#40: Retailer Perspective from the Other Side of the Counter

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/counter/counter40.phtml

Summary:

Is the customer always right, and other retail issues.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/counter/counter40.phtml) for more information.

[Macross]

Browsers on the other hand are people who come in and look, may or may not ask questions, may or may not engage in conversation, and occasionally buy something, maybe. Browsers are important to treat well, because they often will become customers if they get a raise, find things they like, and are treated well. Whatever it is that is keeping them from being customers at the moment may, and usually does, change. The trick is to get them to become my customers.

That sounds like me :D.


So, Who Gets Fired?
The guy who argues for 15 minutes about us charging sales tax on a used Magic Card, who wants to yell, curse, or speak rudely to my employees or daughters, or who simply makes such a nuisance of himself (or herself) that dealing with them makes me not want to deal with them. And, I don't have to.

And, the guy who insists that the item I mispriced on the website must be sold to him at that price, even though I have explained that the item is being sold on consignment, it was a typo, and he wasn't even the first person to attempt to buy it.

As some who worked in retail I similiar experiences. I wish could fire such customers but major retailers do follow the "customer is always right" rule. Only shop lifters and those who try to pass off a bad checks are fired. Most businesses honor mispriced items because it good business. In my experience I honor the listed price but draw the line when the customer runs back and grabs twenty more of the same item expecting the same cheap price. The customer is often right but not when try to take advantage. I also had problems with small business comic/game operations. Often there is a "We can charge and do what we like policy." If you asked why a certain is price an amount, I'll be lied to and told cause it is rare and soldout. I know it is a lie cause I was just at another store. Some stores place everything in plastic and taped up tight. Us browswers don't buy books on the covers alone. When I want to buy because of it's cover alone I buy online. Then some stores with a no returns policy.

"Excuse me I want to return this."
"Sorry no returns."
"But it was defective. I'll take an exchange."
"No returns."

A retailer like that loses a customers for what? The price of one item. Treating the custom well even if it's means taking a hit is good business. Often too many comic and game shop show signs of being too greedy. The Simpson Comic book guy in my experience is a sad truth.

You, gamers, go forth to your game stores, and show love to your retailers. Don't just buy from us online guys cause it is easier. Shop your local stores. Share the love, browse, shop, ask questions, make a friend or at least be friendly with your local retailers. If the retailer doesn't treat you nicely don't respond with "the customer is always right". Try this instead:

"I look forward to coming to your store all week". Us retailers need to hear, remember, and understand that simple truth.

Actually if I'm not treated right I stop going to the store for period of time often lasting a year. No words are said. My biggest actual beef as a customer is me being totally ready to drop huge wads of money but with no one to help me. I'll see three workers in a store. One helping one customer and the other two chatting with eachother.

[Ante]

Hey, Marcus!

I'm sad to hear about you being divorced. Maybe killing some kobolds and taking their stuff can cheer you up?

I can add my voice to those who look forward to your columns, and I wish I had more money to spend at your shop.

Take care.

[redwulf25_ci]

Most businesses honor mispriced items because it good business.

And IIRC in some states it's the law (I was under the impression that Michigan was one of those states). If you don't want to honor a mispriced item then be more careful when you price it, a store that I veiw as being dishonest (i.e. one that tells me a product is priced $X and then when I try to buy it tells me no sorry that product is $Y) will not get my buisness.

[Sethra007]

Marcus: great article. I really enjoy hearing from the business owners, and I appreciate your taking the time and energy to tell us about your experiences.

I don't know if you get to do much reading, but I recommend you check out the book Angel Customers And Demon Customers, by Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin. It's geared largely toward the person in big business, but the basic principles are applicable to any business owner.

One of the oldest myths in business is that every customer is a valuable customer. Research has shown again and again that the bottom 20% of customers, by profitability, (the "demon customers") generate losses that in some industries are equal to more than 100% of a company's total profits. Meanwhile, the top 20% of customers (your "angels) account for more than 150% of a company's profits. It's simply smart strategy to figure out which customers are most valuable to you, and to lavish your attention on them. This book gives you tools on how to do that, and some case studies of companies moving in that direction. I recommend giving it a read.

Looking forward to your next column!

[Sethra007]

And IIRC in some states it's the law (I was under the impression that Michigan was one of those states). If you don't want to honor a mispriced item then be more careful when you price it.

