The Attack of "How's It Going?" and "May I Help You?"

Most retailers who miss sales do so by ignoring customers.  Others miss sales when they over-engage the customer. Yes, there really can be too much of a good thing!  I know that nothing will run me out of a store faster than too many people trying to help me.

Last year I was in a store that was obviously implementing a new company initiative that required staff to talk to a customer whenever the customer was within a certain distance. I was asked at least eight times either "How's it going?" or "May I help you?" within the first five minutes I was in the store.  The funniest - or maybe it's the saddest - part is that there were only four or five employees working in the store! I was attacked by some of the employees more than once. Either I'm not a very memorable person or they were only going through the motions and didn't really care how I was doing or if I needed help. I suspect it was a little of both.

When I was attacked for the ninth time I snapped and said I'd been doing pretty well until I came into this store and was asked over and over how I was doing. I'm sure they talked about the crabby customer after I left.  I didn't care because I had no plans to return (unless I needed something to write about.)

Greeting or welcoming a customer when they enter your store is an important piece of delivering a quality customer experience.  I was discussing this with some clients on Friday and someone compared it to someone coming to your home.  You welcome them when you answer the door but you don't keep greeting them over and over.

These are the different types of QUALITY engagement that should take place in a store:

1. Greeting and engaging the customer when he/she first comes into the store.  I've covered this many times in the Daily so I won't go into much detail here. What I do think is that it should happen within thirty seconds or so and can be done either verbally or non-verbally.

2. Re-engaging by the same employee who first greeted and engaged the customer. This is often a continuation of the conversation the employee had with the customer. Customers should probably only be re-engaged once unless he/she is clearly open to it. Don't overdo it or you'll ruin their shopping experience and your chance at making a sale.

3. Acknowledging the customer by a different employee. If a sales associate is somewhere near a customer and makes eye contact it more than appropriate to smile and say hello. Sometimes you can tell the customer wants help but more often than not they are just being friendly.  Skip "How's it going?" and "May I help you?"  Just acknowledge the customer and show by your actions that you're willing to help.

4. Engage for a reason. When done well this can be one of your most effective sales tools but when done poorly it is potentially extremely annoying to your customer.  Engaging for a reason is when an employee engages a customer he/she did not initially greet in a conversation.  The engagement can be based on what the customer is looking at, what they are wearing, bags they are carrying, etc.  If the store I wrote about above had engaged for a reason then I wouldn't have left so annoyed.  Then again, engaging the customer nine times in five minutes is annoying no matter how you slice it.

Note what isn't listed:

* Asking customers how you can help them.
* Asking the customer if anyone is helping them.
* Following customers around the store.
* Talking to the customer without purpose.
* Telling someone "welcome" when they're well into the store.

The difference between making and not making goal is often based on a staff's ability to naturally engage the customer.  The difference between a customer having a good or a poor experience is usually based on how much value the employee's engagement approach adds to the customer's experience.

So let me ask, how well do you and your team engage and not over-engage the customer?