

Can I help you? Why retail customers always say No - philfrasty
http://startupblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/can-i-help-you-why-retail-customers-always-say-no/

======
rlpb
"People wouldn’t (especially men) enter a store just for the sake of it, they
want help."

I prefer to engage with others as little when I enter a store. I want to find
the stuff I want, pay for it, and get out. I'm even willing to spend twice as
much time (or more) looking for what I want than I would have if I have go
engage with a store assistant.

I'm not exactly socially awkward, either. I just hate shopping. I find stores
quite adversarial. I feel that assistants aren't really there to help me;
they're there to maximize profits for their employer. I prefer to make a
buying decision without the time pressure I feel if I'm being helped. If I'm
told "you look great in that" I am unable to figure out if it's really
suitable for me, or if the assistant just wants to make a sale, or if the
assistant hasn't been able to judge me accurately.

My answer to “Are you after pants or tops today?” will always be “I'm just
looking; thanks.”

~~~
qeorge
I have the same goals as you (find the stuff I want, pay for it, and get out),
but that's why I seek out the salespeople!

 _I feel that assistants aren't really there to help me; they're there to
maximize profits for their employer._

Help me find these employees! I joke, but seriously - I usually get great
recommendations from the staff, often brutally honest. I find people don't
give flippant recommendations, as its a reflection of themselves.

~~~
ambiate
I went to Sears two days ago for a brake inspection. The guy quoted $700. He
pulled me off to the side and said, 'buy the parts for $100 and we will charge
$300 for labor. Quote around for better prices, or you might be able to do the
labor yourself, so, give that a try too and just bring it in if all else
fails.' My memorial day weekend is going to consist of attempting these
repairs, but thanks to him, I may become a man this weekend.

(No, brakes are not my first repair. Most of my repairs have been in the car,
electrical, hoses, injection, dropping the fuel tank, etc. I have always
stayed away from tires/suspension and usually paid the hefty fees. Thanks for
the _valid_ concern!)

~~~
btilly
The cynic in me says that he's hoping you'll screw it up worse so that they
can charge more to fix what you broke in the process.

~~~
enraged_camel
Probably not. He's not likely to go back to the same shop if he screws it up.

~~~
btilly
Why not? He has a positive impression of them, and if he screws it up he'll
know that was his fault, not theirs.

------
jff
We always say no because, at least for me, it's pretty rare that I actually
need help. I am, in general, capable of following signs and locating where in
the store I need to be. Maybe I'll have to ask where they put the widgets,
because it turns out they're in sporting goods instead of tools as I'd
thought.

But now, assume I'm shopping for clothes. This 19-year-old girl doesn't know
me, she doesn't know what kind of clothes I wear beyond what I currently have
on. She doesn't know what kind of price range I'm looking at, or even what
particular clothes I'm currently looking for. I could stand there and relate
all these things, at which point she can point at shirts ("how about this
one?") until we find one I like... or maybe I can just go look at the shirts
myself?

If I'm in Radio Shack trying to pick up a transistor, there's almost no chance
the kid behind the counter can help me. He just wants to sell me a cellphone.
He might not even be aware that the store stocks electronics components, much
less what a transistor looks like. Any real help will have to come from the
Internet; I surely can't ask if these two diodes are equivalent, or if this
coax cable is suitable for VHF operation, because he'll just say "yeah, I
think so" and try to sell me a phone.

If I go to a car dealership, the last thing I want is to see someone walking
toward me, but we all can relate to that.

About the only time I really want someone to come ask if they can help me is
at a gun shop, because the things I want to see are usually locked in a glass
case or hung up on the wall.

~~~
protomyth
Radio Shack in the not too distant past (not sure now) had loss prevention
policies that required a store employee to speak to each customer and checkup
on them every so often (cannot remember the time interval).

------
scoot
I've always liked the stores where the staff simply say something like:

'Hello! Let me know if you need any help finding a size.' (or other relevant
offer of help depending on the shop), then _leave you to get on with
shopping_.

