Badly Trained Customers

Badly trained customers We all have them. Time bandits who suck the minutes or even hours out of our day. People who never purchase anything unless it’s at a deep discount. Those who continue to shop at your store yet complain every time they come in.

You know who I’m talking about. I know it’s frustrating, but quite frankly, you’ve allowed them to get away with this behavior. Now you have to retrain them.

Here are a few examples of badly trained customer situations I’ve worked with:

Breakfast restaurant – consistently promoted 99 cent breakfast coupons and over the years, nearly 80 percent of their very unprofitable breakfast business was dining for under a buck!

An Italian restaurant - allowed customers to use discount coupons on top of the early bird pricing rendering the profit from that business at virtually zero.

Cartridge refill company – in a desperate effort to keep customers, would deliver $10 ink cartridges anytime, anywhere, regardless of the size of the order.

Mother of the Bride dress store – would spend an unlimited amount of time with customers who couldn’t make up their minds and ultimately, didn’t buy.

What can you do with these badly trained customers? Fire them! I know that sounds crazy. You’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I can’t afford to lose business!” But think about it. You’re really not losing anything. In the case of the restaurants, the business was simply unprofitable. In both the instances above, we pulled the coupons and yes, some customers did get angry and stopped coming. But labor costs went down and most importantly, gross profitability went up. Over time, with some strategic promotion, we were able to rebuild the business with full price or reasonably discounted business.

I know it’s scary but I also know you didn’t go into business to work for free. In the case of the ink cartridge company, we didn’t eliminate the delivery service, we just managed it better. The owners created a delivery schedule three mornings per week. They were able to schedule staff properly and make the deliveries in an orderly

For the Mother of the Bride store, we had to retrain the sales staff who operated in fear they would upset or turn off a customer. We simply set a time limit of one hour for visitors who came without an appointment. If, at the end of the hour, the sales associate sensed the guest was indecisive or just needed attention, they were trained to say, “It seems you are going to need more time to make your decision. I’m going to suggest making an appointment at another time so I can give you my undivided attention. I am here on Tuesday and Thursday. Which is better for you?” Rather than leaving the customer feeling rejected, it enforced the credibility of the salesperson as an in-demand advisor who took their customer’s satisfaction seriously.

Remember, your job is to reward good customer behavior. Where are badly trained customers eating into your business? Don’t be afraid to make a plan to retrain or replace them.

Until next time, remember
You can do this!
Angel