Customer service, customer delight. How do you bring the concept truly home to your staff or volunteers?
We talk, we train, we give them materials that will, we hope, show our shop crew the importance of customer happiness. Although customer service is stated as a priority and everyone talks about it, staff are very rarely evaluated and rewarded based directly on customer satisfaction. Instead, we measure sales, shrinkage, etc.
If customers are the recipients of the efforts by store staff, shouldn’t they be evaluating your service?
One simple idea to involve the customers in a recognition and reward program for the store staff involves the use of star shaped badges or tokens.
Every customer entering a store is given 2 or 3 star shaped badges or tokens. They are requested to hand over 1, 2 or all 3 of these stars to any staff members who have been very helpful and served them well.
However, if they decide that the shop experience, while “nice enough”, is not particularly “star-worthy”, they are asked to drop the star tokens into a box at the counter “for recycling.”
Every so often: once a week? every two weeks?, the stars are tallied and those staffers who’ve accumulated, through their stellar service, the most tokens, are rewarded and recognized. Very soon, the staff would realize that customers need to be happy to get that reward and they will work for that. This in turn will make the customers happy.
In a wonderful cause >effect way, happy customers tend to make the staff feel motivated and the level of service is bound to go up.
Would this start a positive cycle of better customer service? Worth trying out at your store? Tell us what you think, or if you think the idea is a fizzle. (You can mention the 2 word plays in the article too if you like 😉 )
The article that inspired this idea is here.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
We are lucky to have volunteers that always greet the customers and offer to help them. When they were “hired” I told them to be friendly with the customers, as that is one thing we have always offered since I started managing a few months after the store opened. When our one part-time person started, I also told her that customer service is paramount. She’s very friendly and attentive, and does a great job. I’ve volunteered at a few nonprofit resale shops that were known for their poor customer service, and I didn’t want ours to be known for that, too. Not everyone is going to like our merchandise, but at least they’ll like our friendliness.
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I, personally, would not like to be given a job as a customer. I already have a lot on my mind as I shop, and at most places, I need a rewards card, a way to ramp up points, a receipt a mile long with “deals” from my previous shopping experience, coupons to potentially utilize, etc., etc. And much of the time in our store, customers are rallying kids. Sometimes it’s more of a chore to shop. That said, I like the idea a lot. But I may just offer a basket at the front of the store for customers to access if desired. Regulars will enjoy the fun. A mention of the basket to new customers is enough, I think.
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