Putting In More Face Time With Your Customers

Working in any kind of business environment relies on customer service to drive results. Whether you run a shop, a restaurant, consultancy, agency, or any other kind of business, it’s important that you give your customers some quality time to help develop a connection that could boost your sales. 

But the demands of running a retail business can stop those ambitions in your tracks. So what’s the solution? There are several ways you can speed up processes and change your sales approach to help you focus on providing great customer service and developing a fantastic relationship with the people who walk through your door. Here are some of the things you can do to help you put in more face time with your customers.

Give staff effective customer service training

One of the first things you need to do to ensure you deliver the best results to your customers is to offer them the best customer service possible. This requires training your employees so that they understand the principles of being helpful, polite and becoming great problem solvers. Hiring staff who have this experience already can be valuable, but customer service can be something that’s easy to teach to help you deliver your company’s objectives.

Speed up payments

A slow payment or point-of-sale system can cause issues for your business. Long lines can develop as you grapple with a dated system, and customers can soon get frustrated. Investing in a new contactless system from a reliable payment processor (like Square One, for example) can save you time, money and effort to free up the transaction process and allow you to talk to your customers more.

A simple conversation about how someone’s day or going or asking them if they found everything they’re looking for can make a big difference to how a customer perceives your business, and help them return in the future.

Talk to customers, not to each other

It’s great when colleagues get along, but when you work in a customer-facing environment, the focus should be on them, not what you got up to last night. You should aim to be as friendly and helpful as possible, and being there to welcome them to your business and offer your services can make a big difference to someone’s experience. Standing around gossiping while ignoring customers doesn’t put your business in the best light, so make sure you discourage this behavior from your employees, as well as from yourself.

Building up good relationships with your customers is important. Without them, you’ll be unable to maintain your business. Find ways that help you get out of the back office and spend more quality time with your customers to help them get to know you. When customers experience a more personal service, they’re more likely to return and spread good word of mouth that will drive others to your business too. Spend time working on the trust between you and your customers and watch the results pay off.

This is a contributed post.