SHOP-SALESMAN AND OUSTOMER.—Every employer who runs a thriving business and every salesman employed in it should realise the importance of the impression made on the customer by the assistant who attends to his wants. There will be no difficulty about this if the sales man can be induced to realise that on his exertions depends the success of the business with every particular customer whose wishes he tries to meet. The difficulty is that some salesmen cannot be induced to see the importance of this point of view, and it is imperative that the attitude of salesmen in this connection should not be left to themselves to be developed in the right direction. The wise employer of salesmen will see to it that he has a distinct selling policy and will take particular pains to enforce this policy upon the attention of his staff. Only by constant education of salesmen and constant supervision to see that the ideas of the proprietor are carried out will an efficient selling force be developed. If the staff are left to themselves to develop the selling policy of the house according to their own ideas, difficulties will arise, and the highest standard of efficiency will not be maintained.
The importance of a salesman will readily be perceived if the trader remembers that the salesman is the point of contact between his business and its hundreds customers. The stock may be all right, prices may be satisfactory, the appearance and the conduct of the establishment may be everything to be desired, but these things go for nothing if the arrange ments for the service of the customer are unsatisfactory to the negligence of a salesman. All the shop resources in the world will not counteract The bad produced by the man who comes in contact with the customer and conducts himself in such a manner that the whole tone of the shop itself is let down in the eyes of the customer. It is possible for a salesman to do more harm in an hour than can be undone in a year. On his tactful handling of the customer must ultimately depend the success of every retail business.
In large businesses, this point of view receives adequate attention and the sale staff is carefully drilled. It is impossible in such businesses for any servant of the house to persistently treat customers with a lack of tact. The work of each salesman is carefully observed, and shortcomings
would be quickly noticed. In the smaller business, however, the work of salesmen often goes either unsupervised or supervised so slightly that weak nesses in the service are not checked. Much is left to the initiative of the man behind the counter, which is quite satisfactory where the man employed is a first-class hand, but the results are serious when the salesman is not efficient.
The great danger about the average small shop in relation to its sales manship is the lack of discipline which is implied by failure to properly supervise the staff. Its first manifestation is a general sense of slackness which can hardly be defined in words, though the customer is quick to notice it, particularly when he sets the service against that which he receives in a properly disciplined store. Out of this lack of supervision, which should end in proper discipline, first springs a general slackness, which results in customers being kept waiting. The customer who calls to buy, frequently finds salesmen indulging in personal and private gossip.
which has to be finished before attention can be given to the needs of the customer. In some cases this neglect may only cover a space of a quarter of a minute; in others the shop assistants go on talking for a minute or two, laughing amongst themselves until the conversation is ended, and then turn to the customer with the suggestion implied that he has appeared in the shop at an inopportune moment and broken off an interesting con versation. While such a difficulty could hardly arise in a big store, this frequently happens in the smaller store, and is entirely due to a lack of proper discipline. If the staff were at all adequately supervised, assistants could not be grouped in this manner and would not be found carrying on such a conversation while customers were waiting to be served. Such signs of slackness must always be the result if salesmen are not handled by an employer or a direct and responsible representative, and variations along these lines might be anticipated. The only remedy is closer supervision, which will at least result in the prompt appearance of a salesman when a customer enters the shop.