Are You Kicking Customers Out the Door?
Are you kicking potential customers out the door? I normally wouldn’t even think to ask the question, but as of late, I’m seeing so many businesses doing just that. I have to ask them to stop sending business out the door and down the street to their competitor. Here’s how it starts — and mind you, this comes from personal experience. Just last week when I was at a convenience store (which used to be open 24 hours a day, but now closes at 10 p.m. for cost-cutting reasons) the clerk was helping me, then abruptly stopped our exchange to make an important announcement over the public-address system, “Attention, shoppers: We will be closing in five minutes!” I heard him loud and clear: Anyone who is planning on spending money with us tonight or any other time after this message, please leave and never come back. Remember how hard we market to get customers in the door, and that one clerk — with the flick of a microphone — can run them out for the night and for good. This event was followed by my favorite coffee shop telling me as we walked in the door at 9:50 p.m., “Sorry we’re closed now.” Translation — never come back again and tell all your friends not to either. In these difficult times, I’m surprised that stores are willing to run off prospects. Remember Sales Rule No. 2: When they call or come in, they want to buy. Owners and managers, I know you don’t
profess to kick out customers, but you need to make sure your team isn’t doing just that in an effort to get home early or clean up before closing time. Here’s a great statistic. An average grocery store customer will spend $200 a week or just under $12,000 a year. Multiply that by the lifetime of a customer and it works out to $200,000. However, the influence factor or the recommendation side of that is multiplied six times. They’ll influence or recommend your store to others who will bring you another $1.2 million. So how do you make sure you’re getting that customer’s business and the business of friends they would influence to shop at your store? First of all, “secret shop” your own business. Have someone come in five minutes before closing time and see how they are treated. Call your business at two minutes before closing time and see if the recorder is already on. And when you leave a message, see if it is followed up by a return call the next day. Empower your employees to do the right thing. The right thing is staying open past closing time, answering the phone when it rings after five, and returning phone messages. If you’re not doing that, you may be the victim of the next $1.2-million-sale that walks out the door. Just say NO to kicking potential customers out the door. Invite them to stay.
Tester- MONIALS Lauren Paris, Realtor in Las Vegas
Q: What did you like best about the Dialing Strangers training today?
Q: Did you have fun too?
A: Yes, you are fun and I’ve learned lots.
A: Well, you gave me some motivation to pick up the phone tomorrow. And I’ve learned to adapt to different people’s personality styles so that I can speak to them better.
Q: And you liked my shoes, right?
A: Yes, you have good style. [laughs]
Q: Would you recommend the training?
A: Definitely!
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