Brad Huisken

What are they listening too?

The other night I was shopping at a new mall here in Colorado, I went into numerous major clothing stores. With each of these stores I visited I became more and more disgruntled with the service, or lack of service that was or wasn’t provided. In the stores I visited not one of the salespeople (a term I use very loosely for these people) approached me, asked me a question, welcomed me, offered any service, or tried to sell me anything. In each of these stores all of the employees or salespeople were wearing a headset, the question is; who are they listening or talking to? It certainly isn’t the customer!

There was a time when, as a customer service, salespeople were encouraged to wear the headsets as a means to increase the level of service given to customers. The headsets were used to get merchandise, call for assistance, answer questions, call for price checks, and in general help customers to buy. I wonder if the entire concept has backfired! Now it seems that the headsets are an excuse to ignore customers. Are the people talking to their boyfriend or girlfriend? Are they catching up on gossip? Are they making prom plans, listening to the latest music CD’s, or worst of all are they not listening to anything and simply pretending?

Nobody in today’s world can afford to have salespeople ignoring customers. Maybe these big box national chains don’t feel the effect as soon or as directly as the independent retailers. However, history tells us that eventually they will feel the effect. Aren’t these types of scenarios the reason that the independent can still thrive a flourish? Maybe you can’t match the price or the depth of inventory, but you can certainly offer exceptional service. As a salesperson in an independently owned, or customer service, sales driven organization the most important thing that any of us should be listening to is the voice of the customer. The customer wants to be welcomed, they want suggestions, they want to be shown coordinating styles, they want to be thanked and they are screaming for service. It all begins with listening and talking to customers!
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Posted by Brad Huisken on November 7, 2008 | Comments (0)