I was recently traveling out West and my sister-in-law took me to her local store, a well-respected independent bookstore, and I was excited. My excitement was short-lived. I walked in and saw many dark cases filled with books, lovely books. A bookcase of staff picks case contained only one staffer’s choices, but I counted well over 20 books with intriguing, well-written shelf talkers covering an amazing range of current titles. I was impressed by her choices and thought it was a great case to have right by the door as you walked in. Cozy chairs and a table or two sat invitingly by the window. People on laptops sat contentedly. What I saw looked great. But what I didn’t hear once, in the 20 minutes I was in the store, was, “Hello. Let me know if I can help you.”
I saw staffers milling about (the store was not busy) and several looked at me, but kept moving without saying hi or extending any sort of greeting. This was really off-putting. I was in an indie, not a massive big chain store. I expect to be greeted in some way, especially if I’m roaming around. I understand folks need their time to browse in peace; I’m not suggesting following people around the store, but everyone should be welcomed to the store.
I ventured to the children’s section and found no one there. It always bothers me a little when there’s a large kids’ section and no staffer there. To me it sends a message that this section is on its own, and it’s actually the section that benefits the most from help, as customers often get overwhelmed by it. So, here I am alone in a room of kids’ books and I start walking around. The section is organized sensibly, but it looks a bit like it’s suffered a tornado. Books are all cattywampus on all the shelves, books are on the floor, whole shelves are full of books just leaning to one side with massive gaps and the staff picks in this section are from last year. The selection was sparse. I was so disappointed. I was left wondering why they even had a kids’ section. I know I sound critical, but if a store is going to dedicate a fair amount of space to kids’ books, then make that area cozy and inviting and full of books and staffed with someone who knows the section.
This experience rededicated me to the power of good customer service and looking around my store with fresh eyes to see how it looks to someone coming in. Ironically, I stopped by the airport bookstore on my way home, and the woman behind the counter piped up immediately with “Hi, let me know if you need anything.”
I recently had the same experience. My family stopped in at an indie in Bethany Beach. Even though I own a bookstore, I was enthusiastic about supporting a fellow indie and picking up some thing great for myself or for my kids to read on vacation. I was looking forward to making a purchase and a quick chat with a fellow indie owner but was very disappointed that, although well staffed, there was zero customer service and we left empty handed š
As someone who is in marketing, I am continually put off by the chains who teach staff to robotically shout “Welcome” and “let me know if I can help you” to the air as soon as the front of their store opens. It’s not customer service, its mindless market-babble. I prefer being respected and allowed to quietly browse. The fact that you could see staff was wonderful, and no doubt they were approachable and would have been helpful if you needed a suggestion. I think the old style of dignified customer service is the new style of honest customer service. On the other hand, if you needed help and staffers where chatting with each other about their personal life, I would have complained openly to a manager.
I am not suggesting shouting a greeting to the air. It’s very easy to combine shelving, picking up, etc with a quick greeting and check in with customers and it always seems like the right thing to do. Then you take direction from them: do they want to browse? do they need help? and act accordingly.
I do agree of course. When you are selling a product, do it with pride. Make an effort to be pleased to see a customer in the store, and make eye contact. Do it because it means something to you as well as to the customer’s well-being. Then allow, as you say, the customer to give you a sense. Making a sale is why you work in a retail outlet, chain or indie. But the corporate retail idea of customer service has been deformed into a cheap fawning that insults my senses. Telling someone to have a nice day, when you haven’t even made eye contact, like playing a recording. What are missing are people with personality and intellect who care about the product and the experience for the customer and for themselves as well. No one seems to be having a good time in the scenario you describe. Why? As an unemployed book marketing professional, it makes me angry to read. I would be reading books out loud to my customers if I had them.
Recycling is popular these days, and I’ll bet there are lots of good people out there who would love to work in a book store. Maybe they should recycle the staff or the manager.
I would be curious to know what bookstore you were in. Times are hard in retail and I’m sure the management at the store you visited would be interested in your experience so that they can attempt to correct the issue.
The only way to keep customers these days is through excellent customer service. That’s what keeps me going back to any business — and I’m willing to pay a premium for it. I can’t be the only one.
Rosalie,
I only wish that there were more people like you out there. What is disheatenening is when you do your best to provide the customer service expected from an indie and yet find that price is the major issue with many customers. I am still surprised after 2 years at the number of times I am asked “How are your books priced?” or “How does this work?”
In most retail stores items are priced as marked and if reduced or on sale there is something telling the customer about the lower price. Why is a bookstore any different?
But, thank you Rosalie for recognizing that there is value to the extra service you receive from an attentive and knowledgable book seller.
Joni, I agree with all you’ve said and in your appreciation of Rosalie’s comments. I would add that it’s even more discouraging when publishers undermine their own pricing by discounting to consumers on their own website. We’re hosting the launch of Brian Selznick’s incredible new book WONDERSTRUCK next week. Imagine my dismay when I discovered yesterday that the $300 limited edition was discounted 30% on the Scholastic website! It’s bad enough we have to compete against companies like WalMart, Target, Costco, and Amazon who use books as loss leaders (merchandise they sell at a loss to get customers in the door or to their website), but when I discover that the publisher has so little faith in their own “suggested retail price” that they are discounting before the book is even in the bookstores, it’s truly depressing.
I brought my neighbor to our local indie. She wanted to find a book for her teenage son – while I had some great recommendations, I brought her there for the “expert” opinion. Oh, no. It was not good. She caught them on a bad day, they inadvertently said all the wrong things, and she will never go back. I know they can be, and are, better than that. Maybe the Indie store you went to was having an “off” day?
