T-6 - Approaching and Greeting Customers (40 Min)

Description: This session covers the importance of first impressions. In this case, that
means the initial approach and greeting of a customer. This session describes the qualities of
an effective greeting and provides participants the opportunity to practice approaching and
greeting customers.

Participant Learning Objectives:

By the end of the session, I will be able to:
● Explain the importance of the first few minutes in a customer's journey and the impact
a greeting can have on their experience.
● Describe the qualities of an effective greeting.

Key points:
● Greetings set the tone for the customer's experience in the store, and can directly
influence whether and how much a customer purchases now and in the future.
● Effective greetings include the following:
○ (1) proactive and timely approach
○ (2) confident and warm body language
○ (3) appropriate verbal greeting
○ (4) differentiated approach based on customer type
● When a new customer walks in, use the acronym SPOT to help remind you to
○ Smile to welcome customers as if they are friends coming to your house
○ Present yourself by stating your name and greeting the customer
○ Offer to help the customer
○ Thank the customer
● During busy periods when there are multiple customers in your department, do your
best to greet everyone in a timely way. There are some strategies to keep in mind to
mindfully greet and support all customers.

Behavioral ● Customer Mindsets ● Future orientation

skills focus

Keywords ● Approach Materials ● NSDC Participant Handbook

● Greeting

Session ● The session builds upon information from T-5, SA-CS5, SA- RP-
Sequencing 2.

Performance ● b. Confidently greet customers with a warm and welcoming smile

Goals and an appropriate verbal greeting (e.g. given time of day,

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 employer norms, etc.)

Session ● During Practice - Customer Approach Role Play, observe

Assessment participants to see if they follow all four steps of approaching and
greeting customers while maintaining a smile, eye contact, an upright
posture when talking to the customer.

Icons ☞ Activity ⟲ Debrief ✔ Assessment

Time Activity
5 minutes Opening
20 minutes Content: Approaching and Greeting a Customer
● Instructor Demonstration: Approaching and Greeting
● Debrief
● Check for Understanding: Approaching a Customer
● Instructor Demonstrations: Effective vs. Ineffective Greetings
● Debrief
10 minutes Content: Greetings 2.0
● Instructor Demonstration: Greetings 2.0
● Debrief
5 minutes Closing

PREPARATION
● Write the learning objectives on the board.
● Tell participants that they will be standing, for at a minimum, during all practice
portions of this session in order to prepare for the physical demands of a retail sales
associate position. If it seems appropriate to extend the duration of the standing to better
mimic the on-the-job expectations, feel free to extend this. If space is needed, move
chairs out of the room to allow for all participants to stand.
● Write the following on a piece of chart paper. Make the first letter bigger/bolder.
○ Smile warmly
○ Presentation and effective greeting
○ Offer to help
○ Thanking the customers
● Draw the table below in the middle of the board.
Ineffective Effective

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 ● Prepare for your instructor demonstrations

OPENING (5 minutes)
Instructor note: In the opening, participants will review objectives and do a quick activity to
gauge their thoughts about retail sales.

● Ask: Imagine you are a customer walking into a retail store. How would you like the
retail sales associate to greet you, and what would him or her to say to you? Turn and
TalkFT then Share Out.FT

● Objectives: Review objectives and provide rationale for the value of this session.
○ Explain that the purpose of this session is to prepare participants for
approaching and greeting customers.
○ Emphasize that greetings can oftentimes be a customer’s first impression, and
so it is especially important in setting the tone for a customer’s shopping
experience.

CONTENT – Approaching and Greeting a Customer (15 minutes)

Instructor note: The purpose of this section is to describe the art of approaching all kinds of
customers warmly and demonstrate a willingness to help them.

● Explain the importance of approaching and greeting a customer as s/he enters a retail
store and mention that:
○ Approaching customers is important for delivering a positive shopping experience
for the customer. It is the foundation of the overall experience.
○ It is important to be proactive and not wait for the customers to approach you.

