Working on commission
By Aaron Broverman • Bankrate.com

It's also important not to be a customer hog. "Service them fully and do not start dividing your time by jumping around, trying to get at three or four customers and saying, 'They're all mine,'" says Allan.

Above all, Allan says you can't let infighting and competition among the sales representatives seep into the customer's consciousness. "If they have any sense of it, then behaviours are not right and the team needs to sit down and figure out what they're doing wrong and how they can make it better. If they work together as a team for individual benefit, it helps them in the long run because satisfied customers will refer others; more people will keep coming in, and so on and so on."

For all Allan's advice however, one decorated business adviser says that she has the secret to keep customers coming back to you regardless of your co-workers underhanded tactics.

Bonding with the customer
Gloria Starr is ranked among the top 5 percent of image, etiquette and communication consultants worldwide. Her Modern Day Finishing School has trained commanders at the Pentagon and Fortune 500 executives. She has also worked with Saudi Arabia's royal family and is an image and etiquette expert on the Canadian TV show Style by Jury.

She says rudeness and incivility are a constant reality of daily living, so improving the situation in the store starts with the salespeople. "When you're in sales, you want to have people know you, like you and trust you, and when you give the perception of value-added, you can create customer loyalty, but it's completely up to you."

It starts with creating a permanent bond, but the chances of doing that are slim unless you know the reasons why specific customers buy from you. "That relates to when you match and mirror them and speak to them in the same language they speak. Do they operate through seeing, hearing or feeling?" These are the principles of neuro-linguistic programming, a technique for closing the deal used everywhere from retail stores to corporate boardrooms.

For example, if you notice a client feeling a garment while they browse, chances are they're kinesthetic people, so you must emphasize those aspects of the garment. "Say things like, 'It feels beautiful, doesn't it? And when you wear it, it will feel warm enough for the winter, but flowing enough for milder evenings,'" says Starr.

"You can't change your co-workers, but when you sell in a manner your customers buy into, you will not lose sales due to a lack of bond. Why would your customers ever go somewhere else when you're the proven entity?"

Aaron Broverman is a writer living in Toronto.