Retailers, are you ready?

Still on the topic of customer retention, what are you going to be doing differently this December in order to increase your sales? Interest rates have gone up and the introduction of the new credit act means that the average consumer will be spending less this December, but it is still a time of the year when consumers spend more than at any time in the rest of the year.

The shopping mall boom, as I have termed it, has also given rise to a variety of new shopping centres or malls at which consumers can shop. This means that some of the older or more established shopping centres are going to lose some of their existing clientele to these new centres. This will be the first December that retailers will go through in a long time where credit facilities have been curbed through the enforcement of the new credit Act and consumers will not be able to spend as much as what they spent in the past.

I ask this question again. What are you going to be doing differently this December in order to secure your share in the consumer buying market?

Below are a few tips that you can use:
•Ensure that you have enough staff on the floor during peak times ready to assist or advise your customers. There is nothing worse that trying to find someone to help you in a major department store. Employees must watch their customers at all times for signs of them requiring assistance.
•Place a customer relationship employee or manager at the entrance of your store to greet customers as they arrive or thank them for their visit. This does not happen in any of the retail stores that I have visited. Can you imagine how great the customer will feel?
•Ensure that you have enough cashier points open especially in the food and clothing industries.
•Ensure that you have enough stock to last you through the December period.
•Managers must spend up to 80% of their day on the floor over this period to show the customer that there is a visible management presence. This also gives the employee a sense of importance that their manager is out on the floor with them during busy times.
•This point is primarily for the banks. Ensure that you have enough tellers open at ALL times over the December period and ensure that someone is controlling the queues in the bigger branches. Any customer who spends more than five minutes in a queue will be likely to become agitated.
•Encourage your staff to smile and greet you customers.

Give your managers and supervisors a quick refresher course on dealing with customer complaints.