May I Help You?

Picture is downloaded from here

It is very common to hear this expression when you enter a store. The salespeople usually greet you in a polite way, or so, by using such expression. But have you ever realized that this expression has different meaning in reality?

May I help you can create pro and cons. According to Roger Dickinson and Shiva Nandon, both of the University of Texas at Arlington, wrote to say they disagreed with that statement.

Agree or disagree, it is interesting to see from the customer perspective. Let’s say that you want to buy a shirt. You enter a famous shirt-store, Zara, and expect to get what you want. As a decisive shopper, you already know what kind of style you are looking for. However, once you pass the main entrance, the salesperson greets you and say: Hello sir, good afternoon, may I help you?

I bet if you are a decisive one like me, or a sociable kind of shopper, you going to say: No thanks. I’m just looking around. Your answer sounds okay in terms of customer perspective. But will that be working well if you are the shop-owner?

Let’s agree that the first fifteen seconds of interaction between a salesperson and a potential customer in the store is crucial in determining whether this potential customer will make a close, purchase the product, or not. So, what should a retailer do to create a close purchase then?

Let’s think about a variation of the expression May I help you.

What about this: How may I help you?

The issue here is that the customer needs assistance. And that’s what a retailer should do. A retailer should find a way to assist the customers and customers cannot simply say yes or no to this question. Although in some senses, people see that basically there’s no difference between the two expressions.

Rather than arguing what kind of expression does a retailer should do, a retailer should be able to give the best experience for the potential and regular customers. By giving the best service, from salespeople, quality assurance, product knowledge, warranty, and competitive price, potential and regular customers can experience the benefit of using the product and regularly attach to it.