Leaving before being served
Have you ever walked into a shop or restaurant and left before you were served? I have…and as I recall…many times. Mostly, these were in places that had a product or service that I was looking out for, and, where, I was enticed to enter the shop or restaurant by what I saw from the outside.
As you know, Shop windows are what get people to walk into the shop in the first place. It therefore defies logic when shop operators after spending a vast amount of money for a ‘killer’ window display, allow bored-looking or untrained staff to ‘kill’ potential business.
I’m simply amazed by the sheer lack of eagerness or uneasiness or call it whatever you like, that staff in shops show when facing a potential customer. Contrary to belief, greeting the customer is not the first step of service. It is showing an ‘eagerness to serve’ followed by the greeting. The majority of customers can sense that level of eagerness to serve. If it is low, and, if I, as the customer am made to feel unwelcome, that’s when I leave the establishment.
Take for example, a smiling waiter walking briskly towards your table in the restaurant, making eye contact and eager to serve. Doesn’t this convey a positive sense of welcome ; even before he greets you? It certainly does. Contrast this with a glum looking waiter shuffling slowly to your table with body language that yells ‘get out’. Does it not dampen your expectations of a good dining experience? It certainly would…and may be the red flag to leave.
Even if one considers ‘greeting the customer’ as the first step in service - it seldom or in the majority of cases never happens. To put it to test, I recently visited an upscale shopping mall where I decided to keep track of how many times I said ‘Hello’ before the store employee did. To be fair, I made sure that the staff saw me and had adequate opportunity to greet me first, by waiting for over 15 seconds in full view of the employee.
In 4 out of 5 stores, I was the one who had to say ‘hello’ in order to draw the employee’s attention that I was physically in their store. That’s really bad and… sad.
Stores owners, have you ever wondered why people walk into your store, look around for a short time and then leave? Surely, they must have come in for a reason? Why did they leave without buying something? You’ll never know…because you probably don’t bother to find out. If you don’t care…why then should your employees?
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex- Hotelier
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