Friday, January 15, 2010

Salesperson in Shopping Malls

We all visit shopping malls like big bazaar, d-mart, central, shopper stop, reliance fresh etc etc. Did you observe one common thing? All these shopping malls hire salespersons, some companies call them customer care or support personnel. Who are those personnel? They all are from low income families. The salary range of these people is between Rs. 7500 to 10,000/-. Salary may be based on their experience and communication skills.

At another side, the customers of these malls are from higher middle class to high income group. They have the capacity to spend equal to the earning of these employees.

Now see the difference, at one side the one class who has the daily spending power equivalent to the monthly earning power of the second class. Imagine the feelings of these people. If you are interested to learn the human behaviour, I suggest to visit the mall and just observe the interaction, body language of the customer and sales personnel. Just observe how they are treated by the customers. You will be surprised to learn that most of us do not notice them.

Sales person greets the customer. Customer even does not bother to reciprocate. Total ignorance, who are they?? Salesgirl? Oh no, why should I waste my smile?

Now understand the gap. What they must be feeling about the customers? What can be the consequences, jealousy? I earn what they spend in one day. Social Gap widens. Recently one Assistant Manager of one shopping mall - call center was kidnapped by one terminated employee and demanded the huge ransom. Reason? He was terminated because of his poor performance. Performance was measured on customer satisfaction index.

I visited reliance fresh on last Sunday. The attitude and behaviour of staff was totally different. Who are the customers? Go to hell. They were silently telling that we also know how to reciprocate the gestures. Nobody was engaged. The reason may be the social gap.

I heard that Big Bazar imparts special training to these sales personnel. Big Bazar recognizes this gap and organize ethical and value based training for the staff. But don’t you think that as a responsible citizen, we should recognize these sales personnel with at least reciprocating the gestures?

We spend money for buying luxury items; smile costs nothing.
I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight.in.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good observation and analysis Vinod. I think its time to move towards social equality and change attitudes.

-"Babubhaiyya"

Amar Panchpande said...

Dear Vinod,

I like your articles because of following reasons:

They give different perspective and they are provocative. There are lot many professional who write. But they are just theory and far away from practical aspects.

Good one. Keep posting.

anurag said...

now on , am going to reciprocate for sure.
Its not that i don't- but'll make a special effort.

Anirudhha Mahapatra said...

Yes Sir,

Your message is different. I like it. In Big Bazar, there is a position called Chief Beleif Officer. His profile is to inculcate the ownership culture and values among the employees. Your article is in line with the above.

Regards,

Abhishek Tiwari said...

Dear Vinod,

I don't agree with you fully ,

I went to mall ,and one salesperson greets me,I dint smile even and move away and I was thinking, what to buy ??
if a person entering in malls,thousands of planning is running in his mind ,This is very obvious that I can forget their greets or dint respond of their greets.

But whenever we required they come to us and helped, They make us think they have their best interests in us.

but at the end of the day, once we will reach at home or planning again for shopping we will definitely remember ,where we got good services and we will be bound to compare their services and next time again we will think for visit .

now,In beginning we ignored their greets and services but that's give some impact on us,It may slow but long term impacts on us ,its like a slow poison and impacting slowly but finally its give us result.

they have to greet customers that's their business and we have to accept or ignored its our business,see everyhumanbeing is different but I must say their greets and services are really beneficial for long terms.

Anonymous said...

Whether we attend the calls on our cell which are most of from Financial Institute or lile ?

In Auto show room the diff bet service provider's ( salesman ) income & the cost of the Product is huge . It same happen in Electronics showroom . same happens in no of places .

It is a regular trend & it is unavoidable. Everyone is do his job & it is accepted .

So we can't compare or think on this line.

Prasad deshpande said...

It's always the Lowest Paid Employee of an organization who will be first to make contact with High Net Worth Individual. This is not restricted to Malls, Five Star Hotels, Restaurants, Airlines just to name few more.

However every job function requires certain skill sets for which the compensation is set. Few job functions are less paying few are more.

It's a better Idea to train employees in dealing with customers in various situations then to expect a customer to react in certain manner.

Unknown said...

Well Said Vinod.. I agree with this point.. Lets be human with humans :)

Radhika said...

Although it is important to be kind to every person one of the biggest truths of the customer service industry is that you have to bear with all kinds of people. It is the job requirement that you be hard-skinned and tolerant of rude remarks, gestures.

The reason why sales persons may not be treated well ( in any customer industry) is as customers we have certain expectation regarding the service, product and brand. The failure to meet those expectations or unfulfilled promises usually leads to outbursts or bad attitude. So its not really about the salespeople but more to do with the values they exhibit to customers.

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