On the sales floor, customer service lies entirely in the hands of your employees. Your customers never get to see your training manuals, your policies, or your good intentions; all they see are the people out on the floor. Each one of your employees is quite literally the face of your business.
As an employer, it’s your responsibility to empower the folks on the sales floor to do the best job possible. So how do you go about this? It starts by empowering your employees with Training, Trust, and Technology.
Empower through Training
We’ve all experienced walking into a big box store with a question about a product and meeting only blank stares. This is not necessarily because the kid behind the counter doesn’t care; it’s because he genuinely doesn’t know! He hasn’t been trained, or at least not very well.
This is where you can shine as a small business. You can afford to invest the time in thoroughly training your employees. The result is a knowledgeable, empowered staff, which in turn results in the best possible customer care.
Empower through Trust
We’ve written before about how important it is to act quickly to resolve customer service issues. Every delay in which your employee has to go seek your permission to act on behalf of a customer is a delay in which that customer can walk out the door.
You’ve hired good people. You’ve trained them well. Now empower them by giving them authority on the floor. Allow them to make decisions on their own, for the good of the customer. In retail we speak often of building customer loyalty, and rarely about building employee loyalty. This needs to change. Empowering your employee by entrusting them with authority is one step toward this change.
Empower through Technology
The technological landscape is shifting. Your customers are walking in with more information on the devices in their pockets than was even conceivable a generation ago. It’s time for customer service to catch up. Empowering your employees with image based customer support can make a world of difference in how your customers view your business.
Want to learn how SnapScapes can help empower your employees? Contact us for more information.
Steve Ruprecht is the founder of SnapScapes, web developer, and a retail managment enthusist. When he’s not blogging about retail or writing code he enjoys reading, family time, and watchinig plants grow.
