It is common knowledge that if the only thing you, as a business, offer sis your product—a commonly available product that is neither unique nor protected by patent—then you are bound to face tough competition from retailers both down the street and online. This puts you in a bidding war against competitors, and in doing so binds you, where the only thing you can rely upon to set yourself apart are discounts, which, as most businesses, will attest is a very slippery slope. So how do you protect yourself from the vicious cycle that is the notorious bidding war and step ahead of the game? Successful businesses are tactful on their approach towards customers and realise that their true strength as a company relies not on their product—which is just as easily offered by any other business—but rather on the whole shopping experience that they create for the customers to make them want to visit their store again and again and continue doing business with them. In contrary to common misconception, the product that a business offers is not, or rather should not, be the central salient feature. It is best treated as secondary to the outstanding shopping experience that bridges companies with customers which in turn establishes a loyal customer base.

Creating a memorable shopping experience that customers will want to remember and repeat isn’t all too difficult, but it requires careful planning and training. Here are some tactics to remember as you set out to improve your business’s retail customer experience and sales:

Satisfied employees make for satisfied customers

Your employees are the everyday face of your business that is often overlooked as such but is important to your company; for they deal directly with your customers. If they are unhappy or uninformed, customers take notice. An unpleasant experience with in-store employees may be what keeps a customer from visiting your store again, and they may even harbour enough negative sentiment towards your business to recommend against your services to friends and family, hurting your prospective customer base as a result. On the other hand, if employees are well-informed, trained, and happy to be working at your company, they will naturally exude greater confidence, and their job satisfaction translates into the demeanor with which they approach customers.

Engagement is key

First impressions are crucial to winning a customer over and creating a lasting impression. If the first thing a customer notices as soon as they walk through the doors of your store are disengaged employees fiddling on their phones on social media or exchanging gossip with one another, the obvious connotation attached to your store will be one that you will want to direly avoid—apathy. This is why it is imperative that you implement retail sales trainings that teach your employees how to enthusiastically engage with customers immediately upon their entering your store. When customers are approached with polite greetings and the employees are attentive to the customer and are at their disposal to offer help at all times, the customers observe employees as helpful, interested people waiting to assist them, and will be grateful for their help and attention. This is the first step to engagement, and the first step to securing a loyal customer base by establishing a warm relationship with your customer.

Be happy that they’re happy

It may not be in the capacity of every employee that works at your company to afford the products that you are selling, especially if you specialise in high-end luxury products. Such state of being without, or of lacking the ability to purchase the goods that one sells at one’s will, may lead to feelings of jealousy towards customers that can. Such feelings, if unaddressed, can adversely affect your salesperson’s capacity to build rapport with your customer. The ideal retail sales training programme does not neglect the prospect of such issues, but addresses them before they have a chance to manifest by teaching your sales staff to live vicariously through the sales process. They learn to enjoy the transaction on the customer’s account, and see value in the experience that they provide, which goes on to mature into greater employee satisfaction as well as consumer satisfaction.

Selling with the heart, not the head

It is generally agreed upon that you simply cannot win on just price alone. A purely analytical sales approach will always boil down to one thing—price. The more the executives at your company harp on about what goes on sale and what doesn’t, the more they will be inclined to inflate prices to provide attractive discounts in hopes of driving sales. However, there will always be watchful customers, and your company can and will be unwillingly pitted against online retailers and held against for falsifying discounts. This is why gambling on prices is a poor strategy that often puts your company’s reputation at risk, which often always has irreversible impact. This is why the winning strategy isn’t to rely on numbers but to focus on the overall shopping experience that attracts customers to your practice and keeps them.

Kharel is the managing director at kantipurjob.com