It is sad, though, when a children’s section is left alone…makes me want to go in, sit down and start reading A Fly Went By aloud!
That was possibly another bookstore destined for the chopping block and it had just not announced the fact yet. If I was operating a store of that type you can bet the staff would be kept busy greeting customers and restoring books to their shelves, just like in a library. The staff should have thanked their lucky stars they had a job at all.
Given the closure of literally thousands of bookstores all over the world, the only thing which will save these bastions of social culture will be more customers. It’s too bad that readers would rather buy ereaders and digital books, or no books at all. But in this terrible economy the choice to keep one’s doors open becomes a struggle for mere survival. Culture does not get its day in the sun, and more people become unemployed as a result. Those of us forced to rely on ebook sales to shore up sales of the printed works will also be faced with a difficult decision in the coming months: make printed books available or abandon them altogether.
I think this is a common issue with indies. The store in my town (Joseph Beth) has a reputation for being very book snobby. The aloofness and sometimes outright rudeness of the staff is what drives customers to the Barnes and Noble.
This summer I visited a well established Indie in Kenmare, Ireland. The young woman behind the counter was so helpful and kind….answered all my silly tourist questions. The next day I went back and met the owner who was behind the counter. He was equally helpful and bent over backwards helping me find a book that explained the geology of Ireland. As I was leaving he asked if I’d found the other bookstore and eagerly told me exactly where it was. I came home with a renewed sense of customer service and hope that we’re close to as good as the Kenmare Bookshop!
In their defense I know from personal experience that a children’s department can get that hit-by-a-tornado look in a matter of a very few minutes. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is unstaffed all day – it might only mean the dept head is on their lunch break and so many parents send unsupervised children to the children’s department alone as a way of babysitting them, well, chaos quickly ensues.
But I’m a long-time fan of taking tips – both what to do and what not to do – from the competition. Hope you at least picked up some good books to read!
I can go both ways on this. A simple “let me know if you need help,” spoken quietly as I wander is all I ask. I don’t like the pounce as I walk in the door approach, but I also don’t care for the book snobs who look down on me if I ask a question about a book they don’t deem worthy. That’s happened too many times to count. Nothing makes me head for the door faster than to be snobbed.
No one expects great service in a big box store, so when you get it you’re so pleased. But you’ll go back if it’s marginal. Everyone expects an exceptional experience in an indie, and if the experience is not wonderful, people feel let down and don’t want to return. It hardly seems fair that an indie has to have excellent selection, excellent customer service and basically be a step above all the time while the big box gets kudos for simply showing up. But that’s the reality and every indie should know that and strive for perfection.
I don’t even have a particular problem with employees greeting or not greeting me the moment I walk in. My problem is with afterwards. A few years back, I stopped by a bookstore in downtown Tampa that had a great reputation for its selection. Four employees in the store, all too busy reading to acknowledge the door, and that part didn’t bother me in the slightest. It was when I had my purchases and tried to pay that they seemed to work even harder to ignore me. It says a lot about how badly I wanted the books that I didn’t just put them back and leave them to their reading. (A little hint: if anything about your store’s attitude reminds customers of the bookstore parodied in the series “Portlandia”, you might want to change.)
It is, as you say, extremely important to walk that line between warmly greeting customers and not intruding on their experience. Some staff may not be very good at “reading” their customers, but I would hope the owner would notice that and perhaps offer some suggestions.
It’s also important to group staff together so that there are minimal problems with socializing and better customer contact. That’s not always easy to do in a full day’s schedule. As for the children’s section, when it is part of a fairly large store, sometimes the staff are moving around to cover greater territory. At Auntie’s we’re all prepared to assist customers in the children’s section if the children’s manager is unavailable. When your store is open for 12 hours, it can be difficult to have a manager there the entire time.
But as always, we appreciate the heads-up reminders!
What a great conversation! I work as a book and magazine merchandiser for a publishing distributor, which means I am the one who puts them on the shelf in the grocery store. I have met so many other people who do the same job, and unfortunately, most of them are not as much of a book nerd as I am. And since our position is as an outside “vendor,” we don’t technically work for the stores we stock.
Many of the other vendors/merchandisers, when approached by customers, even for simple questions like “where’s the bathroom?” will simply state, “I don’t work here,” and go about their business. The first time I saw this, I was appalled!
Not only do I answer customers’ questions about the stores I’m in, but I ask them if I can help them find something to read. If they say they are just browsing I leave them alone. But there are SO many people who are genuinely relieved to have some help. It makes me so happy when I am able to help someone connect with an exciting new reading adventure, it makes them feel good to have something to look forward to, AND it helps the stores sell more books. (Not to mention you can meet some pretty cool people.)
If more bookstore employees tried suggestive selling in a friendly, conversational manner (not snobby or pushy), maybe there would be fewer stores going out of business.
I mean, the customer is already there! They are already showing that they have an interest in buying a book! Help them, and you help yourselves, and the economy, and the publishing industry, and the struggling writers and illustrators…etc., etc., etc.
Duh.
I so agree with you, Josie. Customer service is so important in ANY business. Just a friendly smile and a “Hi” are plenty for me. There’s more than one local business that I’ve never returned to because of non-existant or even unfriendly customer service. In these tough economic times I can’t understand why business owners wouldn’t be thrilled to have you in their stores.
Sounds like my nearest independent. You weren’t by any chance browsing in Santa Barbara, CA, were you?
We’re a used paperback fiction bookstore, and we always say, “Hi! Let us know, if we can help you find someone,” when somone comes in the door.