By Claire Reilly
With Christmas just one week away, electrical retailers are entering the final stretch of one of the busiest times of the year. While Christmas is always big on the retail calendar, retailers could be forgiven for harbouring concerns over the continuing strength of the electrical retail industry amidst declining consumer spending and a soft retail market across Australia.
While there are plenty of big issues that affect the whole industry, the key message being broadcast to individual retailers and retail franchisees is to look after what they can control – customer service, closing sales and delivering a positive customer experience.
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Ben McIntosh, the general manager of Harvey Norman’s computer division spoke to Current.com.au and gave his tips for the busy Christmas period, including what to look out for and what consumers expect when they shop.
According to McIntosh, the message is simple: “Get the basics right”.
“Some people love shopping, some people hate shopping, some people just want to walk in quickly grab their product and walk out, some people want advice and to go through the range,” he said. “My advice is, get the basics of service right and get the basics of customer service right. Be competitive on what you’re offering them and ask for the sale.”
The final point is perhaps one of the most important. With many customers walking through the store, it may be easy for salespeople to focus on showing off their range and providing consumers with the necessary tech and spec info, but asking the final question to close the sale is critical.
A high level of foot traffic also brings with it another issue – when customer numbers increase it can become harder to keep an eye out for sticky fingers. But as McIntosh explained, Christmas is capable of bringing out the best in store staff when it comes to looking after their store and the customers inside.
“I believe that staff in retail perform better when it’s flat out,” he said. “Statistically – this is not Harvey Norman research, this is industry research – statistically, the research shows that most theft, shoplifting, bad service and all retail’s issues, all these things occur when stores are quiet, not busy.
“From a customer’s point of view, if they walk into a store that’s really, really busy, I think they understand it’s going to take a few minutes for someone to approach them, because they can see people are working. But if you reverse that, the customer’s annoyance level rises profusely when they walk into a store that’s not busy and they’re still not getting served.
“Most theft occurs when stores are quiet because the staff aren’t on the ball. My advice is get the basics right and we’re all good.”