Knowing who a customer’s “sales associate” is for your store isn’t always a simple question to answer. Is it the last person who rang up the sale? Is it the last person who helped them? Is it the person who has helped them the most in the past? If so, for how long? How do we identify when a customer changes their preference for a particular associate? Perhaps, the customer prefers different associates based on the department or type of merchandise being purchased.
This may all seem like semantics but what happens when you ask your associates to reach out to a customer? Maybe a birthday or special event is coming and all the best customers need to be contacted. A methodology is needed to prevent multiple associates from contacting the same customer. It could be counter-productive and even embarrassing if the best customers get multiple calls for the same promotion!
From a best practices point of view, knowing the associate involved for every transaction is critical for developing strengthening bonds with customers as well as providing accurate data collection. Being able to analyze the performance of associates and developing trends in relationships is even more important for strong customer service. Systematically, there are three different types of associates: Cashiers, Detail Associate and Assigned Associates.
Cashiers (or Header Associates) – The Cashier identifies the associate who actually rang up the sale. This might be an Associate dedicated as a Cashier, or any of the Associates who ring up sales. Knowing the Cashier for each sale helps when tracking down issues or questions relative to the sale or how it was processed and handled. Of course, cashier accountability is critical to loss prevention as well as general security, especially involving credit card transactions and PCI-DSS compliance.
Detail Associates – Detail Associates are those identified to each item on the sale. The Detail Associate might be the same Cashier ringing up the sale, but it might not be. If multiple associates are involved in a sale, different items might be assigned to different associates. Ultimately, the Detail Associate is the foundation for sales productivity analysis and who gets paid a commissions (if paid). In some cases, stores will even credit an absent associate for a sale and in others, commissions might be based solely on the assigned associate.
Assigned Associates – Assigned associates on the other hand represent a single associate responsible for the customer relationship, even if they are not involved in every sale. Merchant Plus has two Assigned Associates, Preferred Associates and Secondary Associates. They really behave the same way, but offer the flexibility to assign two types of associates to each customer, perhaps by department or store. The important point here is that the associate is assigned (as the Preferred or Secondary Associate) to the customer. Since only one associate can be assigned to each (the Preferred or Secondary Associate) this allows customers to be selected only once for promotional events. When issuing call lists, letters, emails or other marketing promotions a much more personal touch is offered for the customer while holding the Associate responsible for contacting the customer. Better yet, results can be tracked by Assigned Associates based on how effective and committed their contacts are.
One associate might fill any or all of these roles for a specific sale and each different type can be analyzed and used to enhance the customer experience. Perhaps the biggest challenge is in determining which associate should be assigned to a customer. Ideally, this decision can be made individually, especially when developing one-on-one relationships in the specialty store environment. With good reporting and selectivity capabilities, these assignments might start with a balance between total sales and a reasonable number of customers each associate can effectively manage. By analyzing the numbers, the assignments can be based on a number of objective performance standards. For example, it might behoove a retailer to rank sales by customer, especially when sales for two periods of time can be analyzed. Customer preferences can be measured by comparing actual sales using the Detail Associate over a period of time. For example, if Associate A is the Assigned Associate, but analysis proves that Associate B is the Detail Associate more often in recent sales, the Preferred Associate might be re-assigned. We might also note that the customer’s sales have changed based on the department where we might want to reassign an associate (for example, the customer isn’t buying as much menswear as they are shoes or women’s apparel). Regardless, such analysis helps management better match skill sets and personalities based on the customer’s preferences, not the loudest voice on the sales floor.
For some customers, this might be obvious, but many customers won’t voice a preference for fear of offending one of the associates. Furthermore, the retailer’s perceptions, let alone those of two associates battling for the same customer, might not be accurate. Objective analysis eases the management challenge and can help motivate the entire team. But of course the discipline of the system tools and controls assures the accuracy of the data that enables these important decisions.
