Sales assistants in shops seem to fall into two broad categories.
They’re either incredibly pushy ie. as soon as you walk in the door and before you’ve even had a chance to look at anything they’re right beside you trying to “help” you.
Or you have the complete opposite extreme that ignores you entirely. You know the type, they’re too “busy” chatting with other staff to bother selling you anything.
This afternoon I was hoping to buy some sports gear so that I can go to the gym (no I’m not going to turn into a fitness freak). There were a couple of things I wanted to get and a few others that I might have got if I’d been in the mood ie. if the shop assistants had been anyway helpful.
I wandered around the shop looking at things, but even though I tried to subtly catch their eye, not one of the shops staff (I counted at least 6) made even the slightest effort to assist me.
Now what about those shops where they actually look after you? One of my local menswear shops gets all my business for one simple reason: they care. I wandered in there yesterday afternoon hoping to get one or two shirts and came out of there with six shirts, three trousers, a jumper and a belt! Why? Because they made it easy for me to buy from them. They aren’t pushy sales people, but they know how to upsell to me, so I’m more than happy to spend money with them.
Considering all the tales of woe about retail I’ve been reading in the media in the last couple of months you’d think that the retailers would actually be trying to sell stuff, wouldn’t you?
I’ll probably end up buying the sports wear I was looking for from an online retailer, as at least that way I won’t feel ignored!
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It’s pubs for me. Whenever I walk up to the bar to order an overpriced pint, the barstaff studiously ignore me. Don’t know why, because I’m potentially great business for them. Irish capitalism, I suppose!
The Gombeen Man
It’s all about management. If there was a proper manager in that sportswear shop making sure the staff was doing their jobs, they would’ve got your business. Any company that expects their employees to be self-motivated is delusional anyway- this is Ireland, the only self-motivation is to get to the pub at the weekend.
My fiancee and I bought a new car last year; at one point, we were in a dealership for over an hour waiting on a booked test drive before any member of staff would assist us. In the end, the dealer who was most helpful got the sale.
I can only imagine how much quicker we’d be dealt with if we were looking for a new 09 car!
@john rainsford:
I agree with you that the cause can be laid at the feet of management, but I think we’re on different pages, I’m more of a Theory Y guy.
I reckon that if management spent some time learning and thinking about how to motivate their staff properly then the story would have gone differently.
@Alastair- I like theory, everything works in theory 🙂
It is all relative, I couldn’t see a sportswear shop offering commission for sales (possibly the only tried and tested mgt technique for encouraging sales, which yields results) and I couldn’t see management motivating a few spotty teenagers that work in these establishments (sorry for the stereotyping) by coming up with motivational techniques.
Management of staff doesn’t start after the hiring process, it starts when you begin looking for staff. Employ people who aren’t motivated to begin with, nothing will get them motivated, aside from the above cash incentive commission, but if that was the case, you’d probably have a better selection of motivated people looking for the job… it just goes around and around.
I’m not disagreeing with your point, but it wouldn’t work in the relative situation mentioned above, it’d be a waste of time and resources.
hi Michele,
I’m off topic here, apologies, but wanted to ask you about the star rating on your blog and comments. Very interesting. I know technology and internet is your area of expertise. Do you know if online ads could incorporate this beside the ads, like the banner ads or MPUs on sites like entertainment.ie?
thanks
P
Paul
I’m not 100% sure I follow you 🙂
The star rating on the posts is just a little addon for Movable Type and as for your other question – I’ve emailed you to see if you can clarify what you mean
Michele
John
If they’d shown any interest I’d have quite happily spent money in there. As things stand I can’t think of any reason why I’d bother going back
Michele
Damien
I’d have thought that car dealers would have been more helpful, as most of them get paid based on sales
Michele
It was actually surreal; there was people wandering around doing nothing, and we couldn’t get someone to help us out. I’ve heard since their staff numbers are well down. I can see why!
I’ve never understood how shops survive if they have those kind of sales staff. It simply does not make sense!
The traditional shop, where the owner serves you, has good service because the owner who we will call Mr Smith wants your business.
The larger shop where the staff are on a wage, has bad service, because the staff get EUR 8.65 per hour regardless.
I think we have all been in that position, be it working in a petrol station or department store part-time while College.
Perhaps you were young an enthusiasticands its hard to imagine disinterest, so now imagine doing that job for the rest of your life, perhaps the reality in this economic period.
You will be employed to do X and paid X per hour. The world is (generally) not like a movie where a janitor can work his way up to a CEO. Indeed if he takes an interest in the lofty issues of the company and starts offering advice or does little jobs that are technically the responsibility of someone else he will be laughed at and perhaps chastised.