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Category: Staff Training

Lose the Battle to Win the War

We all have those unreasonable customers. Ones that want to bring an item back months after they bought it, not in resell-able condition. Ones that demand money back without a receipt or they will flame you on Yelp. Ones that want you to do something that your stated policies say you don’t clearly do.

You could take a page from Best Buy and fire those customers. You could be like the Soup Nazi on The Seinfeld Show – no soup for you!!

Here is another approach I want you to consider.

Kill ’em with kindness. Break your policy and do what they ask. Bend the rules and give them what they want. Do it with a HUGE smile on your face, sincerity in your heart, and genuine concern for their needs.

“I’m really sorry that item didn’t work out for you. Yes, I can see why your husband would cut it in half. We’d be happy to take it back. Would you like to pick something else out? Maybe I can offer a couple suggestions of items that might work better? No? Okay, here is a refund. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help you out in the future.”

It might sting a little bit. You might lose some money on that particular transaction. But don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

When you kill these customers with kindness, a few things could happen.

They might not notice and continue to be a thorn in your side.
But your other customers noticed. They didn’t get the whole story of what was going on with the customer. They didn’t see how unreasonable she was. But they did see how you reacted. They saw how you took incredible care of the customer. They saw how you had the customer’s back. They noticed how you were calm and friendly and respectful and helpful and caring.

They might become one of your best customers ever. 
I could regale you with many tales of unhappy customers we have turned into mega profit machines because we bent the rules a little. Heck, you can regale me with many of the same stories. In fact, retail is the only place I have actually seen true alchemy – turning lead weight into gold.

At a time when we are all screaming about how to draw more traffic, maybe firing our current customers isn’t always the best tactic.

As one anonymously brilliant person said… Your customers will get better when you do.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Never let short-term profits get in the way of your long-term goals. This strategy may “lose” you a battle or two, but you’ll win the war. Yes, it requires patience. Yes, it requires eating a little crow (but crow sprinkled with a helping of cold hard cash can be rather tasty sometimes). Yes, there will be customers who make you duck into your office for a few minutes. Yes, they got more than they deserved. Isn’t than the hallmark of incredible over-the-top customer service?

Your Frontline Staff are Your Ambassadors

Seth Godin nailed it today.

“Would you send the clerk on aisle 7 to speak to a head of state or vital partner on behalf of your company? Because that’s what he’s doing right now.”

If you cannot answer a resounding Yes! to Seth’s question, you need to re-think your hiring and training program today.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Hire for certain traits. Hire for people who want to represent you and your store. Hire people who already have the ambassador gene in their DNA. Then train them on all the rest.

It’s Not What You Say

Rick Segel stood in front of us and said, “Sixty-second manager training…”

“Everyone take your finger and thumb and make the ‘okay’ sign. Now place that circle right against your chin. Put it right there on your chin.”

At the same time Rick placed his own okay sign firmly against his cheek.

We did, too.

“Your chin, folks, put it on your chin.”

One of your biggest roles is Role Model.

Role Model for the way to treat guests. You are never too busy to ignore a guest. You always have the time to at least lead a guest over to one of your staff and say, “Let me introduce you to Ruth. Ruth is the expert on this and she can help you better than I can.”

Role Model for the kind of attitude you want in your store. When you act cheerful and upbeat, no matter how tired you are, your staff will try to match you. When you put a positive spin on negative situations, they will do the same. When you cut people down, they’ll cut people down. When you talk about customers behind their backs, your staff will do the same – sometimes out on the sales floor in earshot of other customers!

Role Model for the kind of behavior you expect of your staff. If you don’t go the extra mile, neither will they. If you show them appreciation for the work they do, they’ll show appreciation to your customers.

Your staff will rarely ever do more than you do, no matter how much you ask. It’s not what you say. It’s ___________   _______   _____ (fill in the blanks).

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Of course, first they have to be the kind of person that wants to do those things. Make sure you hire for the right character traits or they might not even raise the okay sign to their face in the first place.

Sometimes Second Place is the Winning Position

If you’re an indie retailer, quite often you get customers in your store that have already shopped (and even bought from) the competition. They know the big chains thanks to multi-million dollar ad campaigns. They know the big chains from the huge signs over the giant buildings on the busiest streets. They know the big chains. They visited the big chains. They purchased.

Your first thought is often one of dismay. Another sale lost to the big guy. Another customer shopping at my competitor. When you ask them what they are looking for and they tell you about buying something from another store, it is hard not to show your disappointment.
Except you shouldn’t be disappointed. You should be happy. Why?
First, they came into your store. Not everyone who shops the competition is coming through your door, too. But this customer did. Celebrate her! Here’s a deep dark secret… even your best customer has been to your competitor more than once.
Second, you now have access to a spy. Rather than change out of your uniform and take the time to go scout the competitor incognito, you have someone who just did that for you. And from the point of view of a customer, too (instead of your jaded, biased, store-owner mentality). Get her to talk about her experience and you’ll learn far more than if you went yourself.
Third, you have the easiest opening ever into discovering what the customer likes and wants.
When you find out a customer has been to another store, simply say, “That’s awesome! What did you see there that you liked?”
You’ve praised her, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve asked her expertise, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve listened intently, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve identified what rocks her world so that you can rock her world, too, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve gained valuable insight into both your customer’s mind and what your competitor is doing, which makes you feel good.
Sometimes being second can be a real winning proposition. You just have to look at the opportunity the right way.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Most importantly, if you listen closely, your customer just told you how you can treat her better than your competitor, so you now have a blueprint to win her over. Sure, you may have lost the initial sale she made at the other place, but if you can win the rest, you can win her friends so that you’ll be first with them.

