Handselling: Customer Service With Results Video Vignettes
The following video vignettes were used in the ABA education session, "Handselling: Customer Service With Results." These shorts dramatize 10 potential customer service scenarios to show the best and worst practices in five key areas of bookselling.
The recommended method for using the videos is to play each short for yourself or members of your staff, and, when prompted, to identify (or ask staff members to identify) what the characters on screen did wrong or right. After staff members have made their own assessment, refer to the common pitfalls and best practices for each scenario.
What to Do When a Book is Out of Stock
Common Pitfalls
- Focus too much on the computer instead of engaging customers in conversation
- Fail to recognize the opportunity when books are out of stock to sell something else
- Provide too little information about the timeline for ordering books
Best Practices
- Walk to the shelf to check title status in order to engage customers in conversation
- Ask how customer heard of the book to increase knowledge of reviews, author appearances
- Highlight an endorsement by a well-known source
How to Communicate With Customers Who Are Browsing
Common Pitfalls
- Recommend what you like, not what the customer will like
- Engage in conversation with customers longer than they want (while ignoring your other responsibilities)
- Point to a section instead of walking customers to a section
- Recommend a book without knowing whether you have the book in stock
Best Practices
- Ask probing question to understand the tastes and mood of customers
- Give customers 2-3 choices
- Put books in customers’ hands
How to Add Value to a Sale (Also Called Upselling)
Common Pitfalls
- Remove responsibility for handselling in the children’s (or other) section
- Be too pushy about selling additional items
- Suggest additional items that are not appropriate for the situation
Best Practices
- Probe for age, tastes and reading level of children
- Offer gift cards as an option if customers are unsure
- Point out additional items that “add value” to the customers’ purchases
- Highlight that books can be returned
The Importance of Not Passing Judgment on Consumers’ Requests/Tastes
Common Pitfalls
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Place judgment on a customers’ reading tastes in relation to politics, genre, or author
Best Practices
- Explain that a book is “sold out” instead of saying you don’t carry it
- Explain any potential drawbacks of a book to ensure you are giving the right book to the right person
When Not to Handsell
Common Pitfalls
- Approach a customer more than once in a short period of time to offer help
- Approach customers in sensitive areas of the store to discuss their purchases
Best Practices
- Use questions that allow customers to give an affirmative answer (e.g.: “let me know if I can help you find something, OK?”)
- Read body language to understand when customers don’t want to be bothered or know what they are looking for
- Greet customers when they enter the store
Topics:
Bookselling,
Bookstores