Are you being a terrible shop assistant to your customers?

It’s that time of year when the shops fill up with people looking to find gifts for their friends and loved ones, which means it’s a testing time for shop assistants. They have to deal with stressed parents, tired children and the dreaded possibility that a sought after gift is out of stock or won’t be delivered in time.

Some shop assistants are exemplary by not only being useful to the customer but by being able to sell as well.

Some shop assistants… aren’t so good.

Considering that your website copy is your virtual “shop assistant” how does it compare to the following examples?

The “la la la not listening” shop assistant

You’ve got the social do of the season ahead of you and you’re shopping for a new outfit so that you’ll be dressed to kill.

You’ve found a great pair of shoes, only the ones in the store window are a beautiful red and the ones on the rack are grey. You decide to find out if they have any red pairs in stock, or if you could have a look at the display window pair if they’re the last ones available.

You look around for a shop assistant with a querying look on your face. Unfortunately, the shop assistant has sensed that you have a question and because they’re not sure if it’s going to be a difficult question, or worse a kind of complaint, they have disappeared. Even when you track one down, she is  suddenly “busy” at the top of a ladder shuffling things around on a very high shelf where she pretends she cannot hear you.

Exasperated, you leave wondering if that hiss was the slide of the automatic doors or the shop assistant breathing a sigh of relief.

This is your website if:

• You don’t have a contact form, an email address and a phone number where you can be reached
• You haven’t dealt with common questions in your FAQ section

The “ok never mind” shop assistant

Since you didn’t get the “to die for” shoes, you’ve decided to splash out on a new dress instead. So off you pop next door and lo and behold, the first one you see on the rack is calling your name. It feels gorgeous so you grab a couple of sizes and head to the changing room.

Despite the terrible changing room lighting, you’re thinking you look pretty good, and you strut a couple of “making an entrance” poses whilst planning your “what this old thing?” casual remarks.

Except, the more you look at it, the more you’re seeing things not quite right with it. It’s a couple of inches too short and the puffy shoulders which you thought were cute, now make you look like a bit of a bizarre doll. So you leave and the shop assistant asks you the obligatory:

“Any good?”

You shake your head, hand over the dress.

“Okay, never mind” she says automatically as you leave the store, failing to point out some latest additions in the same range but with slightly different styles that you might like.

You leave again empty-handed.

This is your website if:

• You don’t list specific possible packages that you offer
  
• you don’t let people know you can tailor packages if they don’t want exactly what you have listed (if applicable)
  
• You make your services or products hard to find

The “what are you stupid?” shop assistant

You’ve given up on buying anything for yourself so you stroll on over to the electronics store to see if you can pick up that computer game your son wanted. You’re not quite sure of the name, but you’ve seen the posters and know it just came out last week. You’re pretty sure you could pick it out if you saw it.

Approaching the counter you wait in turn as the assistant give you a gruff nod of acknowledgment. You explain you’re looking for a game that came out last week.

“We had a ton come in last week. Is it for the 360 or the ps3?”

You explain you’re not quite sure, but you think it’s a shooting game. He sighs at you.

“Is it something like Halo or Black Ops?.”

You tell him again you’re not sure but you think you could pick it out if you saw the cover and ask if he could point you in the direction of the new releases. He shrugs.

“They’re all over the place”

You’re beginning to think this is not a good day to shop…

This is your website if:

• You use jargon
  
• You don’t explain things clearly to people who might not be familiar with your industry
• Your site isn’t easy to navigate

Hopefully your site isn’t like any of these shop assistants, but it’s always worth checking with someone who’s not familiar with what you do to have a poke around and give you feedback on whether your message is clear and if it’s easy to use. It might just throw up some really useful feedback that you can use to make the experience even better for the next customer.

Good luck!