Are Your Customers Invisible?

An electrician walks through the door of a distributorship. It’s 7:20 a.m. Behind the counter an employee is reading a newspaper —seemingly oblivious to the chime that sounded when the door opened. The electrician clears his throat, loudly, and gets no response. “Excuse me,” he says after several seconds, “I need some material.” The paper doesn’t drop. No head peeks over the top. Only a voice replies, “We don’t open until 7:30.” Too stunned to even respond, the electrician turns around, walks back to his truck, vows never to return, and drives to the next distributorship. This is a true story. The electrician that it happened to lived up to his vow, and never bought anything else from that distributorship. No one likes being ignored. Common sense tells us that. But don’t pretend you haven’t done it. You’re waiting on a customer, or you’re on the phone. Maybe both. Another customer walks in. You could say, “Come on in. We’ll be right with you.” Even if you’re on the phone, you could nod and acknowledge the customer’s presence. But you don’t. You avoid eye contact, fearing you may be asked a question (and then you’d have one more thing to do). You don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that, well, you’re busy. Or you’re an outside salesperson and you hurriedly cut through the counter area. Customers are three-deep waiting in line. Both countermen are in the warehouse filling orders. You haven’t got time. There’s a job that bids at 2:00 p.m.—it’s worth $500,000 while this counter stuff is nickel-and-dime. You pick up the pace and rush by the customers. You don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that, well, you have to prioritize. It’s time to rethink the relationship between the sales counter and customers. For many distributors, the counter is an afterthought, just a place that serves up the “table scraps”— miscellaneous leftovers needed to complete a job, odds and ends for service-call electricians, parts and pieces picked up by DIY homeowners. But a counter’s reach can go far beyond that small percentage of sales currently shown on the company’s financial ledger: A counter can become a goodwill ambassador for an entire operation. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow said one of the most important social needs of a human being is the need to belong. Through its counter, an electrical distributorship can become a gathering place for a community of electricians to form; and it all begins with a few simple steps: 1. Make everyone a greeter. Obviously, most distributorships don’t budget for professional greeters, so make it everyone’s job. Explain that any employee in the counter area is to greet customers, and ask if someone is helping them. If an employee hasn’t trained to work at the counter, he or she should simply tell customers that someone will be with them soon. For example, a warehouseperson filling an order should look up from his or her clipboard, make eye contact with the customer, and greet and assure that person that help is on the way. 2. Watch the language. Most people have never received training on proper ways to greet customers. As a result, most of the time what comes across is an abrupt “Whacha’ need?” or “Help you?”, as if it’s too much trouble to get out a whole sentence. And some people don’t say anything at all. They simply stand there and wait for the customer to speak. Although it’s not necessary to follow a script, the way a statement is phrased can mean the difference between seeming bothered and disinterested and being friendly and helpful. For instance, “How may I help you?” has a couple of implications: It indicates a willingness to help and shows confidence in the speaker’s ability to help. Of course, always offer a casual greeting first, such as “Hey” or “Yo” or whatever is customary to the region. And always, when possible, address customers by name. 3. Say goodbye. The goodbye is just as important as the greeting. Gratitude should be expressed at the close of every business transaction. “We appreciate your business,” is always appropriate. Again, there is no need to follow a script; the main thing is to show sincerity. 4. Un-curb the enthusiasm. The previous steps won’t matter if this one thing isn’t done right. Imagine that a good friend walked in. Chances are you would act glad to see him. Enthused, even. Now, take that imaginary enthusiasm and apply it to each customer who walks through the door—and don’t worry that it will come across as “too much.” Many people become so restrained in their behavior that they seem bored and lifeless. Showing enthusiasm tells the customer that his or her business is important. The smart distributor understands that continued success doesn’t hinge on a single business point-of-contact. Rather it relies upon a collection of all of the connections between distributor and customer. The counter can deepen the relationship between a company and its clientele—or it can destroy the relationship altogether. By the way, the name of the “electrician” in the story at the beginning of this article is Josh Coleman. He is the owner of Coleman Electric, the third largest electrical contractor in our market. The distributorship that “didn’t open until 7:30” lost more than “table scraps.” That company lost millions of dollars worth of jobs— business that Coleman handed to us. You see, we just happened to be the distributorship he drove to next that morning.