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THE FIFTH STAGE: THE KISS GOODBYE
A friend of mine told me this ridiculous but true story. He had run up quite a nice sale at a competitive store. The seller who helped him had been perfectly companionable, knew his product cold. He shared some amusing anecdotes, asked the right questions. In every sense, seller and customer were a good fit.
The instant the seller closed on the sale—and I do mean the very instant—the seller immediately checked his watch and said, “Sorry . . . Gotta go. All this took way longer than I thought, and it’s already past my lunch hour. I’m starving . . . I could eat a moose.”
With those rude parting words, he dashed off, all but leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.
Well, guess what? He had just ruined who knows how many sales. Not the current one. That was done. But any future sales, because my friend had no intention of calling on him again. He felt snubbed and, I dare say, used.
It’s not a good feeling.
That’s why I say, “Don’t be a magician.” I have nothing against magicians. I loved them as a kid and still find what they do amazing. But what I mean is, after you close a sale, don’t disappear as if you were never even there. You’ve completed a transaction, one, the hope is, that includes multiple items and that you’ve built on nicely. Does that mean your job is done and you can waltz off stage or disappear in a puff of smoke? Not in my book. Absolutely not!
Once you’ve closed, don’t just dump the person and point to the nearest cashier and go hunting for another customer. Or scamper off to lunch or to check Instagram. You may not realize it, but you’re still selling, right up until that customer has left the premises—and beyond.
The selling process never stops. Never ends. Not ever. It’s an ongoing activity.
You’ve still got a job to be done—what I call the Kiss Goodbye.
The idea is you’re “kissing” the customer goodbye for the day. If you neglect this aspect of the selling process, though, you risk kissing the customer goodbye forever.
I spoke earlier about the importance of first impressions. Well, last impressions also count. A lot!
PERSONALIZE THE CHECKOUT
First of all, once you’ve closed on the sale, you should personally escort the customer up to the checkout area, what we call the customer service desk in our stores, for the sale to be rung up. Here’s a tip I’ve found useful: try to walk side by side with the customer, never in front, for that gives the customer the feeling that you are leading or maybe a dash too much in control.
On the way, if you haven’t already, you should address delivery. Not just the delivery of the product to the customer’s home, if that’s what the customer prefers, but how soon the customer needs it if alterations are necessary. (Or, say, if you’re selling insurance, how soon the person needs the policy back.) Does the customer require the garments for a special event on the same day? Or three days away? Or a week? Find out. Don’t do it like some other stores, which simply display a big sign announcing “Alterations Feb. 18th.”
Of course, also see if the customer needs it gift wrapped for a birthday or an anniversary.
If you haven’t already done so, it is important to hand the customer your business card, and then nine times out of ten, the customer will give you his or hers, even before you get to the customer service desk. This is extremely important for generating future sales.
Now, as you are walking, begin to tell the customer again (and this is how in this stage you can make the customer feel special through a hug), “It’s going to be altered by Antonello by next Thursday. I want to be here so I can be sure you are extremely satisfied.”
The checkout area is an extremely important area, for it focuses on gathering data, processing the sale correctly, getting the right charge account, and ringing the credit card through. We have all been to stores, restaurants, and airlines and faced lines on top of lines on top of lines. All customers, even those who are retired and have nothing else scheduled, once they have made up their mind on their purchases, want to be checked out speedily and with graciousness. How well this goes reflects on not only the store but the seller.
That’s why sellers need to make a personal and warm “handoff” to the customer service person (or what some stores call the checkout person).
If it is a first-time customer, that all-important customer who’s seeing how good your game is for the first time, the hope is that the seller has the person’s name at this point, but you might not in a quick sale. So if you don’t, you say, “Your name is?” And then make a personal introduction: “Jim Frost meet Teresa Gonzales, head of customer service, who will ring you up.” Name recognition is the key way to connect and reconnect with customers. And remember, we like first names.
You want the customer service person to get the customer’s name for two reasons. With repeat customers, this allows that associate to check the profile of the customer. Second, it’s a warm way to begin ringing up the sale. At most places, the first question the customer hears at checkout is, “How are you going to pay?”
That’s not warm. That’s arctic cold.
And if they’re with a spouse or relative, introduce them too. They’re not steerage. Our best sellers always say to Teresa at the customer service desk, “Teresa, meet Connor, Chris’s son.”
