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It’s A Battle Out There: Retail Conscription and CX

Guest post by: Todd Jamieson

Article Overview: What do South Korea, Brazil, and Singapore all have in common? If you said booming economies you wouldn’t be wrong, in fact, all three have enjoyed steady growth within the past 10 years. However, there is something else these countries share that is slightly less glamorous than power lunches and billion dollar deals. Military conscription. For those of you lucky enough to grow up in the peace loving bubble of Canada, that means a government regulated amount of mandatory military service for all males (and sometimes females) of a certain age.

It’s A Battle Out There: Retail Conscription and CX

What do South Korea, Brazil, and Singapore all have in common? If you said booming economies you wouldn’t be wrong, in fact, all three have enjoyed steady growth within the past 10 years. However, there is something else these countries share that is slightly less glamorous than power lunches and billion dollar deals. Military conscription. For those of you lucky enough to grow up in the peace loving bubble of Canada, that means a government regulated amount of mandatory military service for all males (and sometimes females) of a certain age.

While I am not suggesting that Canada should consider beefing up its army any time soon, there is another kind of mandatory service that Canadians might benefit from: retail conscription. As Merlin Mann joked on a recent podcast, “we should make retail a mandatory job for 2 years just like military service in other countries”. For anyone who has spent time slaving over coffee at Starbucks or tolerating demanding customers at Telus, actual military conscription might sound like a pleasant alternative. On the other hand, retail conscription could help both sides of any transaction. How, you ask?

Retail teaches people the importance of customer service.It teaches them how to deal with returns, handle unhappy customers, interact with browsers, and talk to buyers. It educates employees on how to sell products and services, and trains them to work in an established system. Anyone who has spent a few years in retail places a high value on customer service, no matter what their role is in a particular business deal. But retail experience is not only beneficial from a seller/manager’s point of view- it can also help you to be a better customer.

If everyone had to work retail than the population in general might have more respect for the kid making your burger or helping you pick out your wife’s birthday gift. The ill treatment of retail salespeople by customers is well documented. On a recent forum one unhappy employee vented “For those who haven’t worked in customer service, I want to let you know that employees greatly appreciate it when you say things like “have a nice day” or “thank you” because you don’t know how many nitpicking, overly selective and verbally abusive people we have to face every day.”

Of course it is not likely any time soon that the Canadian government will consider a mandatory retail experience for all of its citizens. However, in the meantime any owner, manager, or employee with an interest in improving their customer service should consider a retail conscription of their own. Perhaps limit new hires to those who have retail or direct sales experience, or encourage current employees to give it try (with incentive of course). After all, it’s a battle out there.

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Article Tags: canada, Conscription, Customer Service, retail
Referred by: http://www.brymarkpromostore.com



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