Customer service is all about serving, helping, and/or assisting your customers (and potential customers) to purchase something from your business. When you offer great customer service, you can greatly increase the odds of selling more products and maintaining customer satisfaction at the same time. Further, great customer service can help to solidify customer loyalty, increase the your number repeat shoppers, increase positive reviews online, and more.

If you want to build a loyal customer base, it’s important to treat them right. You should always be thinking about how to provide exceptional customer service.

In this post, we’re going to share some tips on how to exceed customer expectations with excellent customer service in retail stores.

Proper Prioritization

Your phone is ringing off the hook. There are curbside pickup orders you need to fill. And how about that line of customers at your checkout? Balancing all of these responsibilities is par for the course when you are a small business owner. Still, the most important customer is the one in your shop that needs assistance. For brick-and-mortar retailers, this cannot be stressed enough.

Remember dissatisfied customers are more likely to leave online reviews that the satisfied ones are; bad reviews always pile up too quickly. Prioritize your in-store customers. Put your calling customers on hold if you must. Answer emails or messages from your social media channels when you can get to them.

Respond to Online Customer Comments

Speaking of customer reviews…

Whether the reviews are good or bad, you or your customer service representatives need to respond to them. This shows your customers that you value their feedback and take their concerns and congratulations to heart.

Start with the customer complaints first. Customers like a quick response and your willingness in making an effort to correct a perceived wrong speaks volumes to other customers who may not even have a problem; they know that, if they do have a problem, that you will be willing to help them rectify it.

If you can triage customer queries into their respective degrees of importance, then address the ones most likely to have some kind of impact on your store or brand within a few hours, you’ll be setting high standard of customer service.

A Little Empathy Goes a Long Way

By making an effort to understand how your customers are feeling, you can begin creating relationships that matter to your customers. It makes the feel seen and heard, which is all any of us really want, right? Is your customer panicking because they forgot something the needed for an even that is happening very soon? Maybe your customer is looking for clothes to wear to a funeral and a little beside herself with grief? Good people skills are a must-have if you are running a retail business. The better you can recognize and relate to the emotional needs of your customers, the better experience you will both have.

Get to Know Your Regulars

A great way to build customer relationships is by greeting customers by name and getting to know their shopping habits. If you have a customer how buys a bunch of bananas every week, be sure to mention if you’ve had a good looking delivery of them just come in. By recognizing their purchase history, you can how that you are going the extra mile to make them feel comfortable.

This is a form of customer service that can save you time and trouble should something go sideways for that customer in the future, because, if it does, they’ll already know that you care about them and their needs.

Be Prepared

Some customer service issues are common and, therefore, predictable. When you recognize a pattern of problems in customer service, you can be pro-active in instructing your team on how do deal with those issues quickly and effectively, turning a bad experience into a good one! Keep a binder of common customer service issues and ready solutions to address them. Then, make sure all of your customer-facing team members are well versed in these solutions. The can make life so much easier for your customers, your staff, and you!

Walk Your Customers to Items

One of the most common questions asked at any retail establishment is, “Where can I find…?” As the old adage from your high school creative writing class goes: show don’t tell. Instead of pointing a customer to some other corner of the store or giving them an aisle number, say, “That’s right over here, sir. Here, I’ll show you.”

In many cases, the customer has already been in that section of your store and simply overlooked the product in question. They’ll appreciate the added effort.

Be Honest

In retail, the customer isn’t always right. As such, you are actually doing your customers a disservice by simply nodding and agreeing or spewing out whatever answer you think the customer wants. When you are honest with your customers, they may not always like it, but they will respect it.

This is important in many instances, such as when a customer is trying on clothing and asks your opinion. If you think the item they are trying on is not doing them any favors, be honest with them and offer another option or two.

Know When to Apologize

Just as the customer is not always right, there will be instances when you or a member of your team is in the wrong or made a mistake. While this can be embarrassing, not taking responsibility can turn in to a PR nightmare quickly, depending upon the situation.

If you take responsibility for any missteps and offer a heartfelt apology, along with a proposed solution, your customers will know that you really do have their best interest at heart and wish to keep their business.

In Conclusion

Retailers who provide excellent service stand apart from competitors and win loyal customers. As a result, they tend to be more financially successful. It takes time and effort to develop strong relationships with customers. We think you’ll agree, however, that this leads to a better shopping experience and is, therefore, time and effort very well spent.