Why Your Employees Should Always Greet Your Customers - Retail Staff Development Tip #20

It is no secret that greeting every customer that enters your store quickly and warmly is a key to good customer service. Plus, it is the first step towards making a great SALE! It is also no secret that the dreaded, dreary "Can I help you?" greeting will get an immediate, "No, thanks, I am just looking," from every customer, every time. Even if they really do need help.

So what ARE you supposed to say to greet your customers?

In an ideal world, every employee would be able to come up with a personal, genuine, and unique greeting for each customer that walks in your door... and they would be able to do it within 30 seconds of spotting the customer.

Alas, there is no such thing as a perfect world.

Sometimes even the most intuitive and creative salesperson draws a blank. And for many employees, the initial greeting is the most difficult part of their interaction with your customers. So while we should all strive to reach the ideal of a personal, unique greeting for every customer, it is a good idea to have a fallback greeting you can use for any customer, in any situation.

But just because it is a back-up greeting does not mean it has to be a bad or ineffective greeting. Here are some suggestions...

• Steer clear of yes/no questions - they do not give you enough opportunity to interact with the customer or learn about his needs.


• Stay away from greetings that will not work if a customer hears in more than once. For example, "How did you find us?" or "Is this your first time in our store?" are terrific the first time a customer hears them, but if two or three employees in a row use the same line, they really sound canned.

Instead, try a "choice" greeting that gets your customer to pick between two scenarios. Here is one example that can work for almost any store and almost any customer.

"Hi! Are you just in browsing today or are you looking for something special?"

If they choose the "something special" option you are all set. Start asking questions and you are one step closer to a satisfied, happy customer.

If they choose to browse, point out some new, unusual, or trendy merchandise and keep the conversation rolling. This is how it might sound. "Browsing is great! Be sure to check out the new Ultra Widget 5000 in pale aqua that just arrived today. It is right over here..." And start walking with the customer.

There are two tricks to successfully using this fallback greeting.

1. Practice it until it rolls off your tongue quickly, easily, and naturally. Remember, you want it to be on the tip of your tongue to use whenever you can not think of anything else to say.


2. Know ahead of time what you plan to show your customers who are just browsing. Do not make it hard on yourself by having to come up with something on the spur of the moment. Or even worse, by having no conversation comeback other that, "Uhh, OK."

If this greeting does not strike your fancy or if it will not work well for your store, come up with your own. It does not matter what fallback greeting you use, just so long as you have one and it is one that works!

Content Copyright © 2008 WhizBang! Training

By Bob Negen

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