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.

Tags: Sales, Usability, User Experience