Since we want everyone to know and greet customers, we expect our customer service people to learn names too. That way, they can say hello by name to regulars when they arrive with their purchases. Customer service associates should also listen to any dialogue between the salesperson and customer, such as, “I’m going to the West Indies,” or “This is a gift for my first cousin. He just got his first job.” Then they can put that into the computer in the customer’s profile. Anyone who gathers information can add to the profile.
We try to educate the customer service associates, if they honestly like what the customer is purchasing, to add a genuine compliment. For instance, “Wow, Jack, that shirt looks great with that suit. You’re going to love it.”
Then the customer service associates will start, along with your help, the final stages of writing the sale or ringing it up. And once again at the customer service desk, ask for information. We ask about the name first—not how you will pay! You must for sure get the full name and address, but you also want to get any nickname, email address, and phone numbers, especially cell phone. When you obtain this information, you are gathering data for the customer’s benefit!
In our system, if the customer service people notice on the customer’s profile that a key bit of information is missing, they ask for it and add it. If no birthday is listed, ask for it. So you don’t come off as nosy, explain why you are asking: “It’s because we sometimes have special events, and we sometimes send things on birthdays and anniversaries.” And be upbeat. If it turned out a birthday was the day before or the week before, say, “Oh, happy belated.”
As I’ve mentioned before, our sellers are afforded considerable latitude—to be themselves and to do what it takes to please customers. One technique we encourage them to use with a sale for made-to-measure or custom items specially ordered for them is simply to tell the customer, “We will order it for you, and we of course trust that you will pay when you come to pick up the purchase and it is perfect for you.”
Paul Mendelsohn, who was with us for us for 28 years before retiring and had the nickname the “Shirt Meister,” told me once how he used to do this. Say the customer had bought a coat. The customer invariably would say, “Don’t you want to be paid?”
And Paul would reply, “You are going to love the coat, and when it fits impeccably you can pay . . . and your handshake is a good enough down payment for us.”
That’s Selling the Hug Your Customers Way.
ONE FOR THE ROAD
If at all possible, the salesperson should stay with the customer throughout the ringing up of the sale and, if time permits, ask a few additional probing questions to build on the person’s profile.
Then, once the customer has left and if the seller doesn’t have another customer, the seller should go to the computer terminal and plug the newly acquired material into the customer’s information screen. Enter the little key things that matter. “Daughter named Sam. Dog is Muffy. Call only at work. Big fan of log pulling competitions.”
The seller always should make a written note to get additional items of clothing to add on and round out the wardrobe in future visits.
While the sale is being rung up, the seller should always offer the customers a water or beverage for the road. The hope is, you got them something to drink when they first arrived, as I stressed in the first stage of the process, but now is the time to see if they want a refill or a drink to take with them. The gesture is as important as the actual beverage, if not more so.
There was a revealing study done about waiters bringing mints to diners and the impact on the amount a diner tipped. Various scenarios were tested—no mint, one mint, two mints. As the waiter went up the mint ladder, tips improved. But the biggest increase occurred when a waiter brought two mints, then returned to see if the customer wished two more. That follow-up gesture was what seemed to really resonate with customers.
While you’re at it, ask if they care to use the bathroom before leaving. We pride ourselves on the cleanliness and decor of our bathrooms. We even got an award in Westport for having the best bathrooms. Remember, don’t point. Walk the customer to the bathroom. Bathrooms reflect on the selling process, too.
And I want to emphasize again that speed is important at this point. Most customers, if they are not pressed for time, will schmooze and listen and learn about new garments and try different items on during the earlier stages. However, once they have decided they are finished and their buying mood is over, something clicks off in their mind, and they want to get out quickly. So the formalities at customer service have to be done efficiently. No lines, not much small talk. Just get it done!
GET PERMISSION TO CALL TO RECONNECT
During this speedy and efficient checkout, you should always let the customer know that you will be following up with an alteration or satisfaction call or email or text. You might explain, “I will be calling you when the alterations are completed, so I’ll make sure that I will be here to see that your clothing is impeccable.” Or “Is it OK from time to time if I give you a call when the new polo shirts or skirts come in?” Or “I always like to make sure you are completely satisfied, so I will be calling you to see how everything worked out, OK?” Or “I’m going to be in touch with you after the big meeting to make sure everything went well.”