Instructor Demonstration: Approaching and Greeting

● Tell participants you will do a short demonstration of a customer greeting and that as
you demonstrate they should look carefully at what you are doing and saying.
○ Choose a participant volunteer to act as a customer. Tell the customer to
pretend to walk in and start looking casually at items.
○ In your demonstration, be sure to use the four steps outlined in the table. Make
eye contact and stand with an upright posture.

Instructor note: You will describe these strategies in detail after participants have debriefed
their observations of your instructor demonstration.

Step Description

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 1 Smile to welcome customers as if they’re friends coming to your house.

2 Present yourself by stating your name and greeting the customer.

3 Offer to help the customer.

4 Thank the customer.

⟲ Debrief
● Ask the following questions. Turn and TalkFT then Share Out.FT Write down
participant answers in the “effective greetings” column on the board.
○ What did you notice about my body language as I approached the customer?
○ What did you hear me say when I verbally greeted the customer?
○ How did I end the interaction?

● After participants have debriefed their observations, introduce and describe each of
the four steps for effectively approaching and greeting a customer (using the table
above). Make connections to their observations as you explain.
○ Point out the acronym “SPOT” to help them remember these steps.
○ Give examples of verbal greetings, including the ones below. Then, ask
participants for additional verbal greetings.
■ Good afternoon. How is your day so far?
■ Welcome! What can I help you with today?
■ Are you looking for something specific? Can I help you find it?

☞ Check for Understanding: Approaching a Customer

● Give Directions:
❏ Divide participants into pairs and ask pairs to stand up.
❏ Tell them they’ll practice approaching and greeting a customer.
❏ Direct participants to self-assign the roles of RSA and Customer for the first
round..
❏ Customer: pretend to walk in and casually look at items
❏ RSA approach and greet the customer using SPOT steps; make sure to
use good eye contact and posture!
❏ After 1-2 minutes, participants will switch roles.

● Walk AroundFT and be prepared to share feedback on what participants are doing well
within the four steps and what participants needing improvement on.
● After both partners have been the RSA, ask participants to stand in a circle.

● Ask the following questions. Turn and TalkFT and Share Out.FT
○ What did you find challenging about using all four steps?
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 ○ How does approaching and greeting a customer thoughtfully demonstrate a
future orientation mindset?
■ Possible answer: It shows future orientation because it shows an
awareness that this interaction may directly influence this customer’s
experience overall, whether they buy something today, and even if they
choose to return to the store in the future. Both of these are directly
aligned to our goals as RSAs.
● Give feedback based on what you saw during your Walk Around.FT Then ask
participants to return to their seats.

● Highlight the following:

○ Creating and maintaining a good rapport with customers is an essential part of
an RSA’s job.
○ Always demonstrating respect toward the customer will help create a positive
impression

Instructor Demonstrations: Effective vs. Ineffective Greetings

● Tell participants you will do two more short demonstrations and that this time, they
should look carefully at what you are doing wrong.
○ Choose a different participant volunteer to act as a customer, walking in and
looking casually at items.
○ In your first demonstration, approach the customer with poor body language,
no eye contact, and an unwelcoming tone.
○ In your second demonstration, approach the customer without a verbal
greeting. Just walk up to them and stand behind them.
⟲ Debrief
● Say: These two customer greetings looked very different from the first greeting you saw.
● Point to the table that you have drawn on the board and ask the following questions.
Write down participant answers in the “ineffective” column as they share.
○ What did you notice about my body language in these demonstrations?
○ What did you notice about the verbal greeting?
○ What impact do you think this type of greeting has on customers?

● Highlight and add any of the examples below that were not shared by participants.
○ No greeting at all
○ Approach without a verbal greeting
○ Poor body language
○ No eye contact
○ Unwelcoming tone
● Explain that these are common errors that new RSAs make when greeting customers
and that it is important to avoid these when interacting with customers.

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 CLOSING (5 minutes)
Instructor note: This section allows participants to reflect on what they’ve learned.

● Summary: Participants Turn and TalkFT and then Share OutFT a summary of what they
learned in today’s session about the importance of a greeting.
● Objectives Review: Go back to objectives and check the ones that you successfully
completed.

-- End of Session --

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