Interested in Improving Customer Service? It All Starts with the Greeting
It is amazing how many businesses fail to implement a very basic and common sense business practice that is at the core of customer satisfaction and retention. Acknowledging customers immediately is one of the top criteria that prudent consumers have on their list of “Musts” in order for them to continue doing business with a particular vendor. It is a simple and easy process that can pay off immediately in more ways than one – and one of they may surprise you.
Increasing profits because customers feels valued and will readily spend their money with you, but also in a reduction of shoplifting because thieves are less likely to steal from businesses and stores that are actually paying attention to their customers.
When customers enter a place of business, they like to be acknowledged right away. Really, it’s just common courtesy to do this. When your friends come to your house, don’t you answer the door right away and greet them warmly? When your phone rings at home, don’t you instinctively drop whatever you are doing and scramble to get to the phone right away? Well, if you do these things for your friends, why not do the very same for your customers? Get this, your customers will even PAY you for it!! Really, they will.
A lack of acknowledgment is one of the highest rated pet peeves among consumers. The very fact that they want to be recognized right away and greeted in a genuinely appreciated way is high on their list of priorities. Now, there is a difference between a generic impersonal greeting and a genuinely warm greeting.
Urgency - It’s important to acknowledge and greet your customers immediately. Remember that ringing phone or doorbell at home? Well, that is now your customer and you need to rush to greet them. It lets them know that you place urgency on the fact that they chose to explore the option of doing business with you. Some offices have their front line staff answering phones as well as greeting physical customers. Just the mere fact that the staff smiles, makes eye contact, and nods in acknowledgment is enough in most customers perspective.
Make eye contact- Nothing says insincerity like the absence of eye contact. Customer service and satisfaction levels are directly correlated to direct eye contact.
Welcome them with your words - Greet your customers by saying hello, introducing yourself, and ask how you may help them. The key here is to make it genuine and match your tone of voice to your words. 
When you say “Hello, my name is Kristina. How may I help you today?” you need to sound like you really mean it. If you sound disinterested, your customers will pick up on it and take their money to someone who sounds like they mean what they say.
Convey confidence- When your customer states what they need, confidently let them know that they have come to the right place and that you can help them. Even if you don’t have the information or product they need, tell them that you can get it or direct them to someone who does. Even if it’s your competition that has exactly what they need, your customer will be blown away that you put their needs ahead of yours and will find ways to return to you. This is an approach that many are hesitant to try, but the rewards far outweigh the risk.
See a reduction in shoplifting- Stores that have greeters notice a dramatic drop in shoplifting. This is due to the fact that thieves want to blend into the background and not be noticed. When a greeter or store associate acknowledges them, the thief has lost a huge aspect of their plan. Research has shown that convicted shoplifters cited acknowledgment by employees would dramatically reduce the odds of them stealing from that place of business because they had now been seen. Bank robbery attempts have also been thwarted by their greeting policies as well.
An acknowledgment and proper greeting is not only common courtesy, but pays off in the long run because customers want to spend their money in businesses where they feel important and valued. It also is the starting point of building rapport and trust. Rapport and trust turn into relationships, and good business relationships are know for increasing profits.
