What do you want?

For a change of pace this holiday season, I decided to pick up some hours at a retail store assisting customers with selecting cooking/baking supplies. It has been a wonderful experience, it has probably been 25 years since I have worked retail and it certainly was an interesting change of pace to be "an employee" again.

As I noticed each customer enter or residing in the store, I approached and asked a version of the same question; "Is there anything I can help you find?" To which, almost every single time is responded to by "No thank you.....actually I am looking for....(insert obscure gadget here)"

After seeing this in action at least a hundred times, I started to wonder....why do we have a problem asking for what we want/need? Are we so independent that we can't accept help, or in this self-service world has it just become uncommon to have help? Or have past experiences with overly pushing salespeople jaded us to allowing others to help us get what we need?

It mirrors another experience that happens nearly every time we eat out. It starts something like this:
Husband: Where do you want to eat?
Me: I don't know, where do YOU want to eat?
Husband: I don't care, where do YOU want to eat?
Me: Kentucky Fried Chicken (I only say this because I know he won't eat there)
And on it goes.....

Do neither of us know what we want, or not really care? No, we both have our favorites, but why are we afraid to ask for what we want? Or have we determined it is impolite to ask.

In the end, it is the customer who asks for what they really want, that in fact, find and get it, and are out of the store in record time. Which proves that you should be careful what you ask for....you might actually get it!

The thing is, you have to ask. Try it today and see what happens.