Customer service is the cornerstone of almost any business. Even companies that don’t deal with people face-to-face need to deliver excellent service. Retail is obviously one of the industries where gold standard customer service is vital. Employees have to deal with many customers on a daily basis. They should be focusing on delivering great experiences each time. Unfortunately, many retail businesses, both online and offline, fail on this front. This can spell disaster for some companies because retail is so competitive. If you want your retail business to flourish, these are the things you need to avoid.

Skimping on Call Center Outsourcing

Everyone has called a customer service number and had a terrible experience. It could be that the call center is in India, and they can’t understand what the representative is saying. It might be that they keep getting passed back and forth between people who don’t know what they’re doing. These things happen as a result of a company paying less for their call center services. If you want to outsource your phones, you need to spend a bit more. Excellent service and well-trained staff don’t come cheaply. Before you choose an outsourcing company, visit their retail call center to ensure they are up to your standards.

Poor Training

Customer service training should be a huge part of any induction for new employees. And it shouldn’t be only inexperienced staff who get the training. Everyone should receive instruction in how you expect them to handle customers. Even if they have been in retail for years, they should learn the standards and procedure of your company. Training should also not be a one-off event. There should always be further training to refresh people’s skills and to add to them. Even people who are behind the scenes and not dealing with customers should have some training.

Not Having Procedures for Dealing with Complaints

Nobody likes receiving a complaint, especially when it’s face-to-face. Some customers can be rude or even aggressive. However, things can get worse if no one knows how to deal with them. Anyone who works with customers needs to know the appropriate way to handle complaints. That means knowing what they should do, as well as what not to do. Behavior like arguing with the customer will never help to improve matters. There need to be standard procedures, even if the first step is always to get a manager and let them deal with it.

Not Being There

One of the most frustrating things for customers is when they can’t get any service. They try to call and no one picks up. Or they look around the store and all the staff seem to have disappeared. Not being accessible to your customers is a big mistake, so avoid it at all costs. Always make sure there is someone to pick up the phone or be on the shop floor. This means avoiding being understaffed.

Always work on your customer service delivery. The success of your retail business relies on it, so don’t neglect it.