Getting permission in this comfortable, casual way—and showing that you care about the customers and their purchases—reinforces the personal relationship. Try to ask permission in a way that will elicit, “Of course, I’d love to hear from you.” Then you can say, “What is the best number to use—your cell or your office number?” I find it’s always best to try to call at the office. So the simplest question is, “What’s the best daytime number for me to reach you or your assistant?” (Do not say “secretary.” It’s old-fashioned and often a put-down.) And make sure you do it—make the call.
What I’ve found is that people almost always say sure when you ask their permission. A big reason why is that they don’t actually expect you to call. When was the last time you got a thank you and a satisfaction call for buying some trousers? How often has a car salesperson or an appliance salesperson ever called you? A furniture salesperson? The guy from the septic service? The only people who call are debt collectors or fund-raisers.
Well, we are not perfect, but when our sellers say they will call, they do make the call. That’s personal connection.
And while you are obtaining this permission to reconnect, you should be smiling, and that encourages the customer to be smiling. You have made a new friend who is on the way to becoming a client for life.
There are five ways of communicating between a customer and a seller, and all of them are appropriate so long as the customer has given you permission. They are:
1. In person
2. Telephone (or video chatting through Skype or FaceTime)
2. Email/text (including via Facebook)
2. Handwritten note
4. Typed note
My strong belief is that you should try to determine which of these five the customer would prefer. Actually, it really boils down to which the person favors among the first three, since everyone in my opinion loves occasionally getting a personal handwritten note or a typed note with a personal word or phrase signed with a real ink pen.
If the customer offers no preference, then I strongly recommend the telephone, because it allows a two-way interactive conversation. And if you get the customer’s cell, that means he or she gives you permission to call when appropriate. Don’t just settle on the one you like; think what the customer likes first.
My son Russ commented recently, “Just think if the telephone were invented after emails. We would all be phoning. It would be exciting to hear the other person’s voice. A live two-way exchange!”
Yet more and more customers, especially younger ones, far prefer email or text. So be it. You do what the customer likes. If you are communicating by email or text, however, it is imperative that you answer as fast as possible (of course, that also goes for returning a phone call). I don’t mean within nanoseconds, but unless something important is really tying you up, it ought to be within an hour or so.
How often you call or email is up to each seller. But instantaneous response is very important in selling, getting right back to someone and letting the person hear from you soon after a visit.
Joe Durst, one of our leading sales associates in California, makes a habit of calling 20 minutes after every sale he makes. OK, maybe not to everyone, but that’s what he tries to do. Not to engage in any deep conversation or to say thank you for buying the shirt, but just to say something like, “Hi Charlie, it’s Joe at Wilkes. Really had fun working with you today. It was great to hear that story about your kids.” Or “Had lots of fun with you. I know you will love that new sport coat, especially when you visit Samantha in Paris.” He makes it personal, and it comes naturally to him.
I have heard customers say kiddingly about Joe, “Gosh darn it, I know he is going to call, and I almost don’t pick up the phone; but I love Joe, and so I talk to him because I know he cares about me and my family.”
He sure does.
And Faran will walk you to your car, and Sheree writes handwritten thank you notes on her special note cards.
THIRD TIME THE CHARM
With customers on their first few visits to the store, it’s especially critical to make the entire visit a joy and then to wrap it up in a really positive way. They’re doubtlessly shopping at other places or one other favorite place or investing their money with several other wealth managers, and you don’t want to lose those customers. Rather, your vision is to convince them to do all their business with you.
But on these initial visits, you’re still cultivating a relationship. Trust and respect require several encounters to take root and blossom. Despite the phenomenon of “love at first sight,” it’s not common for someone to become a friend with a new acquaintance on first meeting.
My personal theory is that it takes at least three fabulous visits, where you move from wow to Wow to WOW, to break a customer’s shopping habits at another store so that the person develops an enduring bond with the seller and the store, often for life. It’s similar to how friendships evolve.
There is no magic third-visit rule that I can prove. But that’s been my own experience and that of sellers I’ve polled on the issue. Also, we hired an outside group of experts to do some analytics for us, and they did confirm from their own surveying that at three visits customers tend to meet other happy caring sales associates—and, we hope, a manager or owner—and then tend to become hooked. Often they become loyal customers and often very big customers (whom we internally call “superclients”). Once in a while it happens after just one visit, and of course it can take longer, but the third visit seems to be a magic one for most customers.
