Customer Experience Teams & Sales Associates: Remove Their Obstacles! #CX

Customer experience teams and sales associates continue to face obstacles that leaders can and should remove. Every aspect of service and sales is tough enough. The challenges of dealing with diverse customers is a big enough load. So leaders, remove these other obstacles that customer experience teams and sales associates face.



Customer Experience Team: Image is the word obstacle.

Remove the Obstacles for Customer Experience Teams & Sales Associates! Image by Jesper Sehested.

Image by Jesper Sehested via Flickr Creative Commons License.


Remove Obstacles of Customer Experience Teams & Sales Associates


Another True Story to Illustrate Obstacles

I purchased clothes online from a retailer that also has brick & mortar stores. They allow you to return the clothes at a nearby store instead of paying return shipping and I had done this other times. This time, when I returned the clothes to the store, the online system was only showing one of the items in the order. Major obstacle for the sales and service team there. They tried everything they knew and resorted to tagging each item with store tags and finally giving me a cash refund. Their efforts took thirty minutes! It’s a good thing I was there when they first opened and there were no other customers waiting in line. I could see their frustration and one even said “I hate online returns.” Hmm… interesting. This means they’ve had trouble before and the obstacles still exist.


What are the common obstacles sales and service teams face?



  1. Silos and lack of information. As a consultant I see this over and over. Online sales and in person sales use different rules and they don’t know each other’s rules. TIP: Leaders, bridge these silos or remove them completely.

  2. Lack of technical help for point-of-sale moments in stores. While I was waiting 30 minutes for the team to give me a refund, I twice suggested they call an online help desk to find the full order online. It turns out, there isn’t an online help desk! TIP: Leaders, give in-store employees access to technical help for online returns.

  3. Not trained to address difficult moments. Because I teach people skills and service, I did not get angry at these customer experience and sales associates. Many customers would be incensed having to wait thirty minutes. Lack of training is an obstacle and one that leaders can easily address.

  4. Complicated procedures. Big retailers learned long ago that customers reward stores that make returns easy and quick. Customers go back again and buy more. TIP: Leaders, look at the procedures in action. What needless hoops are you asking customer experience teams and sales associates to jump through? Remember, the customer has to jump through those hoops too. Most likely, they will leave and buy from others who make the experience easy and pleasant. I doubt I will buy online from this store again. It’s just too difficult when the clothes don’t fit!

  5. Lack of communication with leaders. It was so clear that these employees had trouble with online returns in the past. Yet, the obstacles continued. Why? TIP: Leaders, ask these frontline customer experience teams and sales associates what obstacles they are facing. They know what they and the customers are going through. Then remove these obstacles.


Make Customer Experience Teams & Sales Associates Successful!

Leaders, if you’re not removing these obstacles that the service and sales teams face, you are hurting the company’s profits. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it’s their job to handle all obstacles. It isn’t. It simply is not possible for them to address all those challenges and still serve and sell to the customer at the same time. Online sales are booming and customers like returning items to a local store instead of shipping them back. Make this easy for everyone involved!


From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™

Related Posts:
Customer Experience Vibe: Is Your Business Being Generous or Greedy?
Irresistible Customer Experience: What Every Customer Wants!

©2022 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.


Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.


Get more inspiration and actionable tips for high engagement results!


Buy Kate Nasser’s new book Leading Morale (Amazon.com).

Comments are closed.

KateNasser on Facebook KateNasser Blog KateNasser on Twitter KateNasser on LinkedIn KateNasser on Pinterest