My blog post this week dealt with improving customer service, so I decided to comb through the JCK archives to find any advice past JCK editors may have had on the subject. I was able to find an exhaustive article on customer service in the December 1930 issue of the magazine.
These tips came from Oliver Selle, president of the Selle Jewelry Co. based in St. Louis, Mo., who, according to the April 1934 issue of The Frisco Employes’ Magazine, was considered a “student of personality.”
“A salesman’s opportunity and income is unlimited,” said Selle. “He can rise to the height that he selects if he is willing to work, observe, and exercise common sense.”
- Smile when you see a customer. A smile brings a return smile.
- Take great care in the manner in which you dress. To be successful you must look like success.
- To every customer, new or old, the following sounds good to me: “Thank you very much. Come in again.”
- Make your customer remember you by your courtesy.
- Never try to enter a discussion were you must take a pessimist’s side. Be agreeable.
- Everyone wants to be remembered, so recall names and faces whenever possible.
- Address people by name, it will show you are interested in them and appreciate their friendship and business.
- Do not fail to recognize young people. They will be buyers when older.
- Know the goods you are selling. Who made them, their strong selling points.
- Be able to answer and suggest anything that will make a sale and a customer.
- Have confidence in yourself and the goods you are selling.
- Know what your competitor offers and its true value.
- When selling, use we for strength and I for personality and service.
- Be an enthusiastic salesman. Enthusiasm is contagious and passes to your prospective buyer.
- A customer will not spend much time to make you a salesman, but you must spend time to make and keep a customer. Stick-to-itiveness brings success.
- Close contact with people will teach you to know them by their features and their buying impulses.
- When speaking, let the buyer do the talking.
- Never allow a buyer to find a negative in the article you are selling.
- Don’t condemn one article to sell another.
- The more you study selling, the greater you will become.
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