You can give yourself lots of reasons not to make jokes with customers: The shopper on a tight schedule doesn't want to take the time to hear you tell your favorite dozen funny stories. Everybody wants their dignity respected, so if the humor takes the form of teasing a customer, you'll lose that sale and probably any opportunity to make a future sale. In many cultures, such as Latino and Japanese, ridiculing a retailer or product that competes with yours is considered offensive. Maybe worst of all, the customer might not get your joke. They'll feel bad, not happy.
But wait. Regarding that last one, researchers at Georgetown University and University of Washington found that even if consumers don't fully understand a joke—in this case a pun based on a product's name or features—the consumers still enjoy the wordplay.
In fact, a joke that isn't immediately understood can be especially effective in making a sale. Research says the shopper's mental energies are taken with trying to figure out the humor, and this distracts the customer from thinking about reasons not to buy. So humor can be useful in moving the indecisive customer to the cashier station. Humor usually relaxes tensions and lifts spirits, both of which enhance the desire to buy. But the partially understood joke actually increases tension temporarily, and the shopper resolves this by making a purchase.
The best humor to use in a sales situation is gentle and informal. To avoid offending, build on what you discover the customer considers to be funny. Make humor a team sport as you volley giggles back and forth.
For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers
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