I then find it much more comfortable asking for help if / when I need it, and
with no pressure, compared with if it's been agressively offered and I've
already turned it down, or if I've been ignored by shelf-stackers and am made
to feel like I'm interupting.

~~~
mindcrime
_'Hello! Let me know if you need any help finding a size.' (or other relevant
offer of help depending on the shop), then leave you to get on with shopping._

Well said. Like many other people have already said here, _most_ of the time I
don't need any help from the store staff, and I want to just get in, get what
I need, and get the f%!# out without being bothered. BUT... I get annoyed on
those rare occasions when I do actually need help finding something, and the
store staff can't be found, or seem aloof, inattentive, etc.

That's why I like your proposal... it doesn't seem cheesy and "salesy" and
it's a declaration that "I'm here to help, IF/WHEN you need me". That's really
all I want.

------
gilrain
How to annoy your shoppers by coercively distracting their attention.

A good steward wants to serve the customer, either by engaging them or not, as
the customer prefers. A bad steward wants to engage the customer whether they
want to or not. A really bad steward thinks the customer is too stupid to
notice their coercive attempts at the latter.

------
kristiandupont
Maybe I'm a minority (though not in here, I'm sure) as I'm a bit of an
introvert but I strongly prefer to browse on my own. Whenever I am asked
something "clever" like suggested in the article, I get annoyed because I feel
like I'm being manipulated.

~~~
AlisdairSH
For me, it depends on the salesperson and store.

The worst is salespeople who ask questions, but don't actually know their
product any better than I do. Car salesmen almost always fall into this
category. Same thing at most of the big-box retailers (Best Buy, Target, etc).

But, if a salesperson actually knows their stuff and wants to help, I'm
usually quite happy to let them. The local Nordstrom (department store) is
good at this. As is the local bicycle shop.

It really comes down to selling an experience as well as a consumer product.
I'll happily pay a bit of a premium for a good shopping experience.

------
nashequilibrium
Sometimes you get a blogpost that sounds smart and insightful but
unfortunately it is not since the author's objective is to sound smart, get
kudos etc..... I have spent six years working in retail from low end to high
end. I also survived 3 months as a waiter and I will give you practical advice
for this situation and not try and extrapolate this advice to alll sales
situations.

1) Yes, people hate the do u need any help question but not because of the
question in itself. It is because they usually have just entered the store and
they get just asked this and since they have not had a chance to look at
anything they obviously don't need any help. The reason why this mistake gets
repeated over and over is because from a distance there is a manager who will
usually get pissed off if they don't. You might say that the manager should be
smart enough to know this is dumb but I have no idea why they still do maybe
power trip.

2)How to ask the do you need any help question. You have to just watch your
consumers from a distance, greet them and walk away, make them feel free but
slightly monitor their gestures. As time goes on you develop a skill to see
which customer needs help, for example they standing with one shoe in their
hand looking around whith their head tilted up, ask them if they need help,
they will be very happy. If your manager is standing around unfortunately you
have to be annoying and ask consumers as soon as they enter the store.

During my 3 month waiter stint in college, a famous singer came by to eat, she
just happened to sit at my table, boy did I regret it. The owner of the
restaurant practically had his chin at my shoulder. This guy was freaking out,
he had me asking them if everything was fine every 3 minutes, until the
singers manager asked me too give them some space. I went back and told the
owner, his reply to me was that I was fucking up big time. Lol!

------
shaggyfrog
I worked computer retail for a bit over 3 years and I think the best opening
line was always "hello" or "good morning/afternoon/evening", with a by
"welcome to [store]".

The best follow-up was to not only look busy but _be_ busy. Stocking shelves
or merchandising was always effective. People who want help but are shy about
it always seem willing to spontaneously talk with employees who are busy doing
something... it's a strange concept.