Using Quotes to Train Your Staff

I love quotes. One of my favorites is this beauty from Eleanor Roosevelt…

“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”

I use quotes during staff meetings. I use them in all my presentations. I use them in our team newsletters. I use them here in this blog. I often wonder, however, if my staff is getting the same ideas from the quotes as I do.

So I decided to test it.

I took 17 quotes (yes, a random number on purpose) that in my mind fell into three different categories. I printed three sets of them on individual cards and split my staff into three teams. I gave a set to each team and asked them to group the quotes into three categories – any three they wanted. They could use whatever criteria they chose to group the quotes such as content, timeline, length, alphabetical. I expected they all would sort by content, which they did. I then asked them to explain their categories and rationale for putting the quotes where they did. Finally, I asked them to explain what those quotes meant to them and the business.

Here is where it got interesting…

First, all three groups came up with the same basic categories – Big Ideas, Customer Service, Money. That wasn’t surprising, as those were the three categories in my mind when I chose the quotes (except that what they called Money, I called Sales).

Second, however, they didn’t all put the same quotes into the same categories. One had a quote in Money that another group had in Customer Service that the other group put in Big Ideas. Same quote, three different categories.

Third, I got both of the results I wanted. We had a fascinating discussion about the quotes, what they represented and how they applied. We were discussing ideas. I also got to peek into how they think about the quotes and about the store. The insight just from labeling the last group Money was important. It was a reminder to me (and to them) that we sometimes think and sell out of our own pocketbooks instead of the customer’s and that they look at Sales as Money. We’ll be exploring those concepts in future days.

We finished the meeting with a discussion of what Big Ideas means to their jobs and to delighting the customers. That’s always a discussion worth having.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you would like a Word doc with 69 of my favorite quotes I have culled over the years, shoot me an email.

When Lions Lead Lions

Someone tagged the railroad bridge at the end of our block.

It says, “An army of sheep lead [sic] by lions will always defeat an army of lions lead [sic] by sheep.”

All four cars at the light praised me when I took this picture, thinking that I was going to report it to the authorities.

I took the picture because it gave me pause and made me think. The message would seem to be that the talent of leadership outweighs the talent of the workers. The leaders willing to make the bold moves will inspire their followers to accomplish greater things than leaders with weak ideas and strong followers. In battle that may be true, but in retail I’m not yet convinced.

A great work force without great leadership will ultimately fail.
A great leader without a great work force will ultimately fail.

Oh, they both might stick around by default for a while, but in retail both of these will fall quickly to lion leading lions.

You can spend all your time on training your staff, but if you don’t spend any time training yourself, another retailer will eat your lunch. Likewise, you can spend all your time training yourself, but if you don’t spend equal time training your staff, another retailer will clean your clock.

But when the lions are led by lions, the Savannah is all theirs for the taking.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you’re a sheep of a leader, hire a lion to manage your business. If you have a lot of sheep on the front lines, go find some lions to pounce on those customers. Don’t worry about teamwork. Lions work well in a pride. This book will show you how to identify the right type of lion, whether for management or the front lines.

Team Building and Business Building – The Principles are the Same

There is an article floating around about Team Building Gone Bad.

As a business owner, you’ve heard about Team Building – doing activities to help bring the team closer together and increase communication, cooperation, and trust. You’ve probably thought about doing something with your own staff.

Before you do, do me (and your staff) a favor. Write down a clear goal of what you hope to accomplish with your efforts. Then, when you go to sign up for an activity under the guise of team building, if the facilitator doesn’t ask to see that goal, run away. They don’t know a thing about team building.

I do. I used to be a facilitator. I used to train facilitators. When I read the article above, it got me thinking about how team building really depends on the skill of the facilitator more than the activity chosen.

I wrote this on a friend’s FB page when he linked to the article…

A good facilitator knows [that there are five stages of development in a group] and would never let any group do the stuff that was talked about in this article without a lot of prep work and other activities done first.

A good facilitator would know clearly the goals of the team building and plan activities to specifically address those goals.

A good facilitator would stop an activity before it got out of control, knowing that the activity is secondary to the lesson to be learned.

A good facilitator would make safety the number one priority (and number two and number three) because without a certain level of emotional and physical safety guaranteed, no one will take any perceived risks.

A good facilitator would follow up because team dynamics are always changing. Just kick-starting a new culture does not mean that the changes will hold.

It got me to thinking that the same exact principles apply to Business Building. Let’s replace facilitator with manager and team building/group with business building/business.


