Good morning!

It is the basis of hospitality and the basis of commerce. This “hello” which comes from the seller has several symbols and several meanings.

You still have to not skip it when you come across a customer…

Good morning

This is the first word of welcome. When you go to friends’ houses, when friends come to see you, we start with that, and then we find out about the person.

Hi, how are you ? So in a business, for the record, we are supposed to welcome a public who does not have to come to us, they can also go to a competitor. But hey, once he walks through the door, good morning makes for a very good introduction. Beyond this little note, it implies that we have seen the client, that we are available and that what’s more, we are happy to see them! All this in a very small ‘good morning!’.

Some customers are shy and won’t dare start a conversation if you haven’t taken the first step. Others are picky and wait for hello before starting their search. A third category likes to be appreciated and recognized. Still others go straight to the point, they don’t have the reflex to say the famous ‘good morning’ but appreciate the attention paid by the seller.

Well yes, all customers are different, but all are sensitive to this form of attention which begins with the magic word!

Good Morning numbers

Other eminent sales specialists have looked into the subject… On the website https://commerce.life/ they explain to us the importance of welcome (which begins with a hello) in the consumer’s act of purchasing. The conversion rate, which calculates the ratio between the number of customer visits compared to their transformation into a purchase, essentially depends on the first smile or the first welcome. Loyalty is also linked to it. Simply put, if you want to optimize your loyal customer lists, start by saying hello!It is also estimated that a warm welcome can increase the average basket by 20%. And the transformation rate that we talked about above, well it can increase by 10%, always depending on the reception, successful or not!One last figure for the road, 68% of consumers leave a point of sale without buying anything because they had the feeling that no one had noticed them or taken care of them. Don’t hesitate to click on the links to find the source of these surveys!

Training

You may remember that, a long time ago, reception training was a little more common in garden centers. But that was before the training reform. Today, it’s a bit of a struggle to take care of these learning days and many companies have given up or some only train the essentials.So, we can ask ourselves the question: what is the essential thing?In boutique chains that sell everyday clothing, staff entry training is mandatory. And in this discovery journey, hello is a priority. 5 seconds is the time we give the customer to receive a hello. In this type of point of sale, hello is a priority, and controlled by the mystery shopper.Can we compare it with the garden? Having spoken about it numerous times with actors in store, for them, it’s no. “In the garden, no need to say hello.” “The customer doesn’t respond anyway, so…”. ” We do not have time “. “The priority is the plants”… Too bad!

Garden Consumer Guide 2024/2025

In our next Garden Consumer Guide which will be released at the Salon du Végétal in Angers on Tuesday September 12, 2024*, we went to meet just over 50 points of sale to measure the ‘hellos’. The principle is simple, we enter the garden center or the producers, we count the sellers we meet and the hellos received.With a few kilometers on the clock to visit superb plant creations, we encountered more than 300 employees from your different brands or sales outlets on the road.We obviously have a good number of anecdotes on the subject, both positive and negative. What does it matter! You will discover all the results in the next Guide, and in particular the final result with a little more than 40% hellos, and therefore… Nearly 60% of employees who have not seen us or not greeted us… Which amounts to a bit the same in the mind of the customer.So 40% hello, in your opinion, is it good or not? It all depends on your objectives, you might say. The advantage is that if you want progress, there is room… In both directions!

Roland Motte… Gardener!

*The conference is free, it will take place in the Serre space, perhaps you will be there?