STAY BY THE CASH-DESK

We are in the perfume and cosmetics section in one of Baku's shops. A girl is looking at eye shadow from a French cosmetic company. She looks at it and intends to buy it. Luckily, the shop has set up a special sampler stand. All perfume and cosmetics shops in Baku do so today - a kind of good manners.

Having tested the eye shadow on her hand, the girl decides to look at the box it comes in - is the box as good as the contents and is it easy to handle? There is another stand near the sampler stand - one with the product itself. The girl extends her hand towards the eye shadow box and has already picked it up when she is stopped by the indignant voice of the saleswoman: "Girl, the samplers are here, not there. You cannot touch anything there!"

Of course, the consumer was totally outraged. The saleswoman stopped short when the girl pointed out her strategic mistake. She replied to her the way she should reply to rudeness, defending not just herself, but also the consumers' right to choose. If the insulted consumer had gone further, she could have called for the management of the shop and would have been right in this case. Of course, the girl walked out of the shop without buying anything; profit and customer were both lost.

We declare war on rudeness

Meanwhile, there is another, more delicate psychological aspect to this whole story: spoilt mood and moral harm. Perhaps such rudeness could cause someone to have a nervous breakdown, or maybe someone else has trouble at home - in this modern, stressful world, people should be as attentive and polite as possible. It is not just a matter of ratings and sales.

Today we encounter rudeness on public transport, at work and in shops more and more often. It is all around us. But the most terrible thing is that a correct attitude to others in modern society is no longer the norm. What are we to do about it? A person who is in trouble has to save himself without anyone else's help: a person who encounters injustice should not be shy, but should appeal to the law. If there are laws, they are there to defend us. It is time to change our unjustified behaviour of keeping quiet, "not noticing" cheating, not returning products that have passed their sell-by date and not addressing the management of a shop to complain about rude salespeople. There is enough rudeness around us: a classic case in Baku shops is when you do not get your change. When you try to prove to the salesman that he was wrong, he starts complaining that he does not have change. Another even more classic case - "I do not want to cut the sausage at the end of the shift". A consumer comes into a shop half an hour before it closes and asks the saleswoman to "cut off some ham or sausage", and she says "take what is left, I am not going to cut a new one for you". There have been cases when the customer wanted to call the management, but unfortunately the manager is never at work. In some food shops there is "black cheating" - they put a plate of glass on the scales in order not to soil the scales with the products, and the plate actually weighs 100-150 kg. Many of us have no time or patience to deal with this situation.

Meanwhile, consumers can find many provisions to prove that they are right and that their rights have been violated if they refer to the law of the Azerbaijan Republic "On the protection of consumers' rights". This document, adopted on 19 September 1995 and amended on 5 October 2001, 12 October 2001 and 23 April 2002, says in Article 3, Section 2, that, "consumers who buy goods on the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic have the right to free choice of goods (jobs and services) and their manufacturers, executors and sellers; proper quality in the goods they consume (jobs and services), safety of goods (jobs and services)" and so on.

This means that the shop staff who refuse to weigh for the consumer as much sausage as he wants simply violate his right to free choice of goods and services. And they should be punished according to the law.

Further, according to Article 13 of Section 1 of the aforesaid law, the salesperson (executor) "must provide the consumer with necessary and true information about the price and quality (!) of the goods he is interested in, the conditions for buying them, warranties and the procedure for filing complaints, the methods and rules for using, storing and safely disposing of goods".

Moreover, Article 14, "On the consumers' rights in the sphere of trade and other types of services" says in Section 1 that "all citizens have an equal right to have their demands met (!) in the sphere of trade and other types of services".

Indeed, the stories about the eye shadow and slices of ham have a lot in common. In both cases, the rights of the consumer to have his demand met in the sphere of trade were violated, which means that the salesperson should be held to account according to the law. But we maintain our silence.

In general, if we dig deeper into the law, "On the protection of consumers' rights", we can find many interesting things, even though the chairman of the Union of Free Consumers of Azerbaijan, Eyyub Huseynov, thinks that there are many gaps in it. But that is a different issue. When will we learn to address the laws, even those that have these gaps? If we take a closer look, the law "breathes" when it works, and in fact the work on every law automatically continues every time it is used in practice. If it is not used in practice, it turns into a dead document, and it is not clear what you have to work on.