A good manager knows that there are five stages of development in a business (Tim Mile’s First Order of Business) and would never let any business do the stuff that was talked about in this article without a lot of prep work and other activities done first.

A good manager would know clearly the goals of the business and plan activities to specifically address those goals.

A good manager would stop an activity before it got out of control, knowing that the activity is secondary to the lesson to be learned (and sales to be made).

A good manager would make safety the number one priority (and number two and number three) because without a certain level of emotional and physical safety guaranteed, no one will take any perceived risks (this applies to customers and employees).

A good manager would follow up because business dynamics are always changing. Just kick-starting a new culture does not mean that the changes will hold.

Make sure you hire a good facilitator before you embark on any Team Building. Make sure you hire a good manager before you embark on any Business Building.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I dusted off an old paper I wrote on Team Building and am getting it ready for the Freebies section of my website. If you’re interested in seeing a copy before I get the site updated, send me an email.

The Perfect Sale

I was just at Bob & Sue Negen’s Whizbang Training Retail Success Summit and Bob talked about trying to achieve the Perfect Sale.

There are two Perfect Sales out there. From your point of view and from the customer’s point of view.

From your point of view…
You sold them everything you possibly could, including a bunch of old merchandise you were dying to get rid of, all at full price, with tons of add-ons, and plenty of extra features and warranties.

From the customer’s point of view…
She got everything she needed at a fair price. She won’t have to make any extra trips. She stayed within reason of her budget and has absolutely zero buyers’ remorse. She is thrilled with everything she purchased. She can’t wait to tell her friends.

When the two are one and the same – you’ve hit the grand slam of retail sales. But when you have to sacrifice one for the other, you can probably guess which one is better for you in the long run.

As Bob reminded us… Always, always, always go for the Perfect Sale from the customer’s point of view. Always. Period. Every. Single. Time.

Are we clear?

Grand slams are nice, but the goal of this game is to be able to keep playing. Perfectly happy customers keep you in the game for a very long time.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I talk to my staff about completing the sale. You never want a customer to go home and then realize she needs one more item to make the other stuff she bought work. Chances are she won’t go back to you for that item, and she might never come back if you weren’t smart enough to make sure she had everything she needed in the first place.

PPS There are some sure-fire ways to make sure your customer is perfectly happy with her purchases. Check out the Closing the Sale section of my FREE eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!

Dollars Left on the Table

You have a front line staff. You pay them to work with the customers and sell your products. Sometimes they get it right and make more money for the business. Sometimes they leave dollars on the table.

All this year I have worked with my staff on how to raise the average ticket, how to get more from every sale. We reached the pinnacle of that training this past Monday as we talked about tips to close the sale and make it stick.

Then we played a game, something to reinforce everything we had been working on all year.

Every single bill on that table had a statement on the back that either started with “I Earned This Dollar…” or “I Left This Dollar on the Table…”

The staff took turns picking a dollar and reading it out loud to the rest of the team. If it was an Earned dollar they got to keep it, but if it was a Left dollar they had to put it back. We played until all the Earned dollars were gone. The fun part was when the staff started cheering all the Earned dollars and booing all the Left dollars.

Three days later, most of the staff have their Earned dollars still in their pocket with the statement still taped to the back. My office gal has hers pinned to the bulletin board above her desk.

You have to spell out the behavior you want and also the behavior you don’t want. There is power behind putting it all in writing and having the staff read it aloud to each other.

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The first question from the staff after we finished the game was, “Can you post all the statements somewhere so that I can read them again?” Of course. If you would like to see the list, send me an email.

Self Service is NOT Customer Service

The email read…

Hi Phil,

I noticed you missed our free webinar on Wednesday, How to Make Your Customers Fall in Love With Self-Service. No worries — I know how busy this time of year can be!

Gee, sorry I missed that. NOT.
Why would I want to make my customers fall in love with self-service? Why would I want to train my customers to love what my competitors are already doing and have far deeper pockets to do it? Why would I want my customers to love NOT interacting with my highly-trained sales staff?
No one has ever gone out and bragged to their friends about how wonderful the self-service is at XYZ store. No one has ever said, “Boy, I can’t wait to go back to that store. They have the best self-service.”
You cannot create word-of-mouth advertising with self-service. You cannot win customer loyalty with self-service. You cannot grow your business through self-service. At its best, self-service is neutral. At its worst, a deterrent to sales.
So with all that said, if you really want to grow, sink some serious time and money into creating the best Full-Service shop you can. Take it two or three steps above the gum-chewing clerks at Wally-World. Take it to the Nordstrom’s and Ritz-Carlton level. Do things that surprise and delight your customers. Go above and beyond their expectations.
Making your customers love Full-Service is a heck of a lot easier, more profitable, and more fun than trying to get them to love self-service.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Yes, there are times when self-service is good. But usually only when you’re in a big discount store buying cheap commodity goods and don’t want to wait for that the-world-sucks-and-I’m-underpaid-too-much-to-care cashier to ring you up. That’s not your store, not your market. You don’t even want to consider playing in that sandbox.