The holiday shopping season can be a mixed bag for retailers. On the one hand, it’s a great time for selling; on the other hand, peak sale times can mean problems.
When you put together crowds in search of a good deal and great bargains, the result often is less than ideal: that is to say, competition between customers, aggressiveness and chaos. Take Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving which traditionally opens the holiday sales season in the US, and which has now become a global sales day. Every year, on Black Friday, people flock to stores in order to get the best deals on their holiday shopping. And every year, tales of aggressiveness, confrontations and sometimes physical violence in the stores fill the next day’s papers.
Although great deals seem to bring out the worst in some customers, your sale doesn’t have to (and frankly shouldn’t) degenerate in mayhem.
Here is our advice on how to use the lessons of Black Friday to keep your store from being the center of a holiday sale horror story.
1. Keep the peace
Big sales can have dramatic consequences. In 2008, a stampede in a New York state Wal-Mart caused the death of a young store employee, who was trampled when a crowd of shoppers shattered the main doors and barged into the store. This case is extreme, but tragedies can easily happen if certain precautions are not taken.
Protecting your employees and keeping them safe through the chaos should be your number one priority. Plan ahead, and make sure you have sufficient security staff on duty if you expect big crowds. Do not expect your employees to be able to retain large groups of customers! Better leave this to the professionals. If the crowd gathering outside your store before doors open looks intimidating or problematic, contact security in due time. Also consider having security stationed outside the store just in case specific customers need to be retained. Let people into the store slowly: this will limit the risk of accidents, and will prevent your store from getting overcrowded.
Lastly, make sure your barriers and doors are fully functional, and be ready with a backup plan if anything extreme happens – such as the main doors getting shattered. A good preventive measure would be to have experts run a security check on your store before the sale frenzy begins.
2. Don’t go out of line
After you have been waiting in line for hours, the last thing you want is to have other customers cut in line. During Black Friday 2012, a line-cutting incident in a mall in Texas degenerated into punches being thrown and the pulling out of a handgun. Ouch!
When people start fighting for their place in the queue, chaos will most certainly ensue – and the line will probably slow down even more, causing further dissatisfaction in the crowd. Prevent fights by having a few employees dedicated to directing people in line, and firmly send line-cutters to the back of the queue. By bringing some needed law and order you will be able to offer customers faster service and a better shopping experience for everyone.
3. Don’t let hygiene go down the drain
This point may be surprising to the untrained, but any seasoned store worker could tell you that mishaps can -and will- happen, especially on the day after a national food-fest. Every year unfortunate Black Friday store workers have to clean after customers who used the store aisles as their restroom. This utterly unenviable job includes picking up some pretty unsavory items. Don’t let your store becoming the butt of a “most awful customers” joke: make sure that there are clear directions to the restrooms, and that your facilities are cleaned often and kept well stocked with toilet paper, soap, and all the other essentials. If your store does not have a restroom for customers to use, make sure your staff can give clear directions to the nearest one.
Sales with phenomenal deals like Black Friday can be a moment where people show their worst. As our minds get hyped by the thought of getting the best deal possible, we lose our inhibitions – and can lose track of ourselves.
To make sure that the sales period is successful for your business, your customers and your employees alike, take the necessary security precautions and give your employees all the necessary info to rapidly and effectively deal with customers who are getting out of hand. Have clear guidelines on how to deal with difficult customers, and help your staff get through the stressful sales season unscathed.