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A BIG thanks to all those who took my poll over the last two weeks. I was excited, but not surprised to find that the two leading course topics are:

1. Service
2. Service

Honorable Mention: Service also ranked a very close 3rd place!

Okay, I’ll stop messing around and share some more details. Customer Service (sales floor etiquette of greeting, engaging and assisting) and Service Department Operations were the two topics that had the highest requests for my next round of online education. Customer Service (retaining customers post-sale) was the close third place.

If you didn’t vote in the poll, but would like to, go here.

I am thrilled with the opportunity here and couldn’t agree more with the assessment my network provided. We’ve all been in retail environments where we weren’t well-served, weren’t thanked for our business or sometimes weren’t even greeted at all! You may vow never to give that experience to one of your customers, but are you delivering on your promise? Is every person on your team?

Customers are getting more and more fickle. 79% of consumers will take their business elsewhere within one week of a poor experience. Retailers are going to be more and more dependent on great customer service skills in the future. With the knowledge to hire, train and retain great staff and the tools and techniques to make every interaction a great experience, there is no reason a retailer will not thrive in the years ahead.

 

As I flipped through some posts recently on a LinkedIn forum, (specifically a post showing another manufacturer going consumer direct), I saw the following comment regarding bicycle retail staff and their wages:

I agree with the sentiment of the wages comment. I’ve never met a retail employee or owner who felt like they didn’t deserve more money for the job they did. However, I fundamentally disagree with the inability to attract high-quality employees and creating a high-quality buying/service experience.

I would argue that the reason retailers are still competitive today is that they’ve found ways to inspire their staff to create a great buying and service experience DESPITE their limitations. As Simon Sinek famously said: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.” Or looking at it another way, think about nuns. Well-paid nuns aren’t higher quality nuns. Like those who devote their lives to bicycles, those who devote their lives to God don’t take the vow of poverty for the money.

Minutes later, I happened to find this article on Inc. that inspired this post. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Leadership, motivation and the psychology within are hugely complex and our understanding of them is always evolving. Take some time at the end of the day today to think about how you are inspiring and influencing those around you. Then go make tomorrow a great day!