"Are you looking for pants or tops" is assumptive and manipulative. Remember
this chestnut from <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4795139> : "Which one
are you most impressed by?" How about neither, you swarmy ass?

~~~
gwillen
> The best follow-up was to not only look busy but be busy. Stocking shelves
> or merchandising was always effective. People who want help but are shy
> about it always seem willing to spontaneously talk with employees who are
> busy doing something... it's a strange concept.

Retail employees don't generally stand around idle -- they always look like
they're either doing something, or going somewhere. It's easier to interrupt
'doing something', because at least you know what they're doing.

------
mpyne
I always say No because I usually enter a store with a product (or product
type) already in mind and just desperately want to avoid getting upsold by the
packs of roving sales peoples trying to boost their commission by selling me
something I don't need.

I have occasionally had good experiences talking to sales types at retail
places (including just a couple days ago) but normally if they get persistent
I just end up ducking out and getting what I want from Amazon.

~~~
whatup13
„avoid getting upsold by the packs of roving sales peoples trying to boost
their commission by selling me something I don't need.“

I have some friends working in stores who quit their jobs because they were
forced to sell nonsense stuff in addition to products :-/ Pushes me in the
Amazon direction, too...

~~~
viveutvivas
I had a job in college where I was supposed to sell worthless "protection
plans" on every goddamned product in the store. Second-to-worst job I ever
had.

------
kafkaesque
It depends on what the retail store sells.

My student job was working at a bookstore. Our customers are a special breed,
I think, but there are some generalisations that can be made.

I sometimes heard (albeit very rarely) my coworkers ask "Fiction or
nonfiction?" But that didn't necessarily increase sells from our observation
and discussions we had about this approach. But some supervisors pushed this
concept to "get the conversation going". Truth is, you need to be yourself
when facing a customer. There are as many different customers as there are
personalities in a workplace.

It's true that it depends on your customer. But most of them want to be left
the heck alone. So what approach worked for me?

Asking a casual, open-ended question or making a comment about them. This
allowed me to gauge whether this person wanted help or not. It worked most of
the time. It's all about making the customer feel comfortable with you.

Casual questions/comments I would say:

1\. Oh! I've heard a lot of good things about that book. Apparently [insert
author/interesting book fact that doesn't reveal much of it]

2\. Hey, how's it going?

3\. Jesus, is it still pouring out there?

4\. Hey, watchoo lookin for?

5\. Okay, it looks like you are trying to find something (when they appear
lost and are going in circles in place)

6\. Hi. (simply acknowledging them -- you can tell they don't want to be
talked to if they act distracted, make an effort to avoid eye contact or walk
busily/quickly away from you)

In the end, every customer will find an answer to get out of any question,
full stop. So don't try to fake it.

If they are already holding a book, that is the easiest target, because you
can make assumptions about that person and start a genuine conversation.

Another is actually a close-ended question:

*What section are you looking for?

The trick there was the follow-up comment/question. Say they said "history".
Okay. "Oh, the new Trudeau biography just came out and the biographer had a
bunch of access to documents and files which no other person has ever looked
at".

If they said "Not sure". A chuckle then "Is it a gift or for a special
occasion?" Sometimes customers don't know what they are looking for, actually.
You need to have an honest demeanour. In the end, I was always honest with the
people I dealt with and had people visit me to talk to me. Probably half of us
had degrees or were in the process of getting degrees so we had our own
specialisations. I had a bunch of people who remembered me and we would
recommend books to each other and just chat. I spoke for a couple of hours to
customers about philosophy or Latin American literature and history. A few
were extremely impressed with my knowledge and the same occurred with my other
coworkers.

This building of rapport is the best thing, I think. Almost like selling is an
afterthought. Humanising the transaction is better, I think. And something
that I feel is lacking in a lot of customer service. We're all humans. All of
us have our bad days.

If there was a customer looking for something I had no idea of, I'd think of
someone who did know. And would tell them honestly, "Actually, I have no idea
about that, but I think my other coworker might. Let me call her/him". If no
one knew, which happened sometimes, we would try to help them the best we
could. In a lot of these cases, we had no solution. But the customer was happy
that we at least tried.

If we never stocked a particular book, we'd recommend them to another
bookstore. We had a binder filled with different bookstores. Most were
surprised we did this.

Despite all of this, this bookstore is one of the most hated in the city I
lived in (if not the entire country). Poor management, too bureaucratic, and
old habits. Plus, inconsistency between other locations (it is a chain
bookstore).

The absolute worse thing about working there had to be PROMOS, as in, the
giving out of flyers/coupons. Very, very, very, very few people like being
handed stuff. And many customers knew we suffered (they could see it in our
faces), so a minority took them out of sympathy. The biggest problem with this
was that when giving the flyer there was an unspoken time frame to hand and
explain the promotion. And this time frame was about 5 seconds or less, and
usually there was a caveat to a promotion that required more time to explain,
because it seemed like the nature of marketing was to purposefully create
convoluted/complicated scenarios where the promotion would apply.

Anyway. My two cents. Sorry, it was an unabridged/unedited and not proofread
response.

------
city41
I'm rather introverted and I very much don't want help from employees in
stores. So much so that stores lose sales from me, and I wonder how many sales
across the board stores are losing.

The other day I went into an Apple store to consider getting an iPad Mini. I
was immediately approached by an employee who very eagerly wanted to show me
how light it is, how beautiful the screen is, etc. I told him I really just
wanted to look, and he agreed and left. But I immediately left the store,
because I knew he'd come back in a few minutes, which I really didn't want.

I also tend to avoid shopping at Best Buy because you get stopped by no less
than three employees on each visit. I know it's company policy, but how much
money are they losing to introverts and/or grumpy people?

