Closing Time And Employee Engagement October 21, 2011
Posted by Kevin Burns in build a better workplace.trackback
“We’re closing in five minutes!!!!”
How many times have you been told that by “customer service” personnel (yes I used quotations on purpose)?
I have even been yelled at upon entering the store twenty-five minutes before closing. What does that say about the staff? Worse yet, what does that say about management that lets staff get away with, in essence, saying, “your needs are less important than me getting out of here so hurry up Buster.”
While looking at expensive dishes in a small, Independant store, I was approached hurriedly by the sales clerk who seemed impatient that we were still in the store so close to closing time.
Exasperated she exclaimed, ” we are closing in like two minutes.”
I immediately shot back, “we’ll leave then” looking her square in the eye.
She backpedaled making some lame apology. Too late. I didn’t want to buy here anymore.
The evidence in retail establishments is staggering but this happens in every organization: people who don’t want to start something that they know they can’t finish before closing time. Clock watchers are time-thieves. They cost your organization money and productivity and take a big bite out of a culture that claims to be customer-focused.
How your people handle the end of the day is more tell-tale than how they handle the start of the day – especially around engagement.
If you, as a customer, get the warning that they will soon be closing, walk away. You deserve to be treated better. Besides, there’s a huge difference between locking the doors and being “closed.”
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Your viewpoint might be a little oversimplified.
While courtesy is always an expectation, I cannot fault staff who advise me that the store will soon be closing. I’ve been on both sides of the equation.
I worked for a large chain department store. At closing time, many ‘time-sensitive’ tasks get initiated; the store must be checked to ensure that no unauthorized people are remaining behind (not all people enter a store at or near closing time with good intention), tills must be shut down and emptied of cash, the cash must be moved to the back office so that the daily deposit can be made, staff must get ready to leave (they might have other time commitments – known to, and agreed with, by the employer). The list can be long.
As a customer, I sometimes know that I’m ‘cutting it thin’ when I enter a store five or ten minutes before closing. Sometimes, I know exactly what I need and where to find it. Other times, I might get ‘stymied’ by an ‘option’ or a ‘choice’ that I did not take into account (are the ‘longer-life’ shingles worth the extra cost? Should I buy the ‘jumbo pack’ at a lesser cost per unit even though I may never use them all?)
Sometimes, I know – even as I enter the store – that I have not allowed enough time to complete my transaction before the store closes. Maybe, I didn’t anticipate just how long it might take to load a cart or that I might need assistance with transferring my purchase to my vehicle.
When I am advised that a store will soon be closing, it can ‘spur me along’ in the decision process (obviously, I started the ‘shopping’ task before I had completed the ‘materials requirement’ research) and get me ‘moving along the project path’.
I have even experienced the feeling of being ‘trapped’ by an overly eager sales consultant who felt it necessary to describe all kinds of options, pros and cons, of various products – even when the store was getting ready to close. I wanted to leave, but they wanted to make sure that I had ‘all the facts’.
Every customer encounter is different. Sometimes, the good employee is the one who tells you that it’s time for you to leave.
John, thanks for your input. I don’t think my viewpoint is oversimplified. In fact, I think my viewpoint is deeper than most managers’ viewpoint. Although I used retail as my example, the point really is people who use closing time as a reason to give the bum’s rush to customers. Yes, there are always exceptions. But mall stores that start closing their doors 10 minutes before closing and dollar stores that yell at you across the room that they will be closing in 25 minutes, send the wrong signal. In a time when competition is fierce, this should not be the time to push your customers out of the way so you can go hang out with friends.
If you constantly have customers hanging around after closing, then I would suggest you need to re-consider your hours. Obviously, you could do some serious business if you were open later. Perhaps re-staff in letting most staff go but scheduling one or two personnel to stay an extra half-hour (instead of off-shift at 6, make it 6:30) which allows them to close AFTER customers have left and not while they are still in the store – which is exactly how most are doing it now. They start closing before they are closed. Wrong attitude. How many times have I seen staff congregated at the front of the store not willing to help customers because it was NEAR closing time. I would encourage businesses to have a clerk paired with a customer near closing time to, as put it, “spur me along” in my purchasing decisions. Near closing time, no clerk should be idle. Every one should be engaged with a customer. Even in bookstores (notorious for hanging out after), clerks should be “helping” customers find something suitable. Over-helping is better than yelling “get out.”
In non-retail environments, people who start packing up their things 20-30 minutes before quitting-time are robbing you of productivity – meaning your people are quitting before you’re closed for the day – signalling that you have a serious problem that needs dealing with.
Yes, every customer encounter is different but I encourage every business to look for the similarities and deal with those. Thanks again for your points.