There’s an area of your retail store potential customers will avoid; it is the first eight feet beyond your doors. Some call it the decompression zone, some call it the threshold area—it should be called The Hell Zone, because customers don’t want to go there.
They might remember a past experience where an aggressive employee pounced on them, or they might remember another employee asking them a question when all they wanted to do was get their bearings. They had to blurt out a “no” just to get rid of the pesky employee.
Employees don’t want to go there either. They’ve asked a stranger in their most helpful way, “Can I help you?” and the response is almost always the same: “No, I’m just looking.”
Because customers answer these greetings over and over with a negative, employees feel dehumanized. That negativity and lack of connection also opens the door to rudeness. Customers turn their backs and walk away; they talk on the phone at the register; they haggle over prices or make unrealistic demands.
Steps to Avoid the Brush-Off
First, wait at least 10 seconds but no more than 15 to greet a shopper. This gives them time to settle. Fifteen seconds may sound like a really short amount of time, but it isn’t. Use a timer and walk through your store. In most cases you can reach the back of the store within 15 seconds. You will find that your sweet spot will be around 10 seconds.
By greeting your customers within this time frame, you achieve several goals: It trains employees to always have their eyes up to see who’s coming in; it makes them wait and not pounce and it helps to provide a welcoming atmosphere.
During those 15 seconds, grab a prop—something large enough to be noticed by a customer, such as a book, box or sample. This creates the appearance that the employee is interrupting something else to notice the customer, rather than swooping down on them. With prop in hand, walk toward the customer at a 45-degree angle. Greet them as you go by with, “Good morning. Feel free to look around, and I’ll be right back,” or simply say “Good morning.” Then move on without blocking them.
By not asking a question such as “How are you?” or “Can I help you find anything?” the customer is not obliged to respond at all, though most will.
This technique of greeting with a prop puts the customer at ease, gives the employee a reason not to linger and dissolves the hell zone. If you do this correctly and with the right intent, the customer always says “Thank you.”
Skeptical? Try it right now. If a customer doesn’t thank you, consider that you may have approached at a 90-degree angle, which blocks their path, or you might have lingered too long when you greeted them.
Now you don’t need to do this when you are slammed on a busy Saturday afternoon or during the holidays, but for those times when no one else is in the store, it is perfect.
Make your greeting more human, more timely, more engaging and, ultimately, more profitable.
