Handling Special Retail Orders with Customer Call Backs
In the most perfect world you would always have every item your customer wants to buy in stock when they want to buy it. Using your Assortment Planning kit and the Inventory Management kit from The Retail Mastery System will help you get closer to that ideal.
But let’s face it, sometimes you will run out of best sellers or underestimate retail customer demand for a certain product.
I consider “special orders” as orders for merchandise that you don’t normally carry in your regular retail assortment.
But what about the customer that wants something that is on order but it hasn’t arrived yet? That’s not a special order, but you do need a system for capturing the customer request and calling them when the item arrives in the store.
We recommend a Customer Call Back log. It works wonders and any employee can take care of the customer. It makes it easy to give great retail customer service.
Get a small three ring binder and put a bunch of the Customer Call Back forms in it. Whenever a customer wants an item that is normally in stock but you’ve run out of it temporarily, put their info and request on the form.
Put checking the Customer Call Back log on the Opening/Closing Checklist.
As you check in new merchandise, check the log book for requests. Call any customers who are waiting for the merchandise that has just arrived.
This is a very simple system that has saved us thousands of dollars in lost sales. It’s the kind of great service that can set you apart from the mall stores and big box guys.
If you’re looking for more great ways to give great retail customer service and build sales without breaking the bank, you’ll love the Retail Mastery System. The Store Operations kit gives you lots of amazing tools to turn shoppers into customers for life.
By Bob and Susan Negen, WhizBang! Training
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