Three Customers - Selling it

[drcollie]

Real encounters in my store this week:

Customer 1:

Husband and wife, they come in to look at Hancock and Moore. She's the interested party, he not so much. She asks most the questions, and since I can tell he's just here because he was dragged along it pretty much comes down to the her and I having the dialog. She then asks me "If we were to buy the Sundance in Antelope Rust do you think a Sadler Recliner in Kipling Whiskey will be a nice matching combo it in our room? Let me show you our room photos..."

Just as I'm about to look at her camera the husband quips loudly enough for my other customers in the store to hear: "Do you think he really cares? Of course he's going to tell you 'yes', its perfect - he just wants to make a sale and get you out the door. The only thing he's interested in is getting our money."

His wife shoots him a 'look' that tells him he's crossed the line and I measure my reply carefully with "Excuse me, but I don't need the sale badly enough to take advantage of anyone, just so we're clear on that.". At that point the shopping was pretty much over and they leave fairly quickly after that, I think she was too embarrassed to continue any decision-making and I don't expect they will ever be back.


Customer 2:

A gentleman came in to shop H&M recliners. We had a good chat about how they're made, the options and price points, and what makes one worth more than another from some other maker along with the various leather options. After about half an hour he says to me "You're not very high pressure, are you? Most stores would be pushing a sales agreement at me by now and trying to sell me an add-on warranty."

I reply: "That's never been my style. I give you the information you need to make an informed decision and leave it up to you. Most my customers are pretty intelligent and don't need a 'push' from me to buy something and those add-on warranties are fraudulent rip-offs as far as I'm concerned." Five minutes later he bought an H&M Greyson Recliner and said he liked the no pressure environment of the store.

Customer 3:

She's a nurse, and stops by about every other day to visit a tiger maple chest of drawers I have on the floor. I get a big kick that she comes in and rubs on it and tells me that she's saving her money for it. She was in today as well, and asked if it was OK to visit it so often. "Of course it is... take photos, too"....so she did! I just hope I still have it for her when she's saved enough - its not often I see anyone fuss over a piece like she does.

I'm really glad I have more of customers # 2 and # 3 than I do of the # 1's.

[furnfixer]

Nice story

[organic_smallhome]

I feel sorry for the wife in the first story. Can you imagine living with someone like that?

The other stories: Good folk! The thing is that people do appreciate beauty and they do want quality. They just want to feel that the person helping them to decide is on their side and wants only the best for them. And you, Duane, may be the only furniture vendor left who gives a crap.

[furnfixer]

About one or two of a hundred customers I get can be very unpleasant to work with. I was swapping stories with a colleague and he set me straight. You will be out of there in an hour or two; their spouses have to put up with that 24x7.

[drcollie]

Very true! If the percentage of the unpleasant customers was much higher than 2 %, I'd not be in the retail business. But the other 98 % are good folks and in that group I actually get to make some friends and they stop by the store and we chat about all sorts of things. I tend to keep most of my customers over the years and get a kick out of watching their kids grow up and a several of the men are 'car and motorcycle' guys like me so we have these impromptu car shows in front of the store on sunny spring days. If you ever see some Porsches and Ferraris in front of the store, I'll tell you right now its a REALLY bad time to get any help picking out furniture <laughing>

One of my long time customers was in last week, he was just diagnosed with advanced Prostrate Cancer in early December and he's in trouble. But he's a smart man (law firm partner) and went to Sloan-Kettering for his operation after finding out who the best in the business was for his particular circumstance. Three weeks post-op, he was needing to get out of the house so they drove to my store and we sat down for over an hour to talk about cancer (I'm a stage IV survivor myself) as they remembered I had quite a bout with it five years ago. After our talk, he excused himself to use the restroom and his wife leaned over to me and whispered in my ear "Duane, he really wanted to come see you and talk about cancer survival and coping skills, thanks for taking the time to sit with us today - it means so much." Well when I heard that it was better than if they had bought a $ 7,000 highboy off the floor.

[aaron]

You will be out of there in an hour or two; their spouses have to put up with that 24x7.

You remind me of a toast that can be offered to unpleasant couples,

God did the world a great favor by bringing Mr. and Mrs. Jones together, thereby ensuring that only two people would be miserable instead of four.