Each Employee Is Responsible for Public Relations

Every customer’s experience with a business should be positive. The best way to create this ideal is to expect every employee to add value to a customer’s visit. An example of my point is found at Toys “R” Us, a toy store in Philadelphia. I have two children under 10 years of age, so I often shop at Toys “R” Us. Finding a specific toy can be a problem at some stores – but not at Toys “R” Us. I just ask a stock clerk for what I want, and the clerk leads me right to the toy. In most toy stores, the stock clerks feel their job is merely to keep the shelves stocked. At Toys “R” Us, the stock clerks not only keep the shelves stocked, they keep the customers happy.

The principle of each employee adding value to each customer contact becomes increasingly important for mid–and high-priced products. In fact, if you sell an expensive product, you don’t want employees just to help customers, you want them to go out of their way to help.

I personally believe department stores lose many sales because they ignore this

principle. When I walk into a large department store with fairly high-priced merchandise, I usually can’t find someone to wait on me. Well, it’s a fairly difficult decision to purchase something when I might be able to buy a similar item for less at another store. Although it’s possible that the department store has high-quality merchandise or better product back-up, the store didn’t have anyone there to tell me that.

Every customer contact with your business should be positive. That will only happen when every employee can offer value to a customer.