The power of “Can I Help You?”
Judiciously timed, “Can I help you?” can be a powerful tool in a retail environment. Used blindly, it can be a business killer.
Hubby needs hook and loop fastener cable ties. He hasn’t found them where he has time to look, and he doesn’t want to run all over town to find them and buy them. He asked me to pick up two packages for him. Since I fly home next weekend for a his retirement dinner, I needed to pick them up this weekend. I know Best Buy and COMP USA carry them. I also had to buy paint and a few other minor home improvement items. Best Buy and Home Depot are near one another. I decided to combine trips.
Got the paint mixed, bought the other items, and headed for Best Buy, which was just opening. I look everywhere. I can’t find the durned things. Sales people are nowhere in sight. I was strolling to the rear of the store to put an item back and planning to leave the store without making a purchase when a sales person standing at a store computer in the back greeted me and asked if he could help. I told him what I was looking for. He walked me back to an area of shelving I swear I had studied at least twice and showed me where they were. Then he asked if there was anything else I needed. I told him I’d found what I came in for, and now I’d just like to browse. For $14 of hook and loop cable ties, I walked out of the store with $302 of mostly impulse purchases.
The power (for the retailer) of a properly timed, “Can I help you?”
Customer service is a dying art. As a librarian, I realized many years ago that the customer is the sole reason I am there. I don’t serve the books or the management, I serve the customer. Far too many people these days don’t get that or don’t care. It’s really refreshing to have an experience like yours.
The time when “Can I Help You?” works against the retailer is when a customer can’t walk two feet through a store without being asked, so it’s a tough balance to strike.
By the way, this approach backfires in an antique store. In that type of establishment, a simple, “Welcome to the store, please let me know if I can help you.” is more appropriate. There are people looking for a very specific thing in antique stores, but, for most, the reason they’re there is to see what leaps out and grabs them.
The power of a well timed “Can I help you?” is only offset by the clerk who doesn’t understand that “Just browsing” really means “Get the hell away from me and let me be”. Inevitably you can only get one or the other and it’s usually the opposite of the one you want.