Retail and Training

“How come nobody in this store ever knows where anything is?” my wife asked, with some exasperation. We had come to the local Target store looking for a small household item, only to find that no one in the place would admit to ever having heard of the product we wanted to buy. If we had been looking for an obscure electronic device, an exclusive item of clothing, rare gems or precious metals, or even exotic food or drink items, I could understand the confusion on the faces of the various clerks. Unfortunately, the item we were looking for was a set of bookends…

Of course, the fact that no one reads anymore could be a factor. What do people who don’t own any books know from bookends? Another factor is the size of the store, in which you could probably park at least two or three jumbo jets comfortably; it’s a lot of ground to cover. Still another factor is the huge range of merchandise this chain carries; everything from food items to home electronics to prescription drugs (if we count the pharmacy operation) to lawn and garden products. In fact, I can’t really say I’d be all that surprised to find out that they did, in fact, carry obscure electronic devices, exclusive items of clothing, rare gems or precious metals…

All kidding aside, however, the real cause of this sort of problem is simply money. Specifically, the costs involved in training retail personnel in the variety of goods carried by a specific facility, teaching them where in their particular store each of the (quite literally hundreds of thousands) items can be located, and giving them any reason to remember all of this information or provide it to the customers in the first place. The sad fact is that most sales associates on the low end of retail are working for not much better than minimum wage, and are likely to quit their jobs and move on to something better as soon as they possibly can. Training for personnel at this level is expensive, both in the sense that the company will have to pay them for time in which they are not working, and also in the sense that with normal turnover, the company will have to repeat this training several times each year.

As you move up the retail industry’s food chain, this begins to change. Customers entering a more upscale establishment will be less willing to waste time wandering around the store search for what they want, and more likely to expect a higher level of customer service in return for the higher prices they are paying. Of course, since each sale made at these higher levels is for more money, it is both critical not to lose as many (by annoying the customer) and possible to spend more money per sale on customer service. Where the real problems occur is where management’s idea of the correct level of customer service and the level the customers are expected are no longer in sync. A major factor in the failure of several traditional department store chains is a lack of customer satisfaction with the level of service provided. If you’re going to wander around a large store for hours looking in vain for someone who can answer your questions, find you a larger size, or ring up a sale, you might as well be shopping at Target, and consequently a lot of consumers did.

By the same token, however, it makes no sense to have sales associates waiting in every aisle to provide assistance when all your customers want is to put huge packages of consumer goods in a shopping cart and check out as quickly as possible. If you are providing too high a level of customer service for your segment of the industry, you’re probably offering a very pleasant shopping experience, but you’re almost certainly losing money because your sales can’t keep up with expenses…

Of course, it’s possible that your business has the ideal balance of customer service: just enough people with just enough training to keep most of your customers happy. But you should probably spend some time on the sales floor now and then; looking around, talking with your customers, and making sure everything is still in balance. Because if you don’t watch it closely, it won’t stay that way for long…