Top Toy-Selling Customer Service Tips

What customer service tips work best when it comes to selling toys? For this article, sports fan shops of all kinds give their advice.

At Baltimore Sports & Novelty in Owings Mills, Md., Owner Jeffrey Katzen and long-time Store Manager Geri Durham believe it’s all about “hands-on personal service.” Durham said “I’ve always known that’s what separates you from the big boys. You can walk in anywhere and get a product, but with so much competition between online and the big boys, customer service is a really important part of our business, sincerely important.” Both come naturally to Katzen and his manager, but it’s advice that newcomers should take to heart.

Going up the east coast to

Philadelphia, Pa., at the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park, Karen Gjellestad, sales associate at the Philadelphia Phillies NFL team store, speaking for manager Megan Kelly, agreed that it’s all about customer service. She said that “We point toy items out to customers in the store. And any items that we are promoting, toys or anything else, we will actively show them to people. Right now, it’s our new home run hat that we promote in-store in that way.”

In Hurricane, W. Va., Chad Rogers, general manager and head buyer at Sports Fanz, reported, “I would say right now the most important thing is keeping your cool. We’ve had a lot of challenging customers recently, and we’re a bit short staffed like everyone. We try to do our best.” He noted that it is important regardless of what you are selling. “We try to respond to everything as quickly as possible when people shoot us an e-mail, call, or come into the store.”

And in Omaha, Neb., at Husker Hounds, Manager Brett White said, “In general, we try to make people aware of the items that we have. People always look for our new, annually added Herbie design, and they usually sell out every year, so we point those out. Mostly customer service is about being proactive, making sure people can see the toys, and of course, we always ask if they need any help finding anything. It’s always important to know where things are, so we can show our customers exactly where to go.” ❖