22:36
Shivaram
What did you say today ?
Across the Indian Retail Market, Industries, Brands, Un Brands, have all started feeling the pinch of the drop in walkins to the stores, in a significant manner. Whether they are consumer durable brands, investment categories like the gold jewellers or the stock markets, every thing is down and going down signficantly.
Retailers had seen the bad patch in March, did some recovery in April due to festivals like Akshaya Tritiya. The market seems to be so down, that even my neighbour who is a Doctor is coming home early ! as he sees less patients these days ! And more and more hoardings are blank.
That for me a good thumb rule of businesses being down these days...
We have been discussing many things retailers can do( for the past 50 blogs) , on how Retailers can improve their business at this blog http://www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com.
Generating walkin through new advertising, new discount schemes dont seem to be working as well as before.
Therefore, we need to " maximise" every walkin to the store. The very definition of walkin to a store is many a times difficult to be agreed upon in national chain stores today, but that is a topic for another day !
Current Situation :-
The Standard method of Greeting is a "smile" and may be a mumbled "How may I help you ", if at all. But in these days of multiple floors of stores , multiple types of "staff" - company, brand, contract, security etc , it is increasing difficult to "standardise" even the greeting at the stores, even in shopping malls like LifeStyle or Central or Shoppers etc leave alone speciality stores of apparel, consumer electronics etc. In fact, until one goes to a particular "shop in shop", the rest of the staff can just walk by, without even bothering to look at you ! You could possibly enter and leave a store, without any one making a direct contact with you !
In such a situation, an article by Jeff Mowatt “The Art of Client Service: Influence with Ease”, Jeffmowatt.com caught my attention. One of the 5 tips he says is a new method of greeting . And I quote him for his simple easy to understand explanation...
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Quick, what’s the typical greeting used most often by 60% of retail stores? You’re right if you guessed, “Can I help you?” The visitor’s usual response, “No thanks, just looking.” The problem is the walk-in customer is never “just looking.” They came into the premises because at some level they perceived a need. This greeting only reminds visitors that they’re not here to buy. Lousy selling strategy.
The way you and your front line employees greet walk-in customers has a huge impact on your bottom line. Here are some tips to ensure that you and your employees greet customers in a way that makes them want to buy and keep coming back.
1. For another day !
2 . Ask if they’ve been in beforeOne of the best money making greetings is, “Hi, have you been here before?” Michael Gerber, author of the best seller, The E-myth, says that his clients who have switch from, “Can I help you?” to this greeting have seen sales increase by 16%. While Gerber claims to have no idea why this works so well, I think it’s because this greeting reminds the customer that they’ve been at your business before, so it’s a familiar place. Familiar means safe. Safe means trust. And trust means buy.
“If saying, ‘Hi, have you been here before?’ can increase sales by 16%, then it’s certainly worth a test.”
With this greeting the employee can also add, “Welcome back, we appreciate your coming to see us again.” That provides that all-important recognition. They can ask the customer about what they bought on their last visit and how they like it. That provides the opportunity to provide positive reinforcement and/or clear up any concerns.
If this is the visitor’s first visit, then the employee has a great excuse to show them around, identify needs and point out specials. At any rate, if saying, “Hi, have you been here before?” can increase sales by 16%, then it’s certainly worth a test.
Unquote...
I thought this is a very simple idea, that can be implemented inmediately, without having to change any thing significant. He quotes another author, of a 16 % increase in conversions..
While we can argue that, the data is for America and we are in India, this is probably one of the ideas, that actually require "zero money" to try out. And the results are visible at the end of every transaction itself.
Retailers and Sales staff - Change you "Welcome" today..
Are you ready to try it out with the next customer and let me know what was the result ?
Best of luck...
Shivaram
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