Every single one of your employees needs to be able to help customers.
On our recent trip to Disneyland, I found myself asking multiple employees throughout the day, “Where’s the nearest restroom?”
Every time I asked this question, they kindly described how to get to the nearest restroom and pointed me in the right direction.
Your employees need to know the answers to customers’ most common questions.
Whenever I go to Lowe’s home improvement store, the employees are extremely helpful in aiding me to find the parts I need. Whenever I stop to ask a Lowe’s employee where can I find a product, they stop what they are doing and walk with me across the store and show me.
Your employees should know where other departments and products are located, even if they aren’t directly responsible for them.
Naturally, each employee will not know everything in their head. However, they need to be prepared on multiple fronts.
If an employee doesn’t know the answer, they should have a clear escalation path to get the customer’s question or problem resolved.
If the answer isn’t known, the employee should know who to talk with in order to help the customer. Ideally, your staff would walk with or personally transfer the customer to the one who knows the answer.
Your employees may not know everything about your business, but they can give that impression to customers.
Follow the 80/20 rule.
Make sure your staff can answer the common and frequent customer questions. For example, know what is stock and where to find products. This will cover 80% of your customers’ needs.
As a backup, make sure your employees know who to talk to and provide a smooth transition for the customer to find the resolution they seek. This will handle the remaining 20% of your customers.
By preparing your staff and anticipating customer questions and concerns, you can be ready when they come and provide the outstanding service your customers expect.