~~~
jff
I've considered just answering with "fuck off" whenever somebody comes up to
me unasked, but I'm just not rude enough.

~~~
city41
They're just doing their job though. Even when telemarketing was common I
never felt that was an appropriate response.

~~~
trhtrsh
You just pre-Godwin'ed the thread.

No one is required to take a job as a professional harasser. And if you really
have sympathy for the employees, then consider that the more victims fight
back, the fewer people would join the profession, and wages would increase,
hurting the evil owners.

~~~
mpyne
Man, I'm not exactly a bleeding-heart type but even I would find that behavior
on the part of the customer rude.

You know a _better_ way to "hurt the evil owners"? Just don't go to that store
at all. But asking a customer a question is not a crime (unlike your Nuremberg
analogy), these "victims" _chose to walk into the store_ (unlike Nuremberg
again), and being needlessly rude is _needless_ , not required.

------
kmtrowbr
For me it started with waiters: a good waiter can really help you figure out
what to order, or what to drink.

Instead of staring at the menu for 5 minutes (while your dear friend, or wife,
or parent) is right there with you, just glance at it, get a few ideas, and
then ask the waiter:

"I'm pretty hungry. The chicken looks good, is it <insert feared or desired
quality here: heavy, filling, too cheesy, high quality meat>?"

Or with wine: "I love jammy Zinfandels: berry berry all the way! Do you have
anything like this?"

Once you start interacting with waiters in this way, you hea out into the
country and go to Big Boy or whatever, and you get this surly, timid young
person, and you ask your questions, and they look at you like you're from
Mars.

And you realize: this person (probably very nice person), but this person has
never really learned what a waiter _is_.

It's really about interacting with people, putting them at ease, helping them
navigate the menu, allowing them to focus on the people they are with. It's
far more than just accepting orders and bringing food like a robot.

Anyways: people in retail stores are also like this and you should be able to
use them to find better things to buy than you otherwise would.

They can be a great help and smart people will take advantage of their help.

~~~
breadbox
Restaurants are a slightly different situation. Once you're already in a
restaurant, it's quitely unlikely that you're going to walk out without buying
something. The waiter (if motivated by tips) has every reason to help you
actually enjoy your food.

