Are your customers being served?
By Tom Borg

Step up your customer service by investing in staff.

Could you imagine a collision shop hiring a mechanic with no prior experience working on damaged cars? Or a company hiring a social media specialist with no computer skills? It wouldn’t make sense to hire someone for those positions without the necessary training.


Yet, gift shop employees are hired every day to fill positions that put them face to face with the customer while receiving little or no training and education in how to deal with customer-facing situations. Small business owners need to recognize the importance of not only hiring qualified people, but making sure they receive the training and education necessary to be successful at serving their valuable customers.


Often, small business owners assume that the employees they hire have people skills. They may have some of these skills, but rarely do they have the complete competence necessary for the job.


Small business owners need to recognize the importance of not only hiring qualified people, but making sure they receive the training and education necessary to be successful at serving their valuable customers.



Survey after survey has shown that the number one reason customers change where they shop or do business is due to indifference shown them by an employee serving them.



A vital link

Employees encounter customers in several different ways. The cashier, stock person, manager and the person who answers the telephone all serve a vital link in satisfying a customer. By not being given the necessary tools to deal effectively with their customers, employees and managers do what comes naturally. Unfortunately, many times that can be the wrong thing.


Gift shop owners or managers, unwilling to spend time and money to train and educate their team members properly, usually find their turnover high and customer satisfaction low. These kinds of retailers survive only if the business climate is in their favor.


Investing in results

It may seem counterintuitive, but the average American company spends five to six times more money to attract new customers through advertising, social media and promotions than it does to keep the ones it already has. Yet the small businesses that invest money to properly train and educate their employees get better results.
The key is to provide the best ongoing training and education programs possible for your team. The results will be worth it. Your employees will appreciate it and so will your customers. Email me for some ideas on how to institute a training strategy for the employees of your gift shop.