When this magic moment occurs, then the whole selling model changes. Regular customers who become elite clients buy more. Therefore the business needs fewer sellers. For the business, that means less sales compensation and expenses, even while paying the great sellers more money. (They like the hug.)
We like to call it more with less.
Another thing that we learned from this analytical group is that it seems that the more people that help the customer, the stronger the relationship that develops with the store as well as the primary associate. In other words, if Joe helps customer Sam, and then if sales associates Norberto and Sarah pitch in from time to time, all of a sudden Sam may remember these other sellers as well as Joe . . . of course also the fitter Tullio and the jewelry specialist Naki for his wife. Sort of like knowing everyone’s family members in the home of a neighbor or friend that you are visiting.
Because it’s so critical to get those three visits that cement a relationship, you should never give up on customers that at first seem difficult. Every seller has customers that seem to take forever to win over.
The other Saturday, one of our sellers urged me to go over to visit with a new customer and “do your greeting magic.” Off I went. We had a nice, polite exchange of courtesies, but it was quite clear he was “closed” regarding sharing any personal information. It would have taken a crowbar and perhaps some dynamite to get anything out of him. I backed off and didn’t push things. The seller later said he was a “little warmer,” but he very much remains a work in process. We will keep at it. Of course I Googled him and found out quite a bit about him—one of the wealthiest executives in Connecticut!
There are always the hard-to-please customers. Many sellers at other businesses simply write them off and just go through the motions. Our sellers actually enjoy the challenge of difficult customers. They just have to find their sweet spot—and believe me, everyone has one. As Jose Luis Rios, the store manager at Santa Eulalia, a spectacular clothing store in Barcelona, told me once, “There are no difficult customers, just inexperienced sellers.”
During my entire career on the selling floor, I think I’ve only thrown out three customers, and they were drunk or had obvious substance abuse problems. They were verbally abusive, and after mentioning that I was one of the owners, I told them, “Please, this is not the kind of language or behavior that we find acceptable in our home, our store. Please leave our store.”
The secret is to look hard for this sweet spot for demanding customers. What are they being demanding about? The break in their trousers, the shortening of the collar, not getting a discount even though they paid cash? Usually, in the latter case, you can respond by giving them an alternative service. You might say, “We are not going to give you a discount on this suit because it is the same price for everyone, but I notice you like this tie I’m wearing; please take it as a gift on us.”
Since we have deep respect for our sellers, we stand behind them and don’t go over their heads and give in to a demanding customer. What we try to do sometimes is go off the floor and talk to our associate or tailor, whoever is having the disagreement, and see if we can’t come up with a solution that’s a win/win/win.
I had a conversation one afternoon with Judy Brooks, one of our most skilled sellers, about what you do when a customer seems to be in a foul mood. She said, “You can let the person know what is going on, maybe like today we have a designer sale going on. Tell the customer, ‘Enjoy it. Take a few minutes and browse. I am here if you need me.’ And then try to reapproach. But keep your distance.”
“How do you reapproach?” I asked.
“Carefully and respectfully,” she said. “Are you finding everything you need? Have you seen anything you like? Is there anything you are looking for in particular that I can help with?”
You gauge the mood. Maybe now the cloud has lifted. And maybe it hasn’t. That’s OK. Back off. As long as you treated the person gingerly and with respect, the odds are he or she will be back. There’s always another day.
TREAT EVERYONE THE SAME, NOT 20 PERCENT
The more your customers shop with you, the better you know them. The better you know them, the deeper the personal relationship becomes. Indeed, as I keep saying, you often become friends.
Yet one of the trickiest areas of selling is the emphasis you place on different customers. Though almost all businesses seem to do it, it’s always a mistake in the long run to coddle your big hitters and underperform for your customers who just bunt to get on.
There’s a well-known rule in business circles known as the 80–20 rule. It’s formally known as the Pareto principle, or the law of the vital few, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Back in the early 1900s, he discovered that 80 percent of the peas in his garden were held by just 20 percent of the pea pods. He went on to find that 80 percent of all the land in Italy was in the hands of only 20 percent of the population. And voilà, he had a theory.
