Without customers, no business can survive, let alone grow. When it comes to loss prevention, it is sometimes difficult to maintain a focus on customer service. This is due to a couple of things. First, loss prevention tends to deal with the dishonest types more, and so we tend to be more suspicious of everyone’s motives. Secondly, loss prevention professionals haven’t historically been taught the power of customer service as a deterrent to theft.

Good customer service accomplishes two things related to the loss prevention strategy. First, it is the best deterrent to theft. No thief wants to be noticed, and if the employees are actively engaging the would-be thief in conversation, 9 in 10 will walk away without attempting to steal. Of the 10% who try anyway, 75% will get caught in the act if good customer service standards are being maintained. That’s a huge win for loss prevention, and it costs nothing, zero, nadda!

Second, good customer service boosts sales. Any loss prevention program that is not concerned with increasing sales is lacking a key element. It is possible to out-sell shrink, because shrink is a percentage of what? SALES! The more sales your company, region, district, store, etc. has, the less shrink based on the same amount in dollars! Here’s an example:

Say you have a store with $40,000.00 in shrink. If that store sells $5,000,000.00 that year, your shrink as a percent to sales is 0.8%. Now, say that same store maintains the same shrink for the next year, but increases its sales by 10%. The shrink, as a percent to sales, is decreased to 0.72%, for roughly a 10% decrease in shrink on the same number!

Now, let’s say you have a great customer service program, and at the same time you increase your sales by 10%, you decrease your shrink dollars by 10%. Your shrink of $36,000, as a percent of your sales of $5,500,000.00 is 0.65%! Never underestimate the power of great customer service. I know these numbers are wishful thinking for some, but there are companies out there who are posting shrink numbers right around this area (I know for a fact!).

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