Figure Out the Customer Experience

The Holiday Shopping Experience

Now that the official day of Black Friday shopping along with its accompanying frenetic activity has come and gone, how was your customer service experience?

Were you run over by other customers? Were you ignored by clerks and managers because, for lack of another explanation, they were busy with other “issues”?  Did sales associates go out of their way to accommodate you?  Did you have an amazing shopping experience?

Did You Have an Ecstatic Cyber Monday?

Amazon turned Black Friday into an eight day elaborate sales production by offering special deals which were announced every five minutes.  They also announced up to 10 special “deals of the day” and up to 150 “lightning deals” which were available via their app.

Even though the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days have passed, Amazon is still catering to the consumer who wants a deal and who is looking for convenience in their shopping experience.

Sometimes Feeling Good is Better than Getting the Sale

Amazon and a few other businesses have learned to focus on the consumer, not totally on the sale.  To some, this may sound counterintuitive to reaching holiday sales goals but I say by focusing on the consumer rather than the sale, it will boost customer service, increase employee morale and customer satisfaction will surge!  Don’t you agree that there are times that it could be better for a customer to leave your business without a closed sale and the prospect that they will feel excited about returning for another positive experience and possibly buying more than if that they made a purchase on the first visit?  Isn’t that worth more than “using” them to meet a sales goal?

Do the Right Thing

We are in the heat of the holiday shopping season so there is still time to make things right.  Make a plan to focus, plan and set goals to ensure that your organization provides the highest customer satisfaction and the least amount of complaints.  Put your managers and staff to the “authentic smile test”.  Make time to role play various customer scenarios — positive and negative.   Every customer/client should be met with a genuine greeting and smile.  Every customer/client deserves to have an exceptional customer experience every time.

Happy Holidays !