We’re giving you a taste of different chapters in Over the Counter, the recently updated and republished book by Marcia Todd. Each chapter covers an area that a dry cleaning or laundry counter person will have to master in order to truly be a counter professional. The chapters are designed to give advice and prompt extra attention to a specific area of performance. All chapters end with questions for further thought and discussion, and a quiz at the back of the book tests comprehension. The book ends with a Certificate of Achievement.

Chapter 2 — Greeting Customers

(An excerpt)

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A person’s name is the most beautiful thing an individual can hear from another person. It is also the most effective way to convey the feeling that someone is really important to you, that you care about this person, and that, by extension, you care about this person’s clothes. When you look at customers, smile, use their names and handle their clothes very carefully, you are implying that they are very important people to you.

The Small Business Administration has said that well over half of all customers who decide to quit one business to patronize another do so because of an “attitude of indifference on the part of an employee.” In the dry cleaning business, you are selling a service and not a product. Therefore, it is very important that you are careful to always show your customers that you care, and that the service you’re selling is one which cares for your customers’ clothes.

If it’s at all possible, a customer should be able to see someone in the store before entering it. An empty store is not very welcoming, no matter how inviting its decor may be. If it is impossible to stand at the counter while you handle something in back, then you should come forward immediately when a customer comes in. Your first act should be to smile and give a cheerful greeting immediately, as well. No matter that you may have just had a rough time with another customer or fellow employee; no matter that you are tired from a long weekend; you are onstage, and it’s “on with the show!”

Smile, say, “Good morning,” and use the customer’s name, if you know it. (If not, use it as soon as you learn it.) Add a casual remark about the weather or some other topic, and then take good care of your customer. You are the host in your store, and you should greet customers just as if they were your guests. Remember how you may have felt at a party when you were a stranger and no one smiled or spoke to you? Well, a new customer may feel much the same way in your store if you aren’t friendly.

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To read more, see our special page about how to order the paperback or ebook.