That's actually an urban myth that sellers have to honor whatever's on the price tag. There are laws on the books that exist to protect the consumer against "bait-and-switch" situations--when, for example, the seller has advertised a lower price or established a record of selling the item at that price, then suddenly announces a price hike. But laws like that aren't meant to hold sellers liable for items mispriced due to good ol' fashioned human error; after all, any consumer could simply switch price tags and then demand the retailer sell them the item for the lower price.


That said, many companies do make it a policy to honor the price on the tag, even if it's wrong, for that one item and for that one consumer. But that's their own personal service policy--not the law.


...a store that I veiw as being dishonest (i.e. one that tells me a product is priced $X and then when I try to buy it tells me no sorry that product is $Y) will not get my buisness.


If a store you frequent is consistently having "mispriced" items, then not only should they not get your business but you should complain to management, and to your state's Consumer Affairs office if the problem persists.


But if it only happed once in a blue moon...what you're probably dealing with is simple human error.

[redwulf25_ci]

If a store you frequent is consistently having "mispriced" items, then not only should they not get your business but you should complain to management, and to your state's Consumer Affairs office if the problem persists.


But if it only happed once in a blue moon...what you're probably dealing with is simple human error.

If it's my first time visiting the store I wouldn't consider it worth my time trying to discover which. Futhermore all my family and friends would hear about how the store in question tryed to screw me thus creating even more people who would not go to the store. Altogether it's probably cheaper to just honor the price you gave.

[Sethra007]

If it's my first time visiting the store I wouldn't consider it worth my time trying to discover which. Futhermore all my family and friends would hear about how the store in question tryed to screw me thus creating even more people who would not go to the store. Altogether it's probably cheaper to just honor the price you gave.

This is a valid point, but from the other side of the counter it's probably cheaper for the business over the long run if you choose not to return as a customer.

[cfarrell]

I would think the real problem here would be telling the good from the bad. Even good customers have bad days at work, and even bad customers sometimes spend lots of money. And of course if a bad customer is causing you problems, he or she can still cause you much worse problems if you "fire" them. I would think that before you want to tell any customer they aren't welcome in your store, you'd want a pretty substantial track record of bad behaviour.

I think one of the problems here would be that for us customers, horror stories about terrible service from underpaid and disinterested staff in game shops are far too common. So even if you have an otherwise well-run operation, "firing" a customer can create stories that will be easily confused with the genuine bad service that is all to frequent in any retail operation.

I'd be curious to know how the "bottom 20% of customers generating losses equal to 100% of profits" was calculated. It seems rather implausible to me, and many of these statistics are meaningless. For example, I can see it being totaled up by simply figuring out how many staff hours they waste and then multiplying it by your staff's hourly rate. But this would grossly overestimate the impact of "bad" customers in the case of game stores anyway, because in every game store I've been in, the staff spend a fair amount of time idle.

[Sethra007]

I would think the real problem here would be telling the good from the bad. Even good customers have bad days at work, and even bad customers sometimes spend lots of money.

In most industries bad customers are those who do three things: they order/purchase rarely, they pay slowly or not at all, and they make unreasonable demands. In short, they want a product or service but they don’t want to pay for it. Apply those three principles and you'll find you can identify your bad customers fairly quickly.

And of course if a bad customer is causing you problems, he or she can still cause you much worse problems if you "fire" them.

Actually, no. A bad customer will make a lot of noise, but they rarely have bite if they're in the wrong. (Note that I'm not talking about customers with legitimate complaints against a business). And even the noise the bad customer makes is rarely as effective as one might thing, because bad customers usually are known as bad customers to the very friends and family that they complain to.


I think one of the problems here would be that for us customers, horror stories about terrible service from underpaid and disinterested staff in game shops are far too common. So even if you have an otherwise well-run operation, "firing" a customer can create stories that will be easily confused with the genuine bad service that is all to frequent in any retail operation.

Stories about Cat Piss Men as customers are frequent, too, as are stories about people who feel "The Customer Is Always Right (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=302169)" is a Constitutionally-guaranteed right. In the case of the hobby industry, it's still relatively small and close-knit, and store owners know their customers and swap tales with them. It's easier for the owner of the FLGS to get his side of the story out--and be considered credible--than the average corporation.