In time, a standard operating principle in the business world, verified time and again, became that 20 percent of your customers produced 80 percent of your sales. I know that’s very much the case in our stores. (It was precisely 83.2 percent last time I checked.)
What that has meant for many business leaders is a conscious decision to focus much more heavily on that special 20 percent that produced the lion’s share of sales and to pay less attention to the other 80 percent. It’s understandable that they would do so, since losing any of that 20 percent would have a magnified impact on their bottom line.
We, too, pay a great deal of attention to our top customers who cluster inside that 20 percent. But where we differ from most businesses is that we really try hard to treat the other 80 percent in the same over-the-top, hugging manner. My conviction is that all sellers should make sure they don’t underserve the 80 percent. You need to hug everyone—100 percent of your customers. There’s absolutely no need to ration hugs. There’s no scarcity—and most hugs are free!
And it’s just the right thing to do. A new customer we had not long ago shared how he loved the way he was treated by our sales associate, even though all he had bought was a single sport shirt. He said it made him feel great, and he looked forward to coming back.
How can you develop relationships with customers if you segment them by how much they spend? What are you going to do—give a personalized greeting to one person but not to another? Smile broadly to your big hitter and then give a little wave to your smaller spender? Say, “Hello, Sharlene, how was your quilt fair?” to a 20 percenter and then give a gruff, “Hey you, whatever your name is,” to an 80 percenter? It gets awfully confusing. And downright insulting.
And let’s face it—people climb the ladder. A recent college graduate is naturally going to be in your 80 percent. But a few years down the road, after a couple of promotions, he or she becomes a 20 percenter. Do you think people will forget how they were treated when they were one of the 80 percent?
And—guess what—80 percenters don’t all hang out with other 80 percenters, and 20 percenters don’t all congregate only among their own rarefied ranks. You can bet that pretty much every 80 percenter knows 20 percenters. That recent college graduate has parents who probably spend a lot more than their child does at businesses that treat everyone in the family right. And aunts and uncles. How about the new graduate’s boss? Colleagues at work? If you treat smaller spenders exceptionally well, their word of mouth often leads to new 20 percenters gravitating to your business.
I heard a story about a young man who shopped at a particular store. Never bought much. Came in maybe once every few months. But he was treated like a prince. After a couple of years, the business noticed an influx of customers that were not only loyal but quite generous spenders. And it learned that all of them had been referred by this one man.
He had joined the chorus at his local church. He literally sang the praises of the business.
WALK THEM RIGHT TO THE CAR
Once your customer’s purchases have been rung up efficiently, you should obviously excuse yourself if you have another customer and politely say goodbye. In these cases, thank the customers for their beautiful purchases. Say you hope to see them again soon. Then once again set them up with a next step: “I will be calling you in a week or two to see how that suit performed at that meeting you have coming up. Is that OK?”
When customers walk out, everyone they pass should bid them goodbye and thank them for coming, even if their hands are empty.
If you don’t have another customer waiting, then you should walk your customers to the door and, to use my brother Bill’s great expression, “kiss them goodbye” by giving them the simple courtesy of a “Thank you very, very much. It was a real pleasure to meet you.” Or with a regular customer, replace “to meet you” with “to see you again.”
Bill loves to take customers right to their cars, open the trunk, put the items in, and give them a physical hug goodbye. And he’s right to do so and absolutely great at it. With a woman carrying lots of garment bags, he or I or one of our associates will always take the bags out of her hands and walk her to her car. Both of us at our San Francisco store have taken women across to the parking garage or their hotels or had their merchandise delivered to their hotels.
A friend who is in the private equity business told me some advice he got when he first started out at a big investment banking firm: “The big boss pulled me aside one day, right after we had made a pitch in his office, and said, ‘Take this gentleman—our potential customer—down on the elevator and walk him slowly to the door.’ When I returned, he asked, ‘What did you learn?’ And I was truly amazed, because I actually learned more about him as a person and his feelings regarding the deal than we had in our cold offices! So I always, from that day forward, walked the client to the door via the elevator!”
It’s all about learning more and engaging more, and it’s essential to make not only a good first impression but also a good last impression. Last impressions are superimportant in their own right. But if the first impression for some reason didn’t go quite as well as you had hoped it would, here’s the best time to correct it.
