Making a sale can be exciting. You and your staff may be tempted into pushing products for the sake of making a sale. However, the savvy shoppers frequenting boutiques today are not down for a push. They can generally tell when you're trying to sell them something that they may not need. The push itself can turn them off from ever wanting to shop at your store again. The returns and complaints could end up costing you more than you made from the product in the first place.
Learning how to work with your customers, instead of against them, can help you to create the bonds of trust that are needed to maintain a client/customer relationship. Think about why people come into your store. They may be there to browse, get their creative juices flowing, or they could be there looking for a specific product. The first thing that you should do is to put yourself into their shoes.
Let's say you walk into an interesting boutique for the first time. How would you like to be treated? You're looking around, appreciating an item here and there, all while soaking in the atmosphere and getting your footing. Do you really want someone to be in your face asking you a lot of questions, rattling off ten different specials, or wanting to walk around and shop with you while pushing every product? Of course not, who would?
The first thing you should do is let your customers start to get a feel for the store. Keep an eye out, just in case they are searching for something in particular and need assistance. After they've looked around a bit, you may then choose to make contact. People shop at boutiques for personalized service, not good sales skills.
Make sure that you are honest when you recommend products. It's okay to say so if you think that a certain product will not work for them. People appreciate honesty above and beyond anything else, especially when it comes to their decisions on whether or not to spend money.
One way to keep a "hands off" approach to your customer service is to set up the store in a way that is informative, non-intrusive, and easy to manage alone. Slatwall panels are useful for this, because slatwall displays put all of your merchandise in easy view. You can use mannequin forms and other slatwall accessories to show the customer what you would normally have to tell them. Using slatwall and creative displays can help get most of the work done for you, so that you can respect your customers' space and time. You'll be amazed at how much customers respond to personalized service as opposed to "in your face" sales approaches.
