Treating your customers with respect is a theme that is repeated throughout this blog, and for a very good reason. If you and your staff don't treat your customers with the respect that they deserve, they will go elsewhere. From a business owner's point of view, this can be financially devastating. It's important for staff members to realize the importance of respecting your customers and the ramifications if they don't (for example, they may lose their jobs because the business goes belly-up).e
I often see businesses that have been fitted out at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are situated in prime locations, and are well stocked with competitively priced goods. Everything is in their favour when it comes to succeeding, except there is a sales attendant behind the counter with a bad attitude. A sales attendant who ignores the customers or is disrespectful to them can cost a business a fortune in lost sales, both on the spot and with future sales. The state-of-the-art fit out and prime location are a complete waste of time and money if the person on the cash register has little or no respect for the business's customers.
Bad experiences create far more word-of-mouth advertising than good experiences. It's unfortunate, but it's a fact of life. As customers we have a very advanced and active underground propaganda network that identifies and singles out businesses that are notorious for providing bad service with a bad attitude.
As a business owner or manager, it's to your benefit to sit your staff down and explain to them the long-term effects of poor customer service. They need to be made very aware that their actions can impact on a lot of other people - namely, the other staff who may lose their jobs if the business isn't performing financially.
From my own experience, when you do sit people down and explain the ramifications of their actions they are often horrified, not realizing the impact that they were having. Perhaps they were having a bad day, possibly due to problems at home. If you explain to them the long-term important of treating customers with respect, most staff members will react positively and hopefully a change in attitude will follow.
Any member of a team with a bad attitude towards customers who cannot be reasoned with should have a short and very limited life in any organization that wants to grow and be profitable.
Remember that every time a customer walks through the door, the first word that should come into everyone's mind is respect.