I'd be curious to know how the "bottom 20% of customers generating losses equal to 100% of profits" was calculated. It seems rather implausible to me, and many of these statistics are meaningless.

Check out the book for details--alas, those figures weren't just made up one night when the authors were bored. Also, Google "Vilfredo Pareto" and "Joseph M. Juran"--the figures in most industries run in accordance with the Pareto Principle.

[GRIMJIM]

And IIRC in some states it's the law (I was under the impression that Michigan was one of those states). If you don't want to honor a mispriced item then be more careful when you price it, a store that I veiw as being dishonest (i.e. one that tells me a product is priced $X and then when I try to buy it tells me no sorry that product is $Y) will not get my buisness.

In some countries it is true. Mislabelled things in shops and in online stores have had to have been sold at the incorrectly listed price before.

[Munchezuma]

We have fired one customer in the 5+ years I have been in my current job (B2B, no retail). It took a staggering amount of effort on the part of this customer to get fired.

Oddly enough, he still sneaks in a phone call or two from time to time. The differences? 1) He lies about his name and company. 2) He isn't an @$$ anymore.

[Brandir]

In the UK the price label in a shop is considered merely an 'invitation to trade' and retailers are under no legal obligation to sell an incorrectly labelled item.

Whilst at uni I briefly worked in a retail shop. I saw a customer (well, a middle-aged couple) change price labels of two items; one for £99.99 and the other £199.99. I approached them about this. They denied it. A few weeks later head office got in touch and told us to sell the £199.99 item to this couple for £99.99! It seems this couple wrote to head office and complained that the prices were incorrect. My manager and Head Office gave me no support whatsoever and ignored my evidence that the couple were attempting to defraud the company. Unfortunately head office consisted of too many people who had never actaully worked in a shop despite running an empire of over 600 retail units and adopted 'Customer is Always Right' attitude at the expense of the shop staff.

[spshu]

That's actually an urban myth that sellers have to honor whatever's on the price tag. There are laws on the books that exist to protect the consumer against "bait-and-switch" situations--when, for example, the seller has advertised a lower price or established a record of selling the item at that price, then suddenly announces a price hike. But laws like that aren't meant to hold sellers liable for items mispriced due to good ol' fashioned human error; after all, any consumer could simply switch price tags and then demand the retailer sell them the item for the lower price.

That said, many companies do make it a policy to honor the price on the tag, even if it's wrong, for that one item and for that one consumer. But that's their own personal service policy--not the law.

If a store you frequent is consistently having "mispriced" items, then not only should they not get your business but you should complain to management, and to your state's Consumer Affairs office if the problem persists.


But if it only happed once in a blue moon...what you're probably dealing with is simple human error.
Michigan has the item pricing law where most items have to have price tags on them. If the price tag is lower then what is rung up on the on the register and the customer leaves the store, the customer can return and get five times the difference up to $5.00. I worked in retail and have used it to get $5 back on one time. Michigan is the only one that I know of that has this law still. This is basically to protect a gainst a "bait-and-switch" like situation in that the customer picks up the item with the price posted in lower then when the item is scanned at the register. So, redwulf25_ci is right.

Brandir, in the USA, customer could always bargain but given that it might be a chain of stores or not the owner, a retail worker might not have the authority to bargain over the price.

[Sethra007]

So, redwulf25_ci is right about the consumer protection law in Michigan.

Fixed your typo. :)

[TitanGames]

Hey, Marcus!

I'm sad to hear about you being divorced. Maybe killing some kobolds and taking their stuff can cheer you up?

I can add my voice to those who look forward to your columns, and I wish I had more money to spend at your shop.

Take care.

LOL, thanks dude.

In my store, I don't mind if you spend a lot, or a little. I'm just glad you choose us.

You rock.

As does my new fiancee', whom I have been TRYING to talk into getting married AT ORIGINS this year.

Marcus

[Ganeldil]

Hey Marcus,

Great Article, I still think you should get married at Origins :)

BTW All - I have shopped at a fair number of stores in my 25+ Year gaming career and Titan is the best. It is really odd to live in Battle Creek where there is basically nothing - (Even Old Navy and GAP pulled out) - but yet we have the best hobby shop in Michigan.

Twin #2 - Brent

[Old Geezer]

Oops, this was in the wrong column's thread.