Walgreens employees no longer need to greet each customer with "Welcome to Walgreens" or end each transaction with "Be well," according to a new company memo they recently released. The retailer's guidelines also now *encourage employees to learn customers' names and use them in greetings.* What a great Customer Experience Marketing idea!
Walgreens made this policy change after feedback from many of their employees stated that the mandatory greeting and goodbye "sounded like an insincere carbon copy routine." Many Walgreens employees also believed it was somewhat ridiculous to say “be well” when someone is buying cigarettes or other unhealthy products.
If you've followed any of my Chain Reactions posts or attended any of the my Webinars at http://www.JohnWeisenberger.com, you know that asking the customer's name and then using it in conversation is only done in a very small percentage of customer/client/patient interactions. By giving their employees more latitude in how they choose to greet customers, Walgreens employees will now be able to greet customers with a much more sincere experience that will help build stronger relationships and increased customer loyalty.
Oh yeah, and did I mention, it costs absolutely noting to implement this idea. Now where did I hear that before?