Salespeople, who are more commonly motivated by commission, have every reason
to convince you to buy something whether or not you need it.

~~~
kmtrowbr
They do but throw away any feelings of compulsion to buy things to make the
salesperson happy. And if you don't like them or find them helpful, totally
just walk away or say: "Thanks for your help, but I am going to look on my own
now."

It's not a personal relationship and (basic human decency aside) you have no
need to please them.

But don't categorically reject all salespeople. Maybe go to better stores
where there are higher quality folks at work?

~~~
breadbox
It's not a matter of wanting to please someone. It's a matter of not having to
deal with someone who's attempting to push the envelope of polite social
interaction with a sales pitch. Even a low pressure sales pitch gets on my
nerves. Not because it's going to work (quite the opposite).

~~~
kmtrowbr
I understand, sometimes they are just obnoxious and that's just not how you
want to shop. I definitely see what you are saying.

I think this is why online shopping has been so successful. Amazon reviews are
actually a great way of figuring out what is good and what is bad, in a
totally objective way.

You don't have offend or say yes or no to anyone.

------
darxius
This is one of the reasons online shopping is so successful. I have never
enjoyed being asked questions by employees when I enter a store. I go in with
something in mind (or just to browse to kill time) and get out with or without
my product.

~~~
trhtrsh
If only....

[http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&...](http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&filter_search=popup%20chat)

------
toomuchtodo
Article should be titled "How to drive your customers to online retailers."

------
QuantumGood
Apollo Robbins (the pickpocket
[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/video-...](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/video-
the-art-of-pickpocketing.html) ) explains an approach that worked very well
for me.

When I managed a retail store (ages ago), I would take a clipboard, get near
the customer as if I was checking inventory, then wait a moment. If they
didn't ask anything, I would turn away, then look back briefly and say "Let me
know if I can help you find anything."

It worked amazingly well for a 6'2" athletic build guy like myself. Other
approaches failed pretty badly (partly because of my intimidating size to
some).

It let me sense how comfortable people were with me near their space, and
customize how "nonchalant" I needed to be in asking if I could help them find
anything. All in all, a way to enter people's space with them feeling
comfortable having me there.

------
sachingulaya
If Im shopping for clothes I go straight for a salesperson. I use them as
personal shoppers and ask them to go find jeans in my size that meet some
loose criteria. If I find a shirt in thats too small I'll ask them to bring
the right size. Sometimes you can be brutally honest with the "can I help
you?" and just ask them what looks good and is on sale. They'll grin and point
you in the right direction. If you're buying dress shirts I've found the
salespeople to have insight into which brands will fit your unusually wide
shoulders without looking awkward.

Don't feel uncomfortable rejecting their suggestions either. It's an iterative
process. Once you don't need them say "alright, thanks so much for your help"
and they'll leave you alone.

------
onemorepassword
My body language will tell you if I want help or not.

What phrase is used to initiate that interaction is completely irrelevant, but
attempts to entrap me in an interaction I don't want will always yield a
negative response. Just the level of awkwardness may very.

------
swalkergibson
This thread is extremely compelling. Honestly, I think it is probably a
function of the readership of HN being composed of programmers, engineers, and
other problem solvers.

"I don't need help, I can do it myself."

Honestly, it is pretty easy to tell whether or not the salesperson knows what
he or she is talking about. There is a huge difference between a sleazy sales
guy trying to get you into a cheap suit and a person who legitimately
understands the product they are selling and can outline all of the reasons
why you want Thing X instead of Thing Y or provide honest feedback about style
or look (if shopping for fashion). Give the person that approached you a
chance! You might find that they are in fact knowledgeable about the product
and can assist you in making a more informed purchasing decision. You just
need to be confident enough to work with them and not just be a "sales
victim."

It is particularly interesting through the lens of how you sell your own
startup's product.

