Retail customer queries are a great way to hone ALL your Young Professional skills, from teamwork to problem solving. Here’s how!
Many young people get their first experience of the working world in the retail sector. Working in retail gives you fantastic, well-rounded work experience. You’ll need to be reliable, punctual and trustworthy, work well as part of a team, and provide great service to everyone who comes into your shop.
Whether you want to use your retail job as a springboard to a long-term career or simply earn some money on the side while you’re studying, you should make the most of the opportunity it provides to hone your skills and boost your CV.
Our free Young Professional training is divided into five skills categories. Today, we will look at how you can use each of them when you’re solving customer queries in your retail job.
Self-belief
Self-belief is all about building confidence in your skills. A person with strong self-belief knows their own strengths and is also confident enough to identify and work on their weaknesses. Self-belief is what allows you to take risks, learn new things, and keep pushing on when you experience setbacks.
How does this play into answering customer queries in your retail job?
When customers come to you with a query, it can be tempting to panic if you don’t immediately know the answer. You might feel a need to apologise or put yourself down for not knowing something. Try not to do this. Great customer service doesn’t require knowing all the answers.
Sometimes, all you need to do is say “let me check that for you” in a confident tone, and ask the customer to wait a moment while you find the information they need. As you learn and gain experience, you will be able to answer more and more queries without needing to look up the information. You will also know where to find information more quickly and easily when you don’t know the answer straight away. All of this will build your self-belief in your work.
Further reading: learn how to maintain a positive attitude and why keeping track of your successes can help you to create more of them.
Communication
Communication is perhaps the most important skill when you’re dealing with customers. You will need to provide clear, accurate information that is easy to understand. Information that is unclear or contradictory will result in confused and annoyed customers.
Remember that communication isn’t just about the words you say. Your tone of voice and body language are at least as important. Your tone should always be polite, friendly, and positive when dealing with customers. Your body language should be open and receptive, which typically means facing someone and making eye contact. Avoid closed-off body language such as crossing your arms.
If you answer customer queries in writing, such as on your company’s social media accounts or by email, great digital communication skills are also vital. And if you answer queries on the phone, a good telephone manner is essential.
Further reading: learn about 10 communication skills you really need and how to communicate formally by email.
Self-management
Self-management isn’t about being your own boss, but about being in control of your own actions and taking responsibility for what you do and the impact it has. In a retail job, practising good self management includes arriving on time, dressing appropriately, remembering anything you need to bring to work with you, and staying busy even during quieter periods.
Self-management is also vital in responding to customer queries. If you are busy, you will need to balance providing great service with minimising waiting times. You will need to stay organised as you juggle serving customers with other important tasks, such as replenishing stock. And you will need to make sure you create a good impression on customers by appearing engaged and approachable.
Accountability is another crucial piece of self-management. If you make a mistake, such as over-charging a customer or providing inaccurate information, own up to it and apologise. Your customers and manager will respect you far more if you are able to acknowledge your mistakes and work to fix them instead of trying to cover them up.
Further reading: learn how to keep control of your emotions if a customer interaction gets heated, and how to develop and show initiative at work.
Teamwork
In your retail job, you will be working in a team with your fellow staff members and your manager(s). There’s a saying that teamwork makes the dream work, and this is certainly true when it comes to providing great service for your customers.
Working in collaboration with your colleagues can help you to answer customer queries more thoroughly and effectively. For example, you might agree to help customers on the shop floor while your colleague handles the phones. Or, if a customer goes to your colleague with a query that is related to your area of expertise, your colleague might professionally hand the customer off to you.
Great teamwork is all about seeing yourself and your colleagues as collaborators, working towards the same end goal: happy customers.
Further reading: create more harmonious teams with inclusive teamwork skills, and learn how you can help colleagues and friends who are struggling at work.
Problem solving
Many customer queries will involve problem solving of some kind. You may need to resolve complaints, answer questions that are more complex than a simple yes or no answer, or deal with situations you haven’t encountered before.
Good problem solving is all about getting creative. For example, perhaps you don’t have the exact item a customer requested in stock. Possible solutions might include ordering it for them to collect at a later date, or helping them to find a different product that will meet the same need.
Problem solving customer queries can also extend to taking steps to reduce the same issue arising again in the future. This might include solutions like increasing stock of a popular product, creating an FAQ page on the business website, or posting the answers to common queries on the store’s social media channels.
Problem solving can include asking for help, such as from your manager or a coworker. But it’s best to attempt to solve the problem yourself before going to others for help if possible.
Further reading
Solved a problem? Here’s how to tell your manager about it. And if a problem has you stumped, here are some ideas to consider.
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