Front line staff: Do you know your product?
Working on the front lines of any establishment can be tricky. You’ve got to handle all sorts of customers, while maintaining a friendly, professional and efficient demeanour. Should something go wrong, you’re first in the firing line. So it’s not exactly an easy job, granted. But there’s one cardinal sin that many front-liners commit – especially those in sales and marketing. And that is, not knowing their product. Let me illustrate three examples.
Example 1 – The clueless waiter
There are too many times to list where I’ve asked the waiter at a restaurant what a particular dish contains - especially if it’s a fancy restaurant with meal names that aren’t in English, and contain little or no description. At more times than not, I’ve encountered waiters scratching their heads, humming and hawing, or giving me that famous one-liner, “let me check with the Chef”. I can understand if I’d asked a complex question like the calorific content of the meal, or if the salmon came from the North Atlantic or Norway. But basic questions like “so what does this dish contain”, should be easily answerable by any semi-knowledgeable waiter.
Example 2 – The switched off salesman
As an automotive journalist, I test drive cars. In this particular case, I was assisting a new test driver with his first test drive. The car in question was a small electric car. It was from a company not known for making cars, and, it was their debut product in the segment. A salesman accompanied us on our drive. My tester asked some fairly basic questions pertaining to power, range, and features during our drive. The salesman was unable to answer them properly. Had my tester asked complex questions such as the technical specifications of the battery management system or the tightening torque of the brake calliper nuts, I’d understand his lack of knowledge. Alas, his cluelessness about basic queries that any car buyer might ask was just unforgivable. I would class this as a major operational risk. The company is trying to break into a new segment, but their salesperson is totally switched off!
Example 3 – Mr. Don’t-know-anything
This example is so ludicrous that had it not happened in front of me, I wouldn’t have believed it possible. A popular stationery company was launching a new line of children’s crayons at one of Colombo’s newest shopping malls, with a child-friendly launch event. Naturally, my wife and I took our 2 -1/2 year-old, as he loves to draw. The launch event was lavishly organized, with augmented reality action stations, free popcorn, etc. Clearly many millions must have been spent on the whole thing. They also had a counter selling the new crayon range. As I lined up to make a purchase, the gentleman in front me asked the salesman a very basic question. He said, “can you tell me what is the specialty of your new product”? The salesman was flummoxed. The customer repeated his question. The salesman chose to react with a silent, sympathetic smile. This told me all I needed to know about the company. I bought the crayons but was unable to find any difference between the new and the old. Perhaps there was no difference after all – just old wine in new bottles!
Make product knowledge training mandatory
The lesson here is clear – any member of staff who directly interacts with customers MUST know the most salient aspects of the product (or service) that the company offers. This is doubly important for new products, or more critically, venturing into new segments. There’s no excuse for not subjecting every employee of this nature to regular product awareness training. Because a sure-fire way to lose customers (and gain bad social media reviews), is for your front-line staff to be blissfully oblivious about what they’re selling.
Ashraaq Wahab - Director of Sales & Marketing and Technical - Hospitality Sri Lanka, Automotive Journalist, Marketer, Photographer and Writer, who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics.
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