Greetings!

I always watch to see if I am greeted when I enter a store. It's not because I want some sort of recognition caused by an abandoned childhood, ( I was, in fact, a very happy child) it's because I spent years working inside sales, and there are things the public doesn't know about why they should get a greeting from a store employee upon entering a store. The fact is, I don't think a lot of employees know why customers should get a greeting at the door.

One thing an employee should know that's most important is that nineteen out of twenty shop-lifters won't do so if they're greeted when coming into a business. Since a significant cost to stores has always been customers hand to pocket discounts, the money you save a store by greeting potential shop-lifters before they commit a crime may be enough money to save your job in hard times.

The second thing a friendly greeter does is deflects an angry customer's emotions before the person causes a scene inside the store. A smiling face reminds these customers that they're dealing with real people there to help.

The third reason to greet a customer is to demonstrate that a business is friendly to a customer's needs. In India there's a saying that “the customer is God,” and though this is more than I'd say, the principle that customer service and caring about the customer being good for business is absolutely true.

This contradicts the myth of the crooked businessperson. My Dad was a great businessman, and I once had a friend say to me that. "You know that to be successful your Dad probably had to rip off a lot of customers." I asked him,” What world are you from?” Great businesses don't make money beating up their customers wallets. You don't get repeat business that way, and it also would mean you've assumed every customer was stupid. Yet this is a persistent legend.

I'll never forget that a boss of mine showed a customer who became a friend that he only was charged a 10% mark up for his total product package. The man was furious. It was only when he was shown that the average person walking through the door paid a 30% mark up that he calmed down. Which brings me to another principle.

There's a line between you and the customer you don't ever cross. Greet the customers with respect. They're not buddy, mac, sweetie or guy. Also don't presume beyond the customer/client relationship inside the store even if your customer and you do develop a genuine fondness for each other.

This brings me to my final point. There are some customers you don't want. These are those that use unreasonable anger or dishonesty after a purchase. They're often people who buy a large, nonreturnable perfectly good special order, and now don't want it and want your store to eat the bill. These trouble makers are bad for business. Forget that a customer will report a bad store experience seven times more often than a good one. This person's “friends” already know he or she's a hand grenade in a garden party, so they don't care about the person's opinion.. Besides, how many windows do you need to sell to make up for his or her $20,000 "mistake", especially when this person is making trouble for you so he can save $20 someplace else after the fact.

Remember, being good for your bosses business is how you get to the top. Next week, good selling techniques.

By

Jeffrey Ruzicka

Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania. He is a contributing writer to ManufacturingWorker, ManufacturingWorkersBlog and Nexxt.