Good, bad of retail service
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, May 21, 2007
Indian Wells, Calif. — They drove 34 days, traveled 10,344 miles and visited 987 stores in 25 major cities. And what came out of all that?
For Richard Fenton and wife/business partner Andrea Waltz, the answer is a report on service delivered in about 20 retail sectors, including furniture. They presented their findings at the annual Western Home Furnishings Assn. Convention and Trade Show here.
The couple, whose business Courage Crafters provides sales training and management consulting, began in Vancouver, Wash., and traveled east across the northern states, south on the East Coast, westward across the southern states, and north up the West Coast.
They visited chain and independent retailers in stand-alone stores and in malls in businesses.
Fenton and Waltz concluded that salespeople have four basic selling styles:
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The Shark. Sharks are aggressive in making the sale but have no interest in establishing lasting relationships with customers. They're generally in high-ticket, commissioned sales and make up about 15% of the nation's sales force. Fenton warned his audience that while sales may go up initially using the Shark, they'll go down in the long run.
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The Retriever. This type has a high concern for relationships and pleasing the customer but is reticent. They're largely reactive and disappear into the background until the customer says "I want this." "A main concern for a Retriever is that they don't want to be a shark," Fenton said. This category represents about half of the sales force.
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The Hippo. This species doesn't care about sales or relationships and usually hangs out at the cash register, ignoring the customer. They bring "nothing to the party," said Fenton. But they represent a quarter of the sales force.
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The Lion. This sales style has high concern for both the sale and the relationship, according to Fenton. "To them, to sell is to serve and to serve is to sell," he said. They're the ones every store owner wants. Unfortunately, they only make up 10% of the sales force.
Fenton and Waltz studied such factors as how long it took for the customer to be greeted and approached, the time from "I'm just looking" to the associate's departure, the average number of questions asked by an associate to determine a customer's needs, the time it took the associate to ask for a buying decision to close the sale, and attempts to sell add-on merchandise.
In most cases, furniture stores ranked in the middle of the 20 store categories, with specialty food and candy, and personal care and beauty (Bath & Body types), and vitamin sellers at the top and big-box stores at the bottom.
For instance, in specialty food and candy stores, customers were greeted within three minutes 84% of the time, compared with 28% in a big box and 51% in home furnishings stores.
In furniture stores, associates asked 2.2 questions to determine a customer's needs compared to a high of 3.4 in men's clothing stores and 1.3 in stores selling entertainment products, books, cards and gifts.
Men's clothing salespeople also asked for a buying decision 53% of the time versus 23% of the time for home furnishings and 2% for discount department stores.
Fenton and Waltz said they received the best service in Texas and Oklahoma and the worst in Montana.
Fenton suggests that associates immediately greet customers even if they can't serve them (if they're waiting on someone else, for instance) so the shopper will know they're connected and "the process has begun."
Taking a minimum of 20 seconds to engage the customer — telling her how the store is laid out, what's on sale, etc. — moves that process along, he said.
"Twenty percent of customers will tell you what they want. The other 80% won't, even if they know what they want," said Fenton. Most of that 80% won't tell for fear they'll be harassed by a Shark, he said.
"The Retrievers have to give space. They say, 'If you need anything, I'll be right over here," he said. "The Hippo will say, 'Knock yourself out.' The Lion will stay engaged for 20 seconds and say, 'Anything I can do for you before I let you go free?' Now, (customers) will say what they want."
Shoppers may say that they have a certain amount to spend, say $500. Salespeople shouldn't fixate on the amount but should focus on the differences between a $500 product and a $600 product, Fenton said.
"Show more merchandise," he said, noting that selling "is a numbers game" and that a customer who sees more product is more likely to make a purchase.
"People should show three times as much merchandise as they do. Some (store managers) say that just confuses people. But it doesn't."
