survive without customers. A business without customers is like a well without out water. Good customer service is the ground water that fills up your well. You’re high and dry without a reputation for taking care of your customers. Plus, the longer you keep customers, the wetter your well, because long term customers are more profitable. A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profit by 25% to 125%

Not digging the well analogy? Here is another way to think about it; your customers are money, gold to be exact, because they appreciate in value as time goes on. You may not think of customers as goods that can be bought or traded, but they’re assets to your company, just like stock investments or an office computer. They are them most vital part of your business’s economic machinery.

You pay hard-earned business capital to market to your customers, you essentially buy their patronage, one person at a time. Once bought, a customer will continue to generate your income, without much further advertising effort. On the flip side, customers who leave take with them every cent that you invested in marketing to them.

Customer retention is FREE MONEY! If you go the extra mile to keep customers, your marketing budget will go down, and your profits will go through the roof. You’ll have to ‘buy’ less new customers, and loyal customers generate some powerful word-of-mouth patronage.

Losing customers has the opposite effect, and can be truly devastating. And, you have no excuse for customers walking away from your business because of poor service, it’s the most controllable factor of your business. Technology can fail, accounts can pay late, but there is no reason to be rude or inattentive to a customer.

One way to gear up for fantastic customer service it to train employees to see each customer for how much they’re really worth. They may treat customers a bit differently if they imagined them as giant stacks of money or piles of gold. Each retained customer is (literally) money in the bank.