Customer Service

Loss prevention

Preventing the Loss Of inventory or merchandise due to shoplifting, employee theft, or employee error.

Manufacturer:

Produces the products.

Demographics:

Quantifiable information about a customer such as household size, income, education, occupation, and place of residence.

Open-ended questions:

Questions that begin with the words who, what, where, when, how, and why. [hey cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. The aim of using open-ended questions is to get Someone talking.

Closed-ended questions:

Questions that tend to evoke one-word answers: yes or no. The aim of using closed-ended questions is to limit talking or to control the direction of conversation, such as when you want to narrow the scope of the conversation, elicit specific information, or close the sale. Closed-ended questions usually begin with words Like do, will, can, and are

Retailer:

Receives, stores, displays, and presents the products to Customers.

Multichannel:

Retail operations with customer transactions possible through mu\multiple connected channels.

Direct selling:

Salespeople contact customers directly in a convenient location, often at a customer's home; demonstrate product benefits; take orders; and deliver the products or perform the services.

Convenience stores:

These stores aim at providing their customers a convenient shopping experience. These general merchandise stores are easily accessible, small in size, with quick shopping and easy checkout.

Department stores:

These stores offer good service and a broad variety and assortment of products of mid-to-high quality.

Supermarkets:

These stores sell a wide variety of goods including food, alcohol, and medicine.

Supercenters:

These stores typically combine a supermarket and a department store, resulting in a gigantic retail facility that carries an enormous range of products, from apparel to groceries to automotive supplies, all under one roof.

Diverse shopper:

This buyer is hard to predict or to understand. He shops in many different places and is not obviously influenced by any one retail element.

Recreational shopper:

This customer shops for fun, and therefore shopping does not necessarily mean always making a purchase.

Follower:

This customer usually waits to see what the latest trends will be, and is reluctant to try new products until friends have done so and reported on them.

Specialty stores:

This segment focuses on deep but narrow assortments with a high level of customer service.

Practical needs:

Those needs that motivated customers to come to you in the first place-to toe a problem or to get a product or service.

Features:

Those things that are physical in nature, including color, size, etc., and appeal to our senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, feeling, and sight.

E-Commerce:

Buying and selling through the internet via an electronic device.

Wholesaler:

Buys large quantities Of products directly from the manufacturer, breaks them into smaller units, and sells the smaller units to retailers.

Shoplifting:

Carrying, hiding, concealing, or otherwise manipulating merchandise with the intent of taking it or paying Less for it it.

Shortage:

Commonly referred to as shrink or shrinkage because a retailer's inventory literally shrinks in size when it is reduced by theft or can't be accounted for due to employee error.

Discount stores:

These retailers offer a broad variety of merchandise, limited service, and low prices.

Corporate chain:

A company that operates multiple stores under common ownership, and usually has centralized decision-making.

Target market:

A defined customer who has :he need, desire, and ability to buy a retailer's products.

Purchase order (PO):

A detailed list of vendor items requested by the store. It will list the sizes, colors, models, etc., as well as the number of each item requested. Purchase orders are sent to the vendor or store distribution center to request shipment of merchandise.

Packing slip:

A list of the quantity and type of merchandise that the vendor sends to a store. The vendor or distribution center will normally include the packing slip with the requested merchandise at the time of shipment.

Physical inventory:

A physical Count of every piece of merchandise in the store, creating a record of the store's inventory at a specific point in time.

Physical cue:

A physical need such as hunger or thirst that drives behavior.

Active listening:

A structured form of listening and responding that focuses the attention on the speaker. The listener must take care to attend to the speaker fully, and then repeat, in the Listener's own words, what he or she thinks the speaker has said.

Stimulus:

A thing or event that causes a reaction.

Benefits:

Advantages or rewards of product features.

Commercial cue:

Advertising message that impacts purchase decisions.

Social cue:

Decision making based on the suggestion or preference of a friend, colleague, or family member.

Employee theft:

Employee stealing of cash, including voids, post-voids, and deposits.

Omnichannel:

I: Similar to multichannel retailing, with the focus on creating a seamless consumer experiences through any and all shopping channels.

Personal needs:

Involve the customers' need to be treated with respect and to feel valued, understood, and involved in decisions that affect them.

Shrink/Shrinkage:

Loss caused by shoplifting, employee theft, and employee error. It is the difference between the amount of merchandise on the company's financial records and the actual count of merchandise.

Fraud:

Means of stealing by trickery, such as stolen credit/debit cards, counterfeit money, currency switching, package switching, refund fraud, refund abuse, stolen or bad checks.

Value:

More than just price, value is a measure of the total benefit. Ex. Spending a little more money to purchase a product at a retailer that provides warranties or superior customer service.

Retailing:

No matter what format it takes, retailing is the method by which consumers acquire products and services.

Outlet stores:

Off price stores that are Owned by the manufacturer or retailer.

Closeout stores:

Off-price stores that offer an assortment of brand-name merchandise at a significant discount off the manufacturer's price.

Off-price retailers:

Offer brand-name merchandise at a discount. The merchandise typically consists of excess inventory, closeouts, and irregulars. See also closeout stores and outlet stores.

Lifestyle merchandising:

Staging products by how the customer will be using the product and creating a display around that mental picture [similar to suggestive selling].

Customer service:

The act of taking care of the customer's needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during, and after the customers requirements are met.

Merchandising:

The art and science of presenting the products you sell in the most attractive way possible in order to generate traffic, create Interest and buzz, and generate sales.

Distribution channel:

The chain of businesses through which a good or service passes until it reaches the end consumer.

Franchises:

The license granted to another party to market a company's goods or services in a particular territory.

Independent establishment:

Typically single store or a small, regional chain.

Planogram:

Visual map that shows shelf heights, merchandise and signage placement that maximizes the display space.

Loss:

When assets of a business are stolen or lost due to error. Categories of loss are "shortage" or "other." Shortage is loss due to shoplifting, employee theft, and employee inventory. Other loss is when assets other than merchandise are missing, such as cash or equipment. This may be due to credit/debit card fraud [customer dishonesty], cash over or short, stolen or bad checks, safety issues [causing workman's comp, lawsuits, medical bills].

Pre-priced inventory:

When merchandise arrives at the store with price tags already attached and can be placed on the floor as soon as it's checked in.

Wholesale clubs:

Wholesalers who sell products in bulk directly to consumers. These clubs typically require a membership.

Innovative customer:

the buyer who wants to be the first to purchase and own the latest merchandise.

Comparison shopper:

the customer who spends time searching for the best price or deal on the tern she is Looking to purchase.

Gross Domestic Product:

the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country annually.

Impulse buyer:

the person who makes quick purchase decisions.

Brick-and-mortar:

the presence of a physical forefront and face-to-face customer experiences.