Non-Negotiable Standards

posted: Friday, February 5, 2010

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Could you imagine what might happen should your UPS driver show up wearing a purple shirt and shorts? What would happen if the pilot didn't do a pre-flight safety check or your doctor didn't mark the knee on which he was about to perform surgery? These things just don't happen. On the other hand, could you imagine a customer coming into your store without being acknowledged, a repair customer coming in and the salesperson not attempting to show or sell additional merchandise? How about a customer not being sincerely thanked and invited back? These are all things that should be non-negotiable sales and customer service standards in every retail store.

Non-Negotiable standards are those things that are so important to the success of the organization that there is no room for error or deviation. I would be willing to write-up and eventually terminate people for not adhering to the pre-established non-negotiable standards. Sales standards are those things that will have a direct effect on sales - customer service standards are those things that will have a direct effect on the customer's first and last impressions of the store.

With the economy as it is, where customers, sales, and profits are hard to come by, it is essential that retailers institute non-negotiable sales and customer service standards in their stores. According to the latest statistics that I have read, it costs about $50.00 to get a customer to walk into a typical retail store. In clothing stores, the amount may be a little lower, where as stores that sell hot tubs, pianos, and organs are much higher. The amount doesn't matter as much as the fact that there is a cost attached to every customer. For every customer that enters a store and isn't sold something, you might as well take that amount of money and burn it.

One standard that I have implemented in stores that I work directly with is that with every customer, one of three things had better happen. Either the customer leaves the store having made a purchase, or the salesperson has captured the customers contact information, with permission for follow-up, or they had better be turned over to another salesperson to let them attempt to develop a relationship and sell the customer. If the salesperson hasn't made the sale, or developed a relationship where the customer is willing to give contact information, then by golly another salesperson had better have been given a shot at it.

Non-negotiable standards are just one of the five silver bullets detailed at our Train The Trainer Courses. Make a decision to improve your business, make a decision to attend.

Failure Is Not An Option!

Finao - Brad Huisken - IAS Training

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