Jeff Toister of Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., tells the story of when he worked as a retail sales associate in a clothing store when he was in high school.

This experience taught him the importance of making the first move when helping customers. He also learned that how he made my first move was almost as important as making it.

Poor Example
Wait for the customer to come to you.

Good Example
Initiate contact with your customers and ask, “May I help you?” I generally got good reactions when I did this at the clothing store, although I also noticed very few people said, “Yes, I could use your help.”

Great Example
Customers often don’t know what type of questions they have or what help they might need, so you can overcome this by initiating a little conversation.

Here are some examples:

• In retail, I learned to ask customers what brought them into the store today. That often sparked conversation about what they were looking for and made it easy for me to find ways to help them.
• At a catalog company, I would sometimes call customers just to see how they liked some products they had recently ordered. This usually was a pleasant surprise for the customer and would often result in additional business.
• As a consultant, I often call my clients just to see how they are doing, even if we aren’t currently working on a project together. This lets them know I care about their success and makes it more likely they’ll hire me when they do need my help.

Bonus Info: Initiating service is a great way to make a first impression. Did you know that first impressions are just one of three critical moments in every customer’s experience?