The Tao of Retail

Oh yes, I was one of that student given a budget from the school to buy a desktop and printer for my club... Too bad Best Denki didn't want my business.

not so secret anymore is it?

(like the fact that my little finger hurts)

not secret. anymore.

pfft.

(I secretly think it's a Singaporean problem)

I think that profiling a customer makes sense if you are not on end of the supply chain, i.e., dealing directly with the end customer. In any case, as a Mac fan, I have problems with the service here with the apple retail stores. When I am in the UK, US and even Shanghai, the services were superb, in the way how they bring you across the store to showcase the products. But here, even when you tell them what you want to buy, they don't really care.

Ooh, customer profiling. I get that a lot, because I'm small and look a tad bit young for my age. When I bought my iBook and iPod more than a year ago, I got really bad service from the staff probably because they thought I was just some kid, and they kept serving the adults even though I'd enquired about thisorthat first. I was really quite miffed, especially since they only started entertaining my questions after my elder sister came along (instant credibility boost!). And I probably ended up spending quite a bit on their products too.

Till today, when I return to the Apple shop at Funan, I regularly get brushed off by the sales staff in favour of other customers. Either that, or they treat me like a four year old. I'm 18, but one of the salespeople actually asked me,"Oh, this is your father's iPod right? So where's your father?" I always get better service when I'm accompanied by my friends, who look closer to my age than I do.

...!!!!....

Them salespeople are lucky I'm not too anal about service, and that I like Mac enough to buy it regardless of their attitude.

Kudos to you for not profiling your customers. :)

who's fifi? i'm going as well. maybe i can meet fifi...

(This is totally irrelevant.)
Fifi got scholarship to the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco!

To profile someone as if he can't afford it is a nono but to profile someone as a nuisance and therefore should not be entertained is perhaps an exception.
Infact, it is a rule of thumb that thou shall pamper thy deserving customers and thy deserving customers only.
Then again I am an anal customer who is equally intolerant to customers who are like me.
It all depends on which side of the counter you're standing.

Yup, some customers are not worth the time. Not the ones who don't buy from my company/shop - I don't really care where you buy it since I'm only temp-ing, but the ones who only want to hear what they want to hear ("how much do I have to pay?" "Well, it depends, you see..." "No, don't give me that, just tell me how much I have to pay" "Well, it depends on what you want, you see...") You know the type.

Also the type who asks questions that don't need asking ("How much for the...?" "Sir, if you're interested, the list of prices is actually printed there on the board, we have a brochure you can bring home if you want."). Forgivable if you're in a hurry, not if you've already been looking around for 10 minutes before talking to me.

And finally, the ones who unload all their unhappiness with the company's policy/decisions on me. Look, I'm customer service, not ops/plans department. I don't get a say in what they decide. You want to know about the policy, I can tell you. You want my honest opinion about it, I can tell you too. If you want to speak to my supervisor/manager I'll get him/her. Just don't give me crap about how crappy and non-customer-oriented the policy is and how useless I am because I can't do anything about it. I know that already. Now go write to the ST forums or something, before my fist becomes customer-oriented.

The ones who ask questions because they're genuinely interested, the ones who understand that I am only an adviser and provider of information and service (and opinions on the side as well), but still a human being - those are the precious few-and-far-betweens that keep me going through the day.

I've only been doing 2 weeks, so I guess there's a lot more to learn.

Yeah. Enthusiasm does help to keep you going for that much longer.

You could be the exception to the rule, but I hope for sake of your sanity, your social life, and above all, your love for all things Mac, that you're not.

Well.
That's ok then.
(I'll not go through with my prepared rant of vulgar hokkien words)
Oh and even though I didn't have you pulling me through today with references to "can't get you out of my head" ...I managed not to blow anything up. Aren't you proud?

Prem: How can you not know what a nehneh is? It's the ultimate term of affection, because you're calling someone by of your favourite... things.

JM: "But fact is, if you have been in retail for any reasonable period of time, you will know that some customers are just a waste of time.
Ever served a customer for 3 hours extolling the finer virtues of the machine only to have him convinced THEN go next door to buy where it’s cheaper?"

I have... everyday, 18 out of every 20 customers. Why do I keep going at it then? I don't know, but I do. I have a pretty good eye for people, and closing the sale is never my main priority — it's educating them about Macs, about all computers, about how you can use them to their fullest potential — even if they started me on cameras, which I don't sell, I won't shut up either. Maybe I just like to talk about a specific set of things. That means I can only work at: Mac shops, camera shops, and sex shops.

hahahah... well said!

A nehneh, unless I'm mistaken, is a Breast. The other definition is, i believe, seditious, so I'm not going to mention it.

Sure, some customers look like they're not good prospects, but will take their money to another shop if you don't attend to them the way they expect to be.

But fact is, if you have been in retail for any reasonable period of time, you will know that some customers are just a waste of time.

Ever served a customer for 3 hours extolling the finer virtues of the machine only to have him convinced THEN go next door to buy where it's cheaper?

Singaporeans are cheap. PRCs are cheap. I'll not even go into the ABNNs.

There are exceptions to the rule, but unfortunately few and far between. Not enough to keep anyone doing retail for long at any rate.

don't be such a "nehneh"??? What on EARTH is that? And you can't ignore me in the mornings...how else will I live through the day? You're the buffer between me and BLOWING things up. =]

thanks, A.. say hi to Z from me.. u lucky girl!! :) N thanks for all ur help! (will need more of it..)

Prem: Don't be such a nehneh. Otherwise, I'll.. I'll.. ignore you in the mornings. :)

Yeah, true that. I don't like the service, I walk off!

And then there are the customers who come in with three ho's on their arms and blingblings on every appendage, ask a lot of questions, but are really only interested in buying AAA-sized batteries for their alarm clock.

Maybe I'm just not a people person. =_=

well maybe those sales people didn't have the wonderful strains of Kylie Minogue keeping them motivated through the day...I sure as hell didn't =]

I'll come to you too. Because I'm a sucker for well-informed people and I shop for someone who earns more than three times what I do.

It's just like how the waitstaff at not-very posh restaurants like to turn up their noses at the bunny and I - just 'cos we're only dressed in jeans and teeshirts. C'mon - who do you think you are? Iggy's? Even they never gave us any such attitude.

ah, you've been dissed?

I suppose lots of sales staff in Singapore would like to think that this is their transitional job; i.e. they'll be getting a 'better' job 'soon'. So they do not feel the need to empathize with the customer. Combined with the reality that most of us in S'pore are not brought up receiving good service as part of the retail experience, our S'porean sales staff are mostly bo-chap about the most improtant person in their jobs: the customer.

good to know you are a lot more enlightened...

Yea. I've run into this issue while trying to buy a new BMW, here in southern cali. It's been hard to get anybody to talk to me for any length of time. An older Korean buddy of mine never had problem getting dealerships to kiss his ass. Meh.

/whistle/

Yeah, tell them, Adri. I'm-too-lofty-for-you customer service pisses me off too. Only second to I'm-too-clueless-for-you service.

PS: Who's the lucky fellow getting the $2430 lens?