I don't have all the answers

Well, I promised you at least one more blog before Christmas, and here it is. Despite the fact that the majority of our customers are now relaxing for the holidays, we will be on hand to help those poor souls who forgot to order their important January merchandise and have nowhere else to turn – so if that’s you, feel free to give me a call.

I want to talk about something interesting that happened to me in Tesco the other night. Now when I first started this blog, all those years ago, I mentioned how I was unlikely to ever shop in somewhere like Lidl – and not for the reasons you think either.

Well since then, I’ve discovered the joy of Lidl shopping, and it really can be a joy. The quality there is superb, the prices are fantastic and what’s more, it can be an adventure comparing European brand foods with the more recognised UK stuff and realising that, more often than not, it tastes exactly the same and in many cases – a lot better.

However, they don’t stock everything and I needed to pick up some chestnut puree so that Shelly could make her chestnut stuffing. It was her mother’s recipe and she really does do it proud, so darling, if you’re reading this – here’s to another great stuffing!

So back to Tesco, where it’s late at night, snowing and altogether unpleasant. After roaming the aisles of where logic dictated I would find the chestnuts, I was still sporting an empty basket. At that point I decided to ask for help, and I use the word ‘help’ in its broadest sense here.

“Excuse me”, say I, “can you tell me where I might find the chestnut puree and also the whole chestnuts – you usually sell them in vacuum packs?”

“Well you’ll find loose chestnuts in the whole foods section but I haven’t really seen any other chestnuts come in so I expect that we’re not doing them.”

STOP!!!!!!

So you’re one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country, and my local has expanded to such a ridiculous size that you can now by light aircraft in Aisle 37, next to the beans, but you’ve not seen chestnuts A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!???!!!

Obviously my real response was a little more reserved but it did get me thinking about something. Why didn’t she just tell me that she didn’t know?

Seriously, the lady is working in a shop that sells literally thousands of products. If she had the mental capacity to remember all of them, along with their location, then one would argue that she is woefully over qualified to be stacking shelves in the middle of the night in Tesco wouldn’t they?

I am perfectly happy for people to not know the answer, just as long as they take a moment to tell me where I might be able to get the help that I need. Bluffing your way through an answer is just plain wrong – the customer will not end up getting what he wants and will be more irate for the extra hassle of following up on bad advice.

So what do you tell your customers when you don’t know the answer to their question? Are you terrified of being thought of as less than an expert in your field? If so – why? A true expert opens himself up to new pieces of information every single day, and every once in a while, a vital piece of the jigsaw puzzle will be missing. Well, it’s not really missing, it’s just that someone else has it and we need to give them a call and get it.

We’re told of all of the truly powerful words in sales like YES and THANKS, but I’d like to add another phrase to that list – the phrase I DON’T KNOW. Going that extra mile to find out things for your customers is what separates you from the people who offer up a guess and then cross their fingers that there aren’t any follow up questions.

Here’s a clue to those people – there won’t be any follow up questions – because your prospective customer has already walked away.

On behalf of all of us here at Merchandise Mania, I’d like to wish you all the best of whichever holiday you choose to celebrate and I look forward to hearing from more of you in 2011.