PLATFORM:Offering better value and service, it seems retailers are brushing up on their selling skills, writes SHEILA O'FLANAGAN

ONE OF the side effects of the current economic shambles is a sudden return, in some quarters at any rate, to the skills of retailing. In the dim, distant and grim days of the early 1970s, when I used to help out in the family store, my dad would give me lessons on the customer always being right and ways to suggest items that they might like to add to their shopping basket even though they weren’t on their original list. It was, I suppose, the equivalent of “would you like fries with that” only tailored to our customers, all of whom we knew personally. And it worked, because our shop was profitable. I’ve always admired people who are good at selling. It takes a certain skill to assess whether “just looking” means “just looking” or whether it really means “I need some help”.

In the years of rampant consumerism and unlimited credit cards, many people didn’t want help and many retailers didn’t know how to give it anyway. In chain stores and department stores around the country you were pretty much left to your own devices; when you made your decision you paid for your goods at a till where the sales assistant (or associate or specialist or whatever job-affirming title they’d come up with) took your purchase, popped it in a bag and called out “next please” before you even had time to put your purse away.

However, on a more recent shopping trip (a patriotic call to retail duty which consisted of buying a snazzy cardigan at a 70 per cent discount), the sales assistant took the garment, folded it carefully, told me that it was a very flattering shape and great value, and suggested that I should come back soon to look at their new stock. I nearly had to pick myself up off the floor.

Meantime the Man, who was buying a scarf for the first time in a number of years, was flabbergasted when the retailer who took his money informed him that it was a lovely colour and went well with his eyes!

Retailers don’t have time to sit around and wait for the Government to come to their aid. They have to shift their stock and quickly, and many of them are doing a good job of it. They have realised that people are buying less and demanding more and, even if they aren’t offering a discount, they’re trying to add value by offering a higher level of customer service. (Although those who are not passing on the price benefit to consumers following sterling’s fall will pay the ultimate price themselves. Almost everyone I know checks to see if there is a sterling price beneath the euro one in UK high street chain store price tags. If the rate is ridiculous, or if the sterling price has been snipped off, they refuse to buy.)

The owners of cafés and delis are beginning to come around to a new reality too. You can now stop for a coffee after some frugal shopping without feeling as though you’ve put a down payment on your very own plantation. The good news is that overpriced chai lattes are being replaced by all-in-one deals that cover both coffee and a bun and make you feel that you haven’t been totally taken for a Venti-sized mug.

Despite massive discounting, times continue to grow tougher for the motor industry. Even if people can get the financing for a car, they’re not sure whether or not they should actually buy it.

In a complete turnaround from the exhibitionist, one-upmanship associated with new registration plates for the last number of years, the sporting of an 09 registration shows you as being out of touch with the new frugality. The young men who once only had to turn up to sell a few 4X4s and reach their targets for the week are unsure of how to deal with customers in an environment where price, not spec, is the over-riding factor.

As consumers, we are in a constant state of nervousness about buying anything because fear is what we’re being sold by our leaders and they’re doing a remarkably good job of it.

Their job should be to sell us coherent policies and a well-thought out agenda for the way forward. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have any of those at the moment. Instead of taking the leaf out of the retailers’ books and making us feel like we’re doing the right thing and giving value for money, they’re leaving us with the horrible feeling that we’ve just bought a pig in a poke and that there’s no chance of exchange or refund. Blinded by the arts of the spin doctors, they’ve forgotten that it’s the customer who’s always right.

www.sheilaoflanagan.net