Get better customer service during the holidays
Issue date: 11/15/09 Section: Business
(ARA) - You've made your holiday list and checked it twice, but what happens when the salesperson helping you is naughty, not nice? Crowded stores, long lines, low inventory and cranky shoppers rushing to find that perfect holiday gift can often lead to a "perfect storm" of bad service.
That's why many retailers are ensuring that they have service quality systems in place to avoid the typical holiday mishaps between shoppers and service staff, according to ASQ (American Society for Quality, www.asq.org), which provides service quality training for many industries, including retail.
"The top four causes of customer dissatisfaction are out of stock items, discontinued items, returns and shipping charges," says John Goodman, ASQ customer service expert and vice chairman of TARP, the world's premier customer experience agency. "These are issues that are easily resolvable if sales staff have the right tools and training."
Bath &; Body Works, for example, provides its staff with training to handle these kinds of complaints. Its sales staff takes steps such as maintaining eye contact with customers during every step of the sale. They are also trained in how to detect and respond to unspoken needs and are told to "treat a return like a sale" because a properly handled return will often move the customer to buy something else.
To avoid out of stock issues, Bath &; Body Works also carries a bigger inventory of merchandise than other similar retailers and when they do run into issues with a discontinued product, staff can provide customers with an "I'm sorry for your disappointment" gift card.
Best Buy, a popular shopping destination for electronic gifts, is ranked highest in customer satisfaction among national and multi-regional major appliance retailers, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. One key reason is that they make customer service training a priority.
In addition to a rigorous certification process, employees are well-educated on complicated products and solutions, enabling them to better help customers, says Mike Fisher, senior director of Lean Six Sigma for Best Buy's corporate campus in Richfield, Minn., which includes an ASQ member store.
That's why many retailers are ensuring that they have service quality systems in place to avoid the typical holiday mishaps between shoppers and service staff, according to ASQ (American Society for Quality, www.asq.org), which provides service quality training for many industries, including retail.
"The top four causes of customer dissatisfaction are out of stock items, discontinued items, returns and shipping charges," says John Goodman, ASQ customer service expert and vice chairman of TARP, the world's premier customer experience agency. "These are issues that are easily resolvable if sales staff have the right tools and training."
Bath &; Body Works, for example, provides its staff with training to handle these kinds of complaints. Its sales staff takes steps such as maintaining eye contact with customers during every step of the sale. They are also trained in how to detect and respond to unspoken needs and are told to "treat a return like a sale" because a properly handled return will often move the customer to buy something else.
To avoid out of stock issues, Bath &; Body Works also carries a bigger inventory of merchandise than other similar retailers and when they do run into issues with a discontinued product, staff can provide customers with an "I'm sorry for your disappointment" gift card.
Best Buy, a popular shopping destination for electronic gifts, is ranked highest in customer satisfaction among national and multi-regional major appliance retailers, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. One key reason is that they make customer service training a priority.
In addition to a rigorous certification process, employees are well-educated on complicated products and solutions, enabling them to better help customers, says Mike Fisher, senior director of Lean Six Sigma for Best Buy's corporate campus in Richfield, Minn., which includes an ASQ member store.
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