Why Your Retail Customer Won’t Be Coming Back

Posted by in Retail


As a retail manager, can you really afford to lose even a single customer in this hyper-competitive economy? These days, most customers are just itching to find a reason not to come back to your store. Yes, price is important. But so is customer service. If you’re looking for reasons why customers are starting to shun your store, you’ll have to take a long, hard look at exactly how your staff is “connecting” and responding to their needs.
 
Let’s start with the attitude your employees may be projecting toward your customers. If you’ve met with your most troublesome employees, taken corrective action/training and they still have an attitude problem, you’ll have to replace them. There are plenty of eager applicants willing to take their place. Remember, customers don’t give second chances. And they won’t be shy about the service they received, turning friends, family and business associates away from your store. Not to mention the “bad press” you’ll get from all their online tweets and blogs. 
 
This brings us to the passion (or lack of it) your employees bring to the job. Scott Merrick, Training Account Manager at Signature Worldwide suggests that you hire for talent and passion, then train for skills. While most job applicants will tell you what you want to hear—that they love meeting and working with people—ask them how they recently resolved a real customer problem. “If they can’t tell you, they haven’t done it,” says Merrick.
 
Another reason your customers may be crossing over to your competition is your poor handling of complaints. Here, Merrick advises managers to be proactive and timely. “Never make your customers ask for a solution. And don’t make them wait for the solution,” says Merrick. He suggests that employees be trained to listen, reassure and “own” the problem. What’s more, a solution should be offered on the spot, not later after the customer leaves. When customers are screaming in your employee’s face, remind him or her that the customer is not angry at them, but the situation. The employee is simply a “venting wall” and the person the customer is looking to for a solution. 
 
Finally, there's social media. If you’re not using it correctly, your customers will start to ignore you. The old days of resolving customer service issues by phone can be a real turn off to customers. Typically, when customers call an 800-number, they’re forced to navigate through an endless, automated screening system, which eventually connects them to an agent in an overseas call center. These agents may have poor language skills and be even further removed from the problem.
 
Smart retail companies are letting customers tweet their grievances and providing instant feedback. The trouble is, many retailers are ignoring this valuable customer service conduit. A recent white paper by LiveOps revealed that 60 percent of companies don't respond to customers via social media, even when asked a direct question. It’s important to let potential customers see how you respond to both loyal and unhappy customers. 
 