Everything we do is sales. The landing page is painstakingly crafted, the
color of the call-to-action button is A/B tested, optimized for maximum
effect. Then, you do CPC campaigns, carefully perfecting the ad copy and
headline. I really, really fail to see how this is different. Olark's whole
business is premised on the idea that a human being should be available to
answer customer questions.

Am I way off-base here, or am I the only person in this room who actually
likes interacting with salespeople?

EDIT: Adding clarity to the Olark point.

------
smackfu
I've seen something new and excitingly terrible in both Sears and Home Depot
recently. They have dedicated sales people whose sole job is to approach
customers and try to sell them on credit cards or kitchen remodels or whatever
high profit thing they are pushing at the time. They presumably work on
commission based on the hard sell and they have no knowledge like the real
salespeople.

They're basically training people to say "No" to people who approach them in
stores. Very short-sighted.

------
crpatino
People adapt pretty quickly to that kind of slimy tricks. A few years ago,
banks in my town would offer credit cards to everything with a pulse. They
would put kiosks at the mall with sales people harassing passing customers,
and they were trained to approach you exactly like this.

In a few months, everybody would know exactly what to do: Avoid eye contact,
speed up when passing by, do not listen to them, do not even let them finish
their sentence, and just say "No, thank you".

------
TillE
I actually had just this experience last week when I went shopping for jeans.
Instead of asking me that dreaded first question (to which my response is
invariably no), she simply pointed me to men's jeans, asked me my size, asked
what kind of style I was looking for (X or Y), and picked out a few pairs for
me to try on.

It was great. From a business point of view, I didn't spend any more than I'd
intended, but I finished quicker and left with a positive impression.

------
kephra
The problem I have with the "Can I help you?" question comes from the
standpoint of an old German UseNet and IRC user.

Here we have the special word "Metafrage". A Metaquestion is a question that
can be answered by Yes/No, provides no information what the other wants or
needs, and any yes or no answer wont tell him anything. Its often just a
polite noise, that becomes impolite, if used to often, e.g. in terms of moms
just calling "Can you help me?" hurrying away without telling what kind of
help she needs, assuming or better say commanding a "yes" as answer.

Its like joining an IRC channel with: "Can someone help me?" Most often nobody
would answer, same to "Is someone here?". So a salesdroid starting
conversation with a "Can I help you?" is a helpless newbie compared to someone
who joined IRC first time by webchat.

------
marquis
>Third – don’t feel guilty or pushy doing it. People wouldn’t (especially men)
enter a store just for the sake of it, they want help.

That made me laugh. I usually go into clothing stores exactly just for the
sake of it - I like fashion, only buy when I see something special and never
know what I'm looking for. Women's fashion is far more varied of course - my
male friends are always dismayed that they don't have more choice but I wonder
back: would you wear unique designs the way women will, if they were offered?

Back to the question: I'll invariably refuse help unless I am absolutely
looking for something specific, which case I'll seek out a staff member
immediately and bother them to tell me if they have it so I don't waste my
time in their shop looking.

------
zwischenzug
I don't always say "no". An offer of help is fine, that double-pronged
question is _really_ annoying.

We all know the salesperson is there to sell. Fine. Being manipulated into a
conversation against our will is just irritating. I generally don't go back to
such places.

------
bproctor
Maybe because the customer doesn't want to be bothered?

------
josephhardin
Some stores do a better job of this than others. REI in particular has usually
been amazing. I went in last weekend for a shirt, and saw that packs are on
sale. The salesman there fitted me for a pack, recommended a cheaper one than
I was getting that turned out to be a better pack, then asked if there was
anything else I would like to know about, without pushing a hardsale. By the
end of the trip, I had a new pack, a new down sleeping bag, some compression
sacks, and a few other things. That guy, based on his knowledge, and just
being generally friendly without feeling sleezy turned a 20 dollar sale into
about $600 in sales.

------
jpswade
Not everybody reacts the same way.

Some people don't like being approached at all and will almost literally run
off the moment you go near them. They might buy, but only if you don't hassle
them.