It turns out that we have what we have created. This unprofessional attitude of salespeople towards consumers results from consumers' lack of response to poor service. Understanding that their actions go unpunished, these boors continue to do whatever they like. Do you remember who last asked for the "book of complaints and suggestions" which should be available in every shop? And is it available at all? Which of us has protested that only two of four cash-desks are operational in a supermarket, causing long queues, as a result of which you are late for work? These are questions that are difficult to answer: people continue to keep quiet.

Education for salespeople1

Now let's talk about the behaviour of salespeople who could have expanded their business. The modern world, as it were, dictates its own conditions, and the many shops in Baku should justify their "modern" existence. It is not clear why the management of many points of sale in our city does not want to realize that the "Soviet-style" idea of a salesperson is now outdated. What shops need are not salespeople, but consultants. Only if this happens can we talk about such an idea as merchandizing in Azerbaijan - an integral part of marketing and activity directed at ensuring the maximum promotion of a product for retail sale. This also involves attracting consumers' attention to a product or brand directly at points of end consumption, a flexible pricing policy and demonstrations of goods in the sales hall. But we still have a long way to go to see such ideas.

And what should this salesperson be like? According to the chairman of the Union of Free Consumers, Huseynov, a salesman consultant should first of all be able to communicate with customers. Communication is mainly based on the impression that the salesman makes of himself. Shop staff should wear clothe which are clean, tidy and imposing. They should be supplemented by a stripe showing the emblem of the shop and a badge with the name and surname of the salesperson: consumers should always have the opportunity to know who was good or bad at catering for them. Experience shows that clothes boost the discipline and corporate culture of personnel.

This image is supplemented by a tidy haircut and good manners. A salesperson's friendliness encourages a sense of sympathy with him. Many consumers use these signs to judge the salesperson's ability to do his job quickly and well. Tidy, energetic and friendly salespeople are always popular with customers.

Sociability is the main professional feature of a salesperson. However, it should not turn into persistence or obsequiousness. A good salesperson knows not just how to talk to the customer easily and freely, but also how to actively restrain his negative emotions, i.e. suppress his irritation and overcome his confusion. 

A good salesman should also be well-versed in the foundations of law, psychology, merchandizing and advertising… He needs to have teamwork skills, know all the subtle points of merchandizing and identify the customer's behaviour (what the customer has in his mind when he approaches the counter, what he needs, etc.) "Don't you think that these requirements are too high?" you may ask. There are never "too many" professional qualities in the difficult and responsible business of retail selling.

You should make a point of one main thing - the customer should first show an interest in a product. This means that the salesperson must know and feel when he needs to offer his help and understand when the customer sets his eye on a certain product (or when he takes it), and only after that, should he approach the customer. The thing is that many people come to shops just to "have a look around": to see what is new, to look at price tags and to dream… without intending to get their shopping done "here and now". Such customers should be given the chance to see the goods on their own and you should demonstrate samples only if they ask you. The persistent phrase "what are you interested in?" uttered with a de-manding and impatient intonation will put the customer off your shop for a long time. In the future, when he is ready to buy what he likes, he will hardly want to come to your shop again where persistent salespeople almost grab people by the arm and demand that they buy something!

Nothing can damage the image of a shop so much as "heavy" and pressurizing personnel. But what is even worse than persistence is complete negligence of the customer who is not going to buy anything. And every shop must remember that factors which help increase sales are the tidy appearance of the salesperson, a service culture, detailed knowledge of the goods, professionalism and competence, the salesperson's mood, his intellectual level, his inner culture, an individual approach to every customer and mutual assistance between salespeople.

If a customer encounters a rude salesperson, he has the right to address the management of the shop to defend his rights. Don't keep quiet and don't be shy! There is a golden rule: only if you are demanding with regard to the salesperson and service, can you change the situation for the better, when shops will start struggling for the attention of every single customer.