The bottom line: If you want your retail customers to keep coming back, you’ll need to be proactive in anticipating and responding to their needs. 
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  • Cathie B
    Cathie B
    Ross Stores needs to train their management to be more professional. Maybe they would attract more professional employees.
  • Deborah S
    Deborah S
    I have worked in retail all my life. My father owned his own business & taught me the adage "the customer is always right" .  For the most part I still believe that, however I have modified it some.  ...is sometimes mistaken, you're not calling them a liar but someone made a mistake, either the store or possibly the customer.  Bad press goes farther & lasts longer & should be addressed promptly, ie assoc. being empowered for an expedient resolve.
  • Alex Kecskes
    Alex Kecskes
    Thanks for all your comments.  Working in retail can be tough.  And some customers can be pretty demanding. But most customers just want good service.
  • Angela W
    Angela W
    To Orlando:  I used to work for JCP too so I know all about the "transformation".  How's that working out for you?  Have you compared today's stock price to same time last year?  Good luck...
  • Ryan C
    Ryan C
    This goes back to the old saying that "if momma ain't happy, no one else is either!" Having helped my sister in her Country & Western store, we did exactly what was discussed in this article. If we had an unsatisfied client, we talked with them and tried to resolve the issue immediately if we possibly could but we also gave them a '$ off or % off coupon" if we had to go outside the business for an answer, sometimes it was the manufacturer's fault.  We didn't play pass the buck but sometimes it was necessary to call on our suppliers to correct a situation.
  • Don Y
    Don Y
    very good article i dont think people are looking for a reason not to come back but why should i come back if the employees are giving good service and correcting problems and making sure that product is on the shelves that is being advertised,store is clean and they are being treated with respect and that the employees are going the extra mile to make them feel wanted then they will be back but some customers wont be happy no matter what you do for them and contrary to popular belief the customer is not always right
  • Anne T
    Anne T
    Perfect advice.  I work for IKEA and we value our customers.  After all, they are WHY YOU HAVE A JOB.  No matter how difficult a customer we come across, one customer does not represent the entire public.  We respect one another as workers at IKEA, and always give our customers the best shopping experience we have.  Our corporate offices keep us informed on how things are working in the company as a whole, and gives us encouragement and suggestions to make things better.  We work as a team.  
  • Alex Kecskes
    Alex Kecskes
    Thanks, Armando for sharing your personal experience with us.
  • Marcia E
    Marcia E
    I recently retired from 7-1/2 years of employment at a Vineyard.  The advice given above is right on.  I became so tired of trying to get other employees to be proactive with a customer that had a complaint, to them it was always someone other than themselves to handle the complaint and it took twice as long to get the complaint handled and to keep the customer
  • Robin W
    Robin W
    This is correct. I personally have been unemployed for a long time. I go into stores and the "passion" just isn't there. Employees just don't seem to care about how they should be treating customers. I think the attitudes should be left at home or at least in the car. In these times, they should be grateful that they have a job at all. No matter what they are doing.
  • harold k
    harold k
    i lost my employment very recently on an illegal termination that is well known in florida.the average employee is treated like an animal in their beloved right to work state.You can be the best employee and still be treated the same.the company who i worked for was dillards.i worked for 14 years with just about perfect attendance!Mr Reliable i was known although they were to idiotic or to wealthy to recognize it.when the management wanted something out of the employees they only knew how to threaten them to assist on filling their own pockets with commission cash!and by the way the higher ups in little rock always backed their beautiful behavior!Its a known fact that to get the most out of your employees you teach them in a civil way !they terminated employees for years while i was there in amazing ways!always they knew they would get away with in this great right to work state!A very recognized writer for the wall street journal in new york wrote a top 10 list recently of the worst companies to work for in the us.Congratulations dillards you were chosen number2 .wow what an accomplishment!I guess the attitude is you are my slave and you do for me anything i need to make my millions!iHOPE THEY CHANGE THERE APPROACH ON TREATING EMPLOYEES! GOOD LUCK DILLARDS YOU WILL NEED IT!
  • Angela R
    Angela R
    though, your views on good customer service is a value point, you are always going to get customers that think they can beat the system, and even you do give these type of customers everything but the kitchen sink, they still are not satisfied. I have had customers that are really taken in with give the customer what they want, and the customer is always right, is really not the way to enhance a store. you can even have very good associates and they still are not happy. our today's society is really awful, they think that we owe them everything because they shop at a certain store. Lets be real, no matter what type of approach or situation you are in with a customer, they are never happy. we continue to work with these customers because we need our job and lets face it, we will continue to give them what they want, and some will never be satisfied. we always talk having respect for the customer, so what about respect for the associate,happy associates make happy customers, usually.
  • Holly S
    Holly S
    Article writer and Armando C have no idea what they are talking about. Customers only want things for free. To them that is good customer service. An employee doing their job and following policy is not important to them. The have a "me" attitude and try their best to degrade the employee. They do not treat employees with respect but demand it themselves. Remember that is hard for a customer to swallow that they are NOT always right and they should listen and act accordingly.
  • Daphne R
    Daphne R
    OMG the writer of this article and Armando C obviously have NEVER worked in retail. Customers are self centered, obnoxious, rude and plain stupid. They never read the coupon restrictions or requirements, they demand extra discounts and special treatment. How can a retail store stay in business giving away product? Customers are loud and rude. They purposely try to get the employee in trouble by arguing with them over store policy. They treat employees like indentured servants. So you never went back to the business, Armando C? Thank goodness. You are the type of customer retail employees DONT want. AND THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT.  Most of them are uneducated and stupid. They force employees to HATE their jobs. I know you have never worked as a slave at minimum wage to a bunch of self-righteous ignorant selfish snot-class people.
  • Orlando M
    Orlando M
    What you day is write, well I work for JCP and in our company  what we are trying to do is to focus in customer service. We explain to the customer about all the transformation that jcp is going though and try to make them understand that the prices that we give to them are fair and square out. We are not fooling them like other companies do putting on their price big numbers and Then in the bottom 60% or 50 % off then the customer start to figure out how much the item is going to be. Another thing is that some companies exaggerated their prices in order to impress the customer when  they know that that is not the fair price, because when they make those products in China they get them done real cheap they even bribe the fiscal people from the city where the product is being manufactured and make them lower their  taxes and they get them make real cheap and come to USA and sell them at exaggerated prices. I assure this because I got this from a source that makes business in China but not with manufacturers but have seen the buyers from famous companies doing this.
  • SCOTT R
    SCOTT R
    I think a lot that has been said is very true but I aso see that when some compines hire for a opening they fail to tell the new hire employee about some rules of the law as such as ringing up over the counter products for id.
  • Armando C
    Armando C
    You are correct in your article, some businesses are not looking in the right direction to resolve customer service problems either internal or external. I have had  the opportunity to face some of these problems myself and I never went back to the business that did not treat me with respect when dealing with a problem due to poor quality of service , especially when making phone calls and they make you wait long time in line like if they want you to get discouraged from reporting your problem, and hang up. Remember that is hard to swallow for some businesses but the customer always is right, and they should listen and act accordingly.  
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