Nothing does it better than the simple words, “Thank you.”
How many times have you been in a restaurant or a hotel and you spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars, and no one said thank you? Then the next day you get an email with a survey. I mean, who are they kidding?
I try to stress all the time to the sellers that they should always deliver one extra hug to their customers, exceeding their expectations every single time they shop.
You want to dig in and find at least one personal issue—a human connection—whether it be a marriage, a death, twins, love of sports or theater or travel, and make that part of “kissing” them goodbye.
If you walk a customer to the car, you will likely see evidence such as a child seat or bumper sticker that will afford additional insight that you can use to build a conversation.
That way, believe it or not, the customer will actually be thanking you for the visit and for being allowed to buy the sport coat or the dress or the kitchen cabinets. The goal is that when the customer gets home, he or she thinks, “That was a wonderful shopping experience. I love those people at Mitchells. I think I will come back again.”
Any little nicety can make a difference. In the early days of our business, when Nevada was really one of the only states to gamble, especially in Las Vegas or Reno, I used to give a customer five silver dollars and say, “Have fun, and put them on red in roulette.” That always triggered lots of smiles as I bid the customer a good luck goodbye with his (or her) new gambling duds on purchased at our store Mitchells in Westport.
And the vast majority of the time the customer would return and hand me $10 back, and I’d give back half of it. Or the customer would say, “Had a great time, but I lost your silver dollars.”
It was all a nice bit of fun, resulting in a happy customer bonded to the store!
LIKE TOMMY, YOU WANT THEIR REFERRALS
One morning, I got a quick haircut from Tommy, the barber, who has been in business since 1959, one year after we started. Tommy’s been a generational fixture. Dad went to him, and I’ve been going to him forever. In his final days, when Dad was too feeble to come into the barbershop, Tommy went to his home and cut his hair there. That’s a true seller and a true friend.
I began talking to Tommy about selling, and he said, “I will never forget your dad’s message when I opened. It was only six months or a year after your store opened, and I was cutting your dad’s hair, and I said, ‘You know, Mr. Mitchell, I don’t know if I am going to make it here in town.’ And he said right back, ‘Tommy, don’t worry about things, I know a lot of people in town, and I’ve got a big mouth. I will spread the word that you are the place to get a haircut.’”
And Dad sure delivered on that promise. Dad was an unabashed seller of the things he believed in. Not just shoes and socks. But people. When he believed in you, he sold you to everyone he knew.
And the truth is, while of course we’ve sent Tommy many customers, he has also sent an unbelievable number of customers to us. Probably thousands.
Referrals are powerful, because they come with a personal stamp of approval. I’m convinced that word of mouth is still the best advertising there is!
That’s the reason you want to give a good first impression, middle impression, and last impression. Sellers live or die on customers referring their friends, colleagues, second cousins, and chiropractors to their business. We sure depend on these referrals at our stores. At some point during the selling process, once the seller and customer have established a relationship and the customer is saying, “Thank you, Sarah,” a great seller then can say in return, “You know what would really be wonderful is if you could refer your best friends and associates to shop with me so my business at Richards can grow and prosper.”
And that’s always a good way to wind up the Kiss Goodbye stage, whether you’re at the checkout counter or in the parking lot helping the customers squeeze their parcels into the trunk. Ask them, politely, to spread the word.
And then whenever first-time customers come in, don’t forget to ask them what prompted their visit. An ad they saw in the newspaper? Or was it a referral from a friend? If it was a referral, ask the person’s name and note it. Then thank that person when you see him or her: “Thank you for suggesting that Ray come in to Mitchells and ask for me.” Then hug the person with that one final personalized message: “Hope Sally’s lacrosse game goes well” or “Have fun on your vacation to Chattanooga.”
THE KISS GOODBYE RECAP
• Don’t desert your customers once they’ve agreed to buy something, but escort them to the checkout and introduce them by name to the cashier.
• Ask permission to call or email to follow up—this sets up the return visit.
• Try to treat everyone the same, with extraordinary service—the 80 percent as well as the 20 percent.
• Walk customers out—help them with their packages, even right to the car.
• Ask customers to tell their friends and business associates about the personalized customer service and to refer them to your business, which means new business.