Sometimes you get a blogpost that sounds smart and insightful but unfortunately it is not since the author's objective is to sound smart, get kudos etc..... I h

Sometimes you get a blogpost that sounds smart and insightful but unfortunately it is not since the author's objective is to sound smart, get kudos etc..... I have spent six years working in retail from low end to high end. I also survived 3 months as a waiter and I will give you practical advice for this situation and not try and extrapolate this advice to alll sales situations. 1) Yes, people hate the do u need any help question but not because of the question in itself. It is because they usually have just entered the store and they get just asked this and since they have not had a chance to look at anything they obviously don't need any help. The reason why this mistake gets repeated over and over is because from a distance there is a manager who will usually get pissed off if they don't. You might say that the manager should be smart enough to know this is dumb but I have no idea why they still do maybe power trip. 2)How to ask the do you need any help question. You have to just watch your consumers from a distance, greet them and walk away, make them feel free but slightly monitor their gestures. As time goes on you develop a skill to see which customer needs help, for example they standing with one shoe in their hand looking around whith their head tilted up, ask them if they need help, they will be very happy. If your manager is standing around unfortunately you have to be annoying and ask consumers as soon as they enter the store. During my 3 month waiter stint in college, a famous singer came by to eat, she just happened to sit at my table, boy did I regret it. The owner of the restaurant practically had his chin at my shoulder. This guy was freaking out, he had me asking them if everything was fine every 3 minutes, until the singers manager asked me too give them some space. I went back and told the owner, his reply to me was that I was fucking up big time. Lol!