While out shopping today I made a small purchase at Sears for my youngest daughter. Upon arrival at the cash register I was bombarded with questions which quickly had me mentally checking out of the transaction. The beginning of the conversation started like this:
Customer Service Rep: Did you find everything sir?
Me: Yes thank you.
Customer Service Rep: Would you like a gift receipt?
Me: No that’s not necessary.
Customer Service Rep: Are you a member of “some sort of kid clothing shopping program”?
Me: No, no thanks.
Customer Service Rep: Would you like to signup for a Sears Mastercard?
Me: No.
Customer Service Rep: If approved you could receive $15 off this purchase. Are you sure?
Me: No thanks.
All of these questions came before my item was scanned into the register. Once my item was scanned:
Customer Service Rep: Would you like to donate a dollar to Home Town Hero’s?
Me: No thanks.
Then, with my transaction now complete I was then asked:
Customer Service Rep: Would you like your receipt with your on in the bag?
Me: The bag is fine.
Customer Service Rep: Okay, also on the receipt is a web site I’m highlighting. It’s for a customer satisfaction survey about this transaction. If you do the survey you could win a $4,000 gift card.
The $4,000 was also highlighted.
Walking away from the register I stopped and made a note in my phone about playing 20 questions with the cashier. It occurred to me that in that deluge of questions were missed opportunities and over used opportunities.
Overused Opportunity 1 – Detract from the Sales Experience
The biggest over used opportunity to me is how many times do I have to say no to the in store credit card? I’m sure somewhere is a spreadsheet within Sears corporate management, or perhaps at Mastercard headquarters, that shows if you keep asking you will get 1 in 1,000 gullible customers to signup for the horrible deal they’re trying to sell. All to save $15 or to get some horrible piece of tchotchke. By getting the 1 in 1,000 customers they annoy 999 other customers asking the same question over and over.
Overused Opportunity 2 – Depersonalize the Sales Experience
Did I find everything? Yes, sometimes this question is helpful, but generally it feels like they are trying to maximize my purchase for them and not me. What happened to, “Hi, how has your day been?” or “What a lovely beard you’re growing sir!”. Well maybe not a comment about my new beard, but anything to make it not seem like yet another way for them to maximize the money coming out of my wallet.
Overused Opportunity 3 – Securing My Loyalty
Loyalty programs. I’m for them and against them. I like saving money, but often I don’t like the hassle. And sometimes they’re just poorly veiled attempts to garner more information out of me.
All of these overused opportunities simply lead to information overload and the customer checking out from the conversation while they simply try to purchase the goods YOU ALREADY SOLD THEM.
Overused Opportunity 5 – Trying to Sell Yet More “Stuff”, When You Already Sold Them Some!
Really, that’s what much of the above boils down to. And what is the cost of this?
Missed Opportunities
In the middle of the transaction what a quick blurb asking me if I would like to donate a dollar to Hometown Hero’s. I did a quick look around when the cashier asked this question. I didn’t see a single sign about what the program was, nor was I offered even a quick blurb about what it is. Later, further in the mall I saw a big sign about it and thought, gee, that’s a nice idea. In the cashiers defense the name is pretty descriptive.
But by this point I had been asked a bunch of questions with one of them being my biggest pet peeve (the credit card). I had checked out from the transaction, the only brain cells I was willing to put into the deal at this point were to make sure I was being charged correctly.
They missed the opportunity for me to care about my transaction. And that can be dangerous.
Are You Overusing Opportunities?
It’s often tempting to attempt to get as much information from a captive audience as you can. When they’re actually giving you money you know they’re interested in something you offer. Since they’re interested perhaps they’ll be interested in something else, that’s an opportunity to up sell. Or perhaps you’re desperately in need of information about some other area of your business, you can ask them then too!
But should you?
No. And especially no with online sales. The ability to mentally check out of a transaction online, or even stop the purchase altogether, is even easier than in the store. And in today’s information age, where when you call customer service and you’re always selected to answer a customer satisfaction survey, simply being happy that someone wants to exchange money for your services might be asking enough.
Because in the end, if your customer is happy there will be other opportunities. Opportunities you can make use of, but not overuse, and not cheapen your customers sales experience.
#1 by John R Hofmann Sr. on December 14, 2009 - 8:13 am
Your point is well taken! As Principal of Sears Hometown Store 3083 in Quakertown PA the customer “Interrogation” at the register can be somewhat impersonal and even a bit irritating. At a small store like ours we prefer to engage each client in a conversation and integrate the relevant questions into that conversation. It is important to inform all about what they can do for their community i.e. food bank donations that also provide a net result for you the client as well as “Heros at Home” that assists the families of our service folks overseas. It sure beats the hell out of my era, that of Vietnam, where soldiers were vilified and their families simply ignored. Perhaps you are not old enough to recall.
I do believe however waterboarding each customer was considered with the hope some additional need could be extracted but was dismissed as impractical as the expense of constantly cleaning up the floor after each customer at the register was indeed too onerous!
All kidding aside though I think what is happening in the retail arena, the corporation is attempting to “think” for each person behind the register as a substitution for thorough training of their sales associates in the art of customer engagement. The result is a detracted, depersonalized failure to secure loyalty and a failure to understand what additional needs could have been met.
The idea behind the Sears Hometown Store concept is, in my opinion; supplant the interrogation with a relevant conversation. I am truly sorry you encountered this situation at a Hometown Store. Hopefully we will have another opportunity to ameliorate your opinion.
#2 by Bryan Smith on December 14, 2009 - 9:58 am
Hi John, thanks for reading through my article. I think you summed up one of the main problems really well. That corporations are attempting to do all of the thinking in place of hiring well and importantly training well. Whether this is because they’re trying to hiring cheaper and drive down costs or are afraid of lawsuits or simply trying to turn everything into an up-sell I don’t know. I agree it’s a failed attempt, I’m already in the store buying something, they’re ahead of the game. Then loose it in the last few mintues of the quarter. Which is especially sad when they toss in a good idea in the middle (Hometown Hero’s).
#3 by John R Hofmann Sr. on December 18, 2009 - 8:26 pm
It all started with, “would you like it supersized?” They certainly created a MONSTER!
#4 by Bryan Smith on December 19, 2009 - 10:10 am
I’ve never thought about the origin of asking the customer a ton of questions; but, I think you’re right, the Supersize me question, and the easy to point to impact on the bottom line was one of the herald’s of where we are now.