Personlized Customer Service

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The old saying, “it’s not personal, it’s business” comes to mind when thinking about how to effectively run your business in this, and any, economy. What we should be thinking, and how we should be approaching our customers is, “it’s personal, it’s business”. People want to feel that extra touch of personalized service, and indeed, expect to be “wooed” in order to remain a customer. Regular customers want to be remembered when they walk into your store, they want to feel they belong. Consequently, calling them by name and making them feel welcome will set their shopping experience apart from all other stores they frequent. Essentially what we are trying to achieve is to get back to the way things were done before the obsession with big box stores, profits above customers, and measuring our successes by the bottom line only.
In the early 1900’s customers were waited on by formally dressed staff members and shown individual products. They were guided through their shopping experience, and staff was trained to pick up on the small nuances of focusing on the customer’s needs.
After WW I that changed, people started waiting on themselves and taking their items to a teller for checkout. Staffing costs prevented retailers from employing enough staff to cover their store’s needs, plus cutting back staffing costs meant more money in the store owner’s pockets. This step towards customer autonomy, and less employed staff, removed the personalized service from the retail environment and it’s time to get it back!
We know why we are in business, it is to make a living, but in order to make a living it is important to remember the people that keep us in business, and those people are our customers. How can this return to customer focused servic...

... middle of paper ...

...ing new in our store, sending out appreciation letters to frequent visitors, or providing extra discounts on birthday’s.
These are but a few suggestions to begin the process of thinking about the details that make the shopping experience special.

WRAPPING UP
This adjustment is about getting back to a time when people treated their customers like the treasured gifts they are. Customers are your lifeline; they provide you not only with financial gain but are the very purpose you are in business, to provide a specialized service, so make it specialized by using these customer focused skills.

Works Cited

Agathou, Amalia. The next web. 14 December 2010. Web. 28 May 2014.
Gogoi, Pallavi. Bloomberg Business. 22 November 2006. Web. 28 May 2014.
Hyken, Shep. hyken.com. n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
Now Possible. n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
Wordpress.org. n.d. Web. 29 May 2014.

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