A couple of basics, just as a reminder:

How's the view?

Have you seen the view that your customer has when paying for a purchase? Sometimes it is not pretty at all.

We see our surroundings all the time and might not really see what's there. Think - tangled cables, used staples and paper clips, old pens and pencils, rubber bands and just about anything else you can think of. The worst part is that all of these things look even worse when they are coated in dust...which is not unusual.

Another thing that often goes unnoticed by management, but certainly not by customers, is the dust that gathers in the air vents on your POS equipment.

As part of your morning opening routine, you should stand in the position that your customers are in when they are purchasing. Take a good look around. Check out the cash desk, the wall or windows behind the desk, the ceiling immediately overhead, the floor and the POS equipment.

If you don't like what you see, you know what to do!

Don't Let This Happen in Your Store!

The setting: A busy clothing store. The Store Manager is serving a customer. A mature, part-time employee who has been with the company for several years comes to the cash desk with her customer.

The background: The customer was making a return of merchandise she had purchased at another store. The part-time employee spent a few minutes assisting the customer - showing her merchandise. She successfully turned the return into an exchange for a different item. So far, so good.

But now:

The comment from the part-time employee to the Manager, in the presence of the customer: "This return is from another store-how do I ring this in so I get credit for the sale? I'm the one who spent time with this customer."

What was she thinking?

The question was reasonable but certainly not in front of the customer. Most retail employees, whose compensation is in any way tied to their personal sales and productivity, want to ensure that their transactions are accurately recorded. That is understandable and, in fact, expected. Even if the company does not manage to credit the associate in this type of scenario, that's something to be discussed between the associate and her Manager in private. The Store Manager absolutely must ensure that employees 1) are aware of how to process transactions correctly and 2) realize that questions/discussions of this nature are for store employees ears only.

The point to be made here is this: Make sure your employees understand that discussions in front of the customer must never, never, never include any reference to employee commissions, bonuses, rewards, incentives, credit for the sale or anything similar. The internal operations of the company/store should never be discussed in front of customers.