When your store is out of stock on an item…what does your staff do and say?
When I was out of state not long ago, I looked around for a pair of light hikers for everyday wear. I knew exactly what I wanted right down to the model name.
I visited a locally owned store, but they didn’t have my size in stock. A few days later, I visited a box store. They had the shoe on the wall (which is never my size), but they didn’t have any others. They didn’t even have the match to the one on the wall.
As I got into the car in the box store parking lot, I called the locally owned store again just in case they had some new arrivals. Nope.
They offered to order a pair for me, but I told them I was visiting from elsewhere and wouldn’t be around when they arrived.
At this point, they had choices: Focus on the sale, focus on the customer or try harder.
What’s your focus?
If your sales people are trained to focus on the sale, they might say “Nope, we don’t have any” and be disappointed that they didn’t get a sale. If that’s the end of the conversation, your customer might go elsewhere – losing the sale and the customer.
If your sales people are trained to focus on the customer, they might say “Nope, we don’t have any. Have you looked at (competitor number one) or (competitor number two)? They both carry that brand.”
If your sales people are trained to focus on keeping your customers happy, they might say “Nope, we don’t have any. If you come by and let us fit you in a similar shoe in that brand, I can order that model in your size and have it shipped to you. If it doesn’t fit like you want, we’ll take care of you until you’re happy or we’ll give your money back.”
What they did was refer me to two of their competitors (one was the store whose parking lot I was in). The second one had my size in stock, so 20 minutes later, I had my shoes and was heading for the in-laws place.
The “try harder” choice might not have been what I wanted, but I wasn’t given a choice. Keep in mind that you can always fall back from the “try harder” position if the customer isn’t interested in or cannot use that kind of help.
The important thing
You might think that the locally owned retailer lost a sale, but that isn’t as important as keeping the customer over the long term.
While I wasn’t able to buy the shoes from the place I wanted, they were able to help me find them.
They could’ve run me off quickly by saying “We don’t have that size.”
They didn’t do that. I suspect their handling of the call was the result of training driven by a management decision.
I wasn’t a familiar voice calling them on the phone. While I’ve bought from their store on and off for 20 years, they don’t know that because they keep paper sales tickets. I’m not there often enough to be a familiar face / voice and had not been in their town for two years.
Yet they treated me like someone they want to come back.
Do you treat your customers that way? Do your online competitors?
Competition from tomorrow?
Sometimes business owners complain about online competition.
Yet online stores can rarely provide instant gratification. It’s difficult for them to help you buy something you need today for a meal, event, dinner, date, meeting or presentation happening later today.
They can rarely deliver the kind of service a local, customer-focused business can offer.
Online often gets a foothold when local service and/or selection are poor and focused on the wrong thing. Even with online pricing, a product isn’t delivered until tomorrow.
When you aren’t competing strongly against tomorrow, you really aren’t even competing against today.
Focus on helping them get what they want and need. Whether they are local or remote, customers just want to be well taken care of and get what they came for.
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