I had another experience yesterday which proved to me how important soft skills training is.
Let me tell you what happened…
I accompanied my Mom to the market to complete a few odd jobs in the evening. She was having trouble with a slipper and decided to go to cobbler for the same. The cobbler told us to wait while he repaired the slipper, so we went to another shop to pass the waiting time.
This shop was one of my favourite shops. I simply love their quality of clothes and had been wearing them since a long time now. Somehow I just knew that they understood the value of soft skills training as their service was always exceptional. Although their prices were on the higher side, I could afford them when there was a sale on! And to our luck there was a sale on some of their products yesterday. In fact, it was on a product that my Mom had been looking for since a year now.
Whenever I had been to this shop, I always had an amazing experience. The sales executives greet you with a warm smile as soon as you enter and are so helpful. They always go out of their way to fulfil your littlest needs. In fact I was even joking with one of them sometime back saying that it felt like they had just walked out of a soft skills training session! I was always in awe of how they did it.
However yesterday I had a different kind of experience. Leave alone anyone being there to greet you, the sales people were not even interested in helping. In fact it felt like you were forcing them to even talk! We were horrified at this attitude of their an that’s why sales effectiveness training is also important.
Mom tried on the piece she had been looking for. However she felt like it wasn’t looking very fresh and asked for another one. After asking many times, she was told that all that they had was displayed. Mom even asked if they would be getting more stocks, to which the answer was a stern “No.”
Am sure had the sales women looked into the softer aspects of their skills, they would have had a sale there. Mom had been desperate to buy this product for a year now and seeing the discount she was getting would have definitely gone for even a ‘not so fresh’ piece.
However now she refused. She was very clear that she did not want to buy from a shop where the sales girls behaved the way they did.
The shop had great quality and a good brand name. We had been loyal customers since a very long time. In fact we were even motivated to buy the product. It was the perfect combination for a sure shot sale. But it still did not go through. Why? Because of the lack of appropriate behaviour and customer service training.
And that is precisely why soft skills training is so important. We all go through technical training and think that it’s enough. We work for great brands selling great products. But we forget that if our soft skills training is not in place, we will lose out. After all, humans want the human touch!