Some people want you to approach them, but don't want to engage in a cushy
conversation, they know why they are there and what they want, they are
genuinely just looking and you're distracting them, but they want to know you
are there incase you have a question.

Some people who do want to be sold on your sales banter, after all, that's why
they entered your shop.

------
stugrey
I worked in retail for a few years and the approach I always took was to say
hello or make eye contact and smile. That way if the customer needs help they
know you are there but they dont feel harassed.

------
venus
I'll second all the anecdotes on this page plus add that I often won't even
enter stores, especially small ones, if I judge it likely there will be too
many "vultures".

I don't begrudge retail workers, really - I suppose they have a job to do. But
geeze I wish they'd be more intelligent about whom they bother, and when. If I
have not made eye contact beyond the initial "hello", then I probably do not
need or want to be "helped" and following me around proffering same just makes
me feel uncomfortable.

------
kisielk
Even if I know more or less what I am looking for, I'd still rather do it on
my own time than have a sales associate "help" me. I always feel like I am
pressured in to making a decision faster than I would otherwise. If they are
helping me and I do try to take my time to make the decision I always get the
impression of mounting frustration at my indecisiveness. That's why I prefer
sales associates who say "let me know if you need any help" and then just
leave me alone.

------
jiggy2011
I always feel that if I answer "yes" to "can I help you?" it implies that was
just randomly bumbling around the shop like a lost idiot, too incompetent even
to ask for help.

~~~
swalkergibson
This happens to me constantly. I aimlessly wander around the store muttering
to myself, "Doesn't anyone work here???" Especially prevalent in big-box
situations. Ordinarily, I am delighted when I am approached by an actual human
being.

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stephengillie
Working in a grocery store is different. Usually, the response is is "Where on
this shelf is the BrandX Turkey Sausage Gravy packet?"

(Of course, an old grocery retail tradition is to "reset" the store -- moving
sections around and moving products around within sections, to increase the
time customers spend in their local store. I wonder when this practice will
become common for website portals like Yahoo, to increase the time spent on
the page with ads?)

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na85
I hope any manager-types that read this article realize how irritating it is
to walk into a store and immediately have some asshole attach themselves to
your hip.

Unless your store is gargantuan, I'm perfectly able to find things myself and
I don't want your annoying "sales associates" hovering around like mosquitoes.

People give the "No, thanks" response because salespeople are universally
irritating.

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ds9
Too often, when I'm looking for an employee to ask a question they're nowhere
to be found - but when I just want to look around, they intrude.

What's needed is not a new way to trick the customer into conversing, instead
we need employees to learn how to notice whether a customer is looking for
help or doing fine on his/her own. And employers to allow this instead of
requiring them to be aggressive.

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SmileyKeith
I really hope people don't follow this. In my experience this ends up with a
question I find offensive, something like "What can I find for you today?"
Which implies I'm not capable of reading an isle sign myself. I find this
particularly amusing when I got into retail stores I've worked at before and I
know exactly where what I'm looking for is.

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minamea
What awful advice. I prefer someone to ask me "Can I help you?" If I need help
I'll tell him, if I don't right now I'll tell him. Cornering me like that with
a two choice question would just provoke me to rudely answering "I'll let you
know when I need help".

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viveutvivas
I wish the retail business model was more focused on making me leave their
establish happy and satisfied than having made a purchase. Try to understand
what I actually want, not how you can extract money out of me.

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sjs382
The goal is to sell widgets, not to interact with customers. Sometimes they go
hand-in-hand, sometimes they don't, _sometimes one works against the other_.

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joallard
When I was working at an electronics shop, we would ask "have you been served
yet?" It's a much harder question to get out and customers responded better.

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mratzloff
Saying "No thanks" is more polite than what I really mean, which is "Go away,
you're bothering me".

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bane
We don't always say no, we just say no when we don't need help, which is most
of the time.

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claudius
“Are you after pants or tops today?” – ‘Yes.’

