Are surly young salespeople ruining your business? Is lack of personal service driving your customers to shop on the internet instead of with you?
It seems like you just can’t hire good help these days. A recent Australian study conducted for International Customer Service Professionals* reveals that more than half the population believes that customer service levels have declined over the past five years and they lay the blame firmly at the feet of young retail workers.
The 521 Australian consumers surveyed cited poor staff attitudes, problems with overseas call centres, and a lack of professionalism and product knowledge as the biggest causes of consumer dissatisfaction, with lousy attitudes from young retail workers the standout problem identified by most of those surveyed.
Now those customers might have blamed young retail workers for their poor attitudes but we know better, don’t we? If your staff has attitude problems, then whose problem is it really? I’m not suggesting that management are solely responsible for the attitudes of Gen Y workers, but management are definitely responsible for how they tackle the problem.
Judging from appearances, an awful lot of retail managers have their heads firmly buried in the sand when it comes to addressing the attitude issue and let’s face it, there’s lots to hide from. Attitude is such a personal thing and if there’s one thing this generation is really good at, it’s standing up for their personal rights. How then do you deal with a lousy attitude without falling foul of your worker’s right to feel as surly, lacklustre, bored and altogether uninspired as they want?
You could start by not looking at it as an attitude problem at all, but as a skills shortage. People like to do things they’re good at. It makes them feel good about themselves and when they feel good about themselves, it shows in their attitude. The better they feel, the better the attitude. We’ve talked before about The Success Spiral and this is a classic example of how we can use it for everyone’s benefit.
Young retail workers are often poorly trained if they’re even trained at all, therefore they don’t really know how to sell, immediately putting them at a disadvantage. This then discourages them, making them feel useless and incompetent, which of course manifests itself in poor attitude. Because they lack the skills required to change things for the better, they respond the only way they know, with a lousy attitude and feelings of despondency and hopelessness at their situation. This comes across to their customers as surly, belligerent, uncaring or disinterested and of course, the customer responds accordingly, making the worker feel even more useless and incompetent. This is the downward spiral. It keeps on circling the drain until something comes along to stop it.
In order to succeed in sales, retail or otherwise, you need well developed skills. You need to know with certainty that if you do ‘x’, then ‘y’ will happen. But first you need to know that there even is an ‘x’. Too many young retail workers don’t. One of my favourite expressions is “You don’t know what you don’t know.” It stands to reason that you can’t address a problem unless you’re first aware that there is a problem and this is particularly true with sales skills.
Given the choice, most people would prefer to be good at what they do. It feeds their sense of self-worth, which makes them feel good and naturally, the better they feel, the more enthusiastic they are about what they’re doing. This is the Upward Spiral. So how do we make people good at what they do? With skills of course! How to we break that downward spiral? Skills! When salespeople understand what is required of them, when they know with certainty what steps they need to take to get the job done, when they feel assured enough to competently complete their tasks, they’re happier, their customers are happier and it stands to reason that you will be happier too and who wouldn’t want that?
We sell outstanding skills. The skills we sell make positive and lasting changes in people’s lives. They completely change the way people do business, the way they relate to each other and to their customers. We sell amazing skills and we build strong workplace cultures. We know this because our customers thank us for this every single day. If you have an inkling that you or your workforce need skills to break out of their downward spiral, don’t wait until you bottom out, don’t wait until you lose one more customer or have to sack one more unwilling worker. The solution is a lot closer than you think. Contact me today.
It seems like you just can’t hire good help these days. A recent Australian study conducted for International Customer Service Professionals* reveals that more than half the population believes that customer service levels have declined over the past five years and they lay the blame firmly at the feet of young retail workers.
The 521 Australian consumers surveyed cited poor staff attitudes, problems with overseas call centres, and a lack of professionalism and product knowledge as the biggest causes of consumer dissatisfaction, with lousy attitudes from young retail workers the standout problem identified by most of those surveyed.
Now those customers might have blamed young retail workers for their poor attitudes but we know better, don’t we? If your staff has attitude problems, then whose problem is it really? I’m not suggesting that management are solely responsible for the attitudes of Gen Y workers, but management are definitely responsible for how they tackle the problem.
Judging from appearances, an awful lot of retail managers have their heads firmly buried in the sand when it comes to addressing the attitude issue and let’s face it, there’s lots to hide from. Attitude is such a personal thing and if there’s one thing this generation is really good at, it’s standing up for their personal rights. How then do you deal with a lousy attitude without falling foul of your worker’s right to feel as surly, lacklustre, bored and altogether uninspired as they want?
You could start by not looking at it as an attitude problem at all, but as a skills shortage. People like to do things they’re good at. It makes them feel good about themselves and when they feel good about themselves, it shows in their attitude. The better they feel, the better the attitude. We’ve talked before about The Success Spiral and this is a classic example of how we can use it for everyone’s benefit.
Young retail workers are often poorly trained if they’re even trained at all, therefore they don’t really know how to sell, immediately putting them at a disadvantage. This then discourages them, making them feel useless and incompetent, which of course manifests itself in poor attitude. Because they lack the skills required to change things for the better, they respond the only way they know, with a lousy attitude and feelings of despondency and hopelessness at their situation. This comes across to their customers as surly, belligerent, uncaring or disinterested and of course, the customer responds accordingly, making the worker feel even more useless and incompetent. This is the downward spiral. It keeps on circling the drain until something comes along to stop it.
In order to succeed in sales, retail or otherwise, you need well developed skills. You need to know with certainty that if you do ‘x’, then ‘y’ will happen. But first you need to know that there even is an ‘x’. Too many young retail workers don’t. One of my favourite expressions is “You don’t know what you don’t know.” It stands to reason that you can’t address a problem unless you’re first aware that there is a problem and this is particularly true with sales skills.
Given the choice, most people would prefer to be good at what they do. It feeds their sense of self-worth, which makes them feel good and naturally, the better they feel, the more enthusiastic they are about what they’re doing. This is the Upward Spiral. So how do we make people good at what they do? With skills of course! How to we break that downward spiral? Skills! When salespeople understand what is required of them, when they know with certainty what steps they need to take to get the job done, when they feel assured enough to competently complete their tasks, they’re happier, their customers are happier and it stands to reason that you will be happier too and who wouldn’t want that?
We sell outstanding skills. The skills we sell make positive and lasting changes in people’s lives. They completely change the way people do business, the way they relate to each other and to their customers. We sell amazing skills and we build strong workplace cultures. We know this because our customers thank us for this every single day. If you have an inkling that you or your workforce need skills to break out of their downward spiral, don’t wait until you bottom out, don’t wait until you lose one more customer or have to sack one more unwilling worker. The solution is a lot closer than you think. Contact me today.
*The study was conducted by research consultancy AMR and customer feedback platform Feedback ASAP and is based on a survey of 521 Australian consumers. It was conducted for the International Customer Service Professionals.
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