Customer Service Checklist

Avoid the closed "can I help you?" — it gets a reflex "just looking." Use an open question tied to current floor sets: "Are you shopping the new fall arrivals or did you come in for something specific?" This is what drives conversion rate, not friendliness alone.

If you are mid-transaction or mid-fitting-room and another customer enters, acknowledge them by name or eye contact and signal a free associate over the headset. Customers who stand unacknowledged for 60+ seconds account for a measurable share of walk-outs.

Pull on-hand, on-PO, and in-transit in the POS (Lightspeed, Shopify POS, NCR Counterpoint) before telling a customer the SKU is unavailable. "We're out" when the stockroom has 3 in a sealed carton is the most common avoidable lost sale.

If your store is out, check the OMS for nearest-store availability and offer either a transfer-hold or ship-from-store. Capture the customer's email at the register so the system fires the in-stock notification when the SKU returns.

Knock, ask how the fit is, and offer the next size or a coordinating piece. Empty hangers in unattended rooms are the highest-shrink corner of the store — fitting-room sweeps are loss-prevention as much as service.

In the OMS, place a 48-hour hold at the source store and email the customer the pickup details. Confirm the customer's preferred store and ETA before submitting.

Pass each item over the deactivator pad and visually confirm hard tags are removed. A live sensor leaving the store triggers gates at the next retailer and creates an angry customer call. Post-checkout sweep of the bag is the backstop.

Ask for phone or email at the start of the transaction, not after tender. Lookup post-tender means the points don't post and you owe a manual adjustment later. UPT and ATV both lift measurably when loyalty is captured pre-tender.

The POS prompt for DOB on alcohol, tobacco (21+ federal), or other state-restricted product is mandatory on every sale, including regulars. State ABC and FDA compliance checks fine the store on a single missed card; "I know them" is not a defense.

Confirm chip-and-PIN or contactless captured on the first tap; manual key entry is a PCI red flag and a fraud signal. Hand the receipt directly to the customer with the bag, and mention the return window posted on the receipt.

Look up the receipt by card, loyalty number, or transaction ID before opening a return. Returns processed without a linked original are a top refund-fraud vector and skew shrink reporting.

Per policy, any refund over $50, any no-receipt return, or any return outside the posted window requires shift-lead override at the register. Sweethearting and refund fraud hide in solo high-dollar refunds — the override exists for the audit trail.

Defective returns go to the RTV bin with a tag noting SKU, return date, and defect description — not back to the sales floor. Stockroom processes RTVs against the vendor agreement weekly; loose defectives in the stockroom become write-offs.

Capture what the customer said, what was offered, and what they accepted. Service complaints rolled up weekly surface trends — a recurring vendor defect, a training gap, a fitting-room signage issue — that single incidents hide.

Trigger the Klaviyo or Yotpo survey 48 hours after purchase. Earlier than that and the item hasn't been worn or used; later than a week and recall fades. Survey responses feed the weekly customer-service review.

If loyalty wasn't captured at checkout, the post-purchase email includes a one-click enroll link. Don't double-charge the customer for the welcome offer if they're already enrolled — the platform suppresses duplicates only if you matched the email at checkout.

Store manager pulls the weekly NPS dashboard and the complaint log every Monday. Look for a single SKU driving multiple defective returns, a single associate driving multiple low scores, or a fitting-room/floor pattern. Action items go to the Tuesday team huddle.