Retail Sales 101
December 11th, 2008 Posted in PersonalToday I was doing some Christmas shopping… mainly to try to buy myself a wool coat… I got my eyes on this Hugo Boss coat but after shopping without success at Holt Renfew and the Hugo Boss shop, I went to Burberry and brought one of their Burberry Prorsum collection coat that is on sales for 60% off (Originally CAD1800… down to CAD720)… so a pretty good deal and I’ve got pretty good customer service from the Burberry sales stuff… which brings me to the point with regards to the sales staff at Holt Renfew and Hugo Boss (I think it is run by Harry Rosen)…
First off… at Holt Renfew… I enquire about this Hugo Boss Jacket… the sales staff simply told me that your size is not available after checking on his computer… he goes on to tell me that it is available at Edmonton and Toronto… now here is the deal… he does not offer any solutions… does he expect me to fly to Edmonton or Toronto to buy a Jacket? If I were him… I will offer have the stock transfer to the Vancouver shop… or I will start to offer other items to the customer… he simply did not do any of that and let me (a customer who is really looking for buy something) walk away… feeling very crappy about their service… To be honest, if you call yourself a luxury department store, you better offer luxury personalize service… not these half ass sales who is only interested in making commissions now…
Second at Hugo Boss, which I believe this shop is run by Harry Rosen as it is connected to the Harry Rosen shop… at this shop… the service is even worse… I have spotted the same Hugo Boss coat but different color (brown instead of black)… I enquire about the color that I want… the sales stuff simply said… this style in black has been sold out for about 2 months now… I ask him is there anything similar… he simply said no and didn’t seem to care… I am so unsatified with their service that I did not even bother to try on the brown…
The lesson learned… if I am the sales staff… I will have told immediately offer the customer an alternative choice… either an alternative design or an alternative color to try on… for most of the time, if a customer comes into a shop with a pretty good knowledge of your product, it probably mean that he have studied your product and are really interested in buying… so it is a wasted opportunities for the above companies… they could have had my business before I head over to Burberry… imagine if a sales staff can capture such sales half of the time, how much more business will that produce… a lot… so it is kinda crap that those sales staff are so poorly trained (probably not formally trained in sale at all… oh well… what can you do right? It is their loss…