At the beginning of this blog I explained the importance of a strong and confident greeting when meeting customers. The same principle applies to the farewell, but with one main difference. When a customer leaves your business after making a purchase, it's nice to say, 'Goodbye. Hope to see you again soon', but it's also very important to thank the person for their business.
Consumers have choices and they know that they can decide where to spend their money. Like any conscious decision, it's good to feel that you have made the right one. Assuming that everything else goes smoothly in the transaction stage of a sale, all of the benefits can be lost in the closing stage.
It drives me crazy when I make a purchase and the person behind the counter doesn't even say 'Thank you', let along 'Goodbye'. They have moved on to the next customer and you have basically been dismissed. At this moment you know exactly where you stand in the importance scale to the person behind the cash register - nowhere.
My advice is simple: stop for a second, look the customer in the eye, thank them for their business and say 'Goodbye'. The 'thank you' needs to be sincere and focused, not just a throw-away line delivered while studying your fingernails and wondering what to have for lunch. I now stand at the counter and wait until I get a 'thank you', and on many occasions I have had to tell the shop assistant what I'm waiting for. Of course they look at me as if I'm deranged, and often they don't understand what the big deal is.
Poor service encourages more poor service. It is a cycle that makes people lose their enthusiasm for being friendly and trying that little bit harder. We have all been to a supermarket, where we tend to expect fairly ordinary service, only to be greeted by a bright and bubbly, young and enthusiastic checkout attendant who greets us sincerely, processes our goods, perhaps even engages in a little light conversation, thanks us for our business and wishes us all the best for the rest of the day. We leave these encounters feeling great. The same effort and energy needs to go into each sale and each face-to-face encounter, but it can't be forced and it has to be sincere.
A friend of mine purchased two paintings at an exhibition marking the opening of a small commercial gallery. The gallery owners not only sent her a card thanking her for purchasing the paintings, they also delivered them to her home, along with a bottle of champagne, and helped her to hang them.
Always remember to thank your customers for their business. If you find that your staff are forgetting to do this, pick them up on it immediately and don't let it become a bad habit. The same principle applies to telephone orders, Internet orders, wherever the business comes from - say 'thank you' and mean it.