In retail sector, customer-facing employees are the point of differentiation between physical and online retail. The shopping experience through personal contact with employees in the store, such as assisted selling, cannot be compared to customer service in e-commerce.
Currently there are still many customers that although they are informed through the internet about the products, they rather buy them later in a physical store. In fact, most of these customers are documented about the products, but prefer to see them personally and listen to the recommendations of store employees, before making the purchase decision.
Knowing that almost 70% of purchase decisions are made at the point of sale, and that employees are the ones that can most influence customer decisions, retailers have to put their efforts into converting the employees into a competitive advantage.
Assisted selling as a point of sale strategy
According to the State of Retail Report, 88% of consumers say they are more likely to buy when they are helped or receive recommendations from store employees. For this reason, assisted selling is one of the best point-of-sale strategies to take the customer by the hand until the purchase is made.
Assisted selling consists of the advice and doubts solving by the employees of the store, to the possible customer, in order to get a sale. The challenge of this practice is the balance between advice and let the client breathe. You have to make him feel at home, without pressure. There are many stores that use this technique, especially in cosmetic companies (Douglas or Sephora) or electronics (Media Mark or Apple), in which employees accompany the customer from the moment they enter the store until they make the purchase.
Sell more thanks to sales assistance
In this assisted selling model, the employee can encourage sales (try to convert visitors into buyers) and improve the relationship with users. This directly influences the conversion rate, growing the profits of the business.
One technique within the assisted selling would be offering the customer several options of items that cover their need, some of higher quality or with superior characteristics. For example, offering exclusive garments in a clothing store. Thus you offer an additional value when customers are receptive, and you increase the conversion rate and the average ticket value.
At all times, the knowledge of the product by the employee will be key, as their commercial skills, to be able to detect other needs that can be covered.
Companies that use the assisted selling strategy multiply conversions up to 16 times if there are employees available to serve customers. But store traffic is volatile, and it is not easy to predict. The great challenge of assisted sales is having enough employees, and these must be in the right place and time to intervene in those sales.
How to guarantee the quality of service in sales assistance
If the employee with the appropriate business skills and the necessary knowledge of the products, is not available at the time the customers arrive, they will not be able to assist them to get the sale. That is why it is necessary that in the peak hours of customer visits, we have a greater number of employees to serve them.
Likewise, if we have an employee who is in the right place and time to serve the customer, but does not have the necessary knowledge about the product, he will not be able to offer a quality service and assist in the sale. It is not worth planning any employee profile to perform this task.
For this reason, aligning the planning of the schedules and tasks of each employee, as well as their profiles, with future visits of clients will be essential in order to offer a quality service.
With a smart staff schedule and task planning tool, you can make sure you have the employee with the right business skills and the necessary knowledge of the products, at the right time and place to drive potential customers to the sale.
ORQUEST is the intelligent personnel planning solution capable of predicting the number of future visits of customers at any time, and adjusting the schedules and tasks of employees to these predictions, in order to anticipate the future activity and needs of the store. Thanks to ORQUEST, the store will be well sized and well planned when the customer arrives, to be able to accompany him throughout the process and increase sales.
Definitely, working with data helps you making better decisions in order to achieve your goals. Tracking the Conversion Rate and other main in-store KPIs is possible thanks to ORQUEST and KPI Management Freemium. Now, you can download it for free and track your data in order to make intelligent decisions out of it. Start improving your performance.
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[…] to Orquest, 88% of consumers say they are more likely to buy when they are assisted or receive recommendations […]