Cuddle Up to Fuzzy Requests

When it comes to responding to requests from shoppers and customers, empower your employees. But probably not every single one of your employees. There are those who are better able to make the right decisions than are others. Much of it has to do with amount of experience and the training you do. If your employees do go beyond what the store policies say, they must let their supervisor know so the issue can be discussed. These are opportunities for teaching and learning.
     Research findings from Loyola Marymount University, University of Alabama, and University of La Verne indicate the types of training which will result in higher customer satisfaction. It has to do with fuzziness.
     Many of the requests made by shoppers and customers are what the researchers called “fuzzy.” The entreaties are slightly or somewhat outside store policy, but not blatantly wrong. The shopper who looks familiar comes in as soon as the store opens, asking for the sale price which expired yesterday. The customer who doesn’t look familiar comes in at a busy time asking you to teach his wife right then how to use the technology he purchased.
     The researchers’ results, drawn from a nationwide survey of U.S. retail employees, find that:

• Staff who place a high importance on avoiding conflict handle fuzzy requests in ways that will impress the consumer as friendlier and more dedicated to satisfaction than when the fuzzy request is handled by an employee who sees conflict as sometimes necessary to protect the profitability of the store or the employee’s own self-esteem. Train your employees to recognize that keeping the customer is usually more important than keeping to a policy. 
• When a shopper or customer gives the impression of dominating the employee rather than collaborating with the employee, the employee subconsciously starts constructing a script to justify labeling the fuzzy request as not legitimate. Train your employees to remain open-minded when listening to these requests. These shouldn’t become moral issues, where the objective is to punish the consumer for lying. 

     Watch employees in action so you personally see that fuzzy requests are being handled well. When they are, praise the employee with specific feedback. Use staff meetings, huddles at the start of each workday, and other opportunities to clearly say what you expect of your employees. Don’t assume that one discussion is enough for forever. The human brain doesn’t work that way.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Delegate, Empower & Collaborate 
Give Staff Specific Feedback