One of the aspects of you customer’s experience is the sales approach used by personnel. Not all sales techniques improve the customer experience. Some may even negate the efforts to improve customer experience.
The use of suggestive selling was highlighted in a Retail Customer Experience article. The idea behind suggestive selling is using selective words to get the customer subconsciously thinking about their next purchase. Parting words by a clerk, such as “Next time you are here,” or “You’ll be back,” is suggestive selling.
In terms of improving your overall customer experience program, I don’t advocate using suggestive lines. Customer’s will return if the experience was warm and friendly. It comes down to the saying “it is not what you say, but how you say it.” I find this time and time again in my experience from a professional and personal standpoint.
Customer’s gravitate towards authentic and genuine kindness. It is important to train and educate staff on product knowledge to empower them to offer better customer service. There is a difference between being helpful and aggressive. Crossing the thin boundaries of being helpful, will be felt by your customers. It will end, being real always wins…even in retail.
