Many clients explain that staff have a mental block when it comes to cross selling. They used to think service was about cuddling the customer with “How’s your father” type discussions.

While this may still be true, customers now expect to be cross sold. We recently conducted a survey of 485 shoppers and asked the following:

How do you feel about up-selling where you are asked if you would like to buy a bigger version or complimentary product?

The answers were surprising!

5% said they would be insulted
14% are neutral
56% accept it as part of retailing
25% are glad to be given the opportunity

We also regularly correlate Mystery Shopping scores to shopper satisfaction.  The results are clear. High Mystery Shop scores correlate to high satisfaction scores.  Most Mystery Shopping questionnaires include a section on closing the sale and/or cross selling.

So the data shows that customers are more satisfied when staff sell.  Don’t be so presumptuous as to know what the customer wants.  Our job is to offer, and for the customer to decide – but give them a chance to decide to buy.

When you talk to your staff about cross selling, share these statistics.

Often the customer is happy to hear about the offer. You are not doing them a disservice, but doing them a favour.

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