This weekend I visited the Madison location of popular ladies retailer Anthropologie. I can't help but compare other stores to mine and this was no exception. What I noticed most distinctly was the staffing organization. Each employee had a role throughout the store and they seemed to rotate periodically.
Other retail workers, please feel free to chime in, but I'm guessing this is how most other stores are set up: Someone on the registers, someone manning the dressing rooms, someone restocking replenishment, a couple of floaters, etc. No one was really selling. This seemed strange to me because my store is the complete opposite. Everyone is selling first and performing other various tasks around the department second.
As a salesperson I individually take on each of the roles demonstrated at Anthro by several people. We call it "seamless selling:" the ability to take someone around the floor, put them in a dressing room, check them out, and set the foundation for a beautiful friendship. Welcome to relationship-building. And yet, I was fine being handed off to different members of their team. One person greeted us, another offered to start a dressing room and periodically checked on us to take additional items, another offered opinions and help at the dressing rooms, and still another checked us out. Did we forge any friendships? No. Did we get decent service? Yes. Would we have bought more if a salesperson was doing everything for us as well as suggesting additional items? Possibly. But not necessarily. Without such a salesperson, we also didn't feel any pressure. As an invested salesperson I always try to be as light and and non-confrontational with my customers as possible, but I'm sure just having me around makes at least some people feel a little pressure.
I will probably speak much more in the future about commission vs. non-commission as it relates to the selling and shopping experience. There are obviously pros and cons for each retail environment, and it will be interesting to tease those out a bit more. Comments, criticisms and insights are more than welcome.
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ReplyDeleteAt my Gap, the first thing we learn is sales. Rookie salespeople have to spend some time on the salesfloor before being able to work the register.
ReplyDeleteAfter you've been there for a while, you are actually assigned an area--cashwrap, fitting rooms, floor...and are supposed to stay there until a manager says otherwise.
For a store with no commission, I feel this is pretty smart. In the part of town I work in, ladies are used to sales people being able to do everything; while we aren't always able to provide the customer service of some particular stores in the LA area, we do try to go above the norm.