Turning Away Business

[casey13]

Is it wrong to tell a customer that a certain product sucks and I don't recommend it at all? Like the off-brand wii remotes? I don't word it like that, of course. I tell the customers that I usually don't recommend off-brand controllers (we're out of the regular ones) and that those particular remotes don't sell well (they don't).

[KiaKat]

I frequently will turn away sales because we don't carry a certain wine. Sometimes I'll try to sell them on something else, but when people ask for certain types, or certain labels, I'll frequently just apologize and let them know we don't carry it.

Sometimes they buy something else, other times they just leave.

ETA: I've also been known to tell people that I'm not a particular fan of certain wines. Hasn't affected our overall sales of those wines, but I feel better having given my professional opinion. It also usually results in me being able to upsell them on something else. A dollar or two isn't going to break the bank for most of my customers, and if they're drinking a much higher quality wine, I'm happy.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

As far as I'm concerned, no. Better to try to sell them something useful and be turned down than have them come back screaming at you "YOU SOLD ME JUNK!!!!11!1panda!"

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I have recommended other stores in our area that sell a few things like artist supplies which we also carry, but they sell it at a cheaper price because their suppliers specialize in it (and ours don't, so their prices are higher, which means our prices are higher for a few things).

The other stores have heard of this, and when they have someone looking for a thing that THEY are either out of or such thing, they sent the customer to us. It all works out in the end... we support them, they support us... win/win.

[EricKei]

Aye, agreed. It's a good thing to do. We did that at "GameStore" all the time (which, I understand, probably made us a radical exception to the rule).

If somebody walked up with a game which was simply so bad as to be unplayable (e.g. the Fight Club game), we told them straight to their face, "No Ma'am/Sir. You don't want that. It's crap." We did the same with generic controllers, and ESPECIALLY memory cards. For 5-10 bucks more you can get a product made by the people who make the console instead of some third party stuff that looks like it was designed by a 5-year-old...On those two items in particular, we stood our ground...in the rare cases where people got the generic anyway, they would often be back in a month to get the real thing, saying "You guys were totally right"...

[fireheart]

I usually go "That's good but if you want something better....try this blah blah blah" if I'm trying to explain something to a customer. Usually it's when customer is holding two different brands of the same product.

[jiarby]

No, it's not right...

It's not YOUR store.... you work to improve the profitability of your store. Maybe someone up the food chain in purchasing decided to carry these because they earn the store 2x the margin of the OEM one... Even if you get a return now and then you still make alot more money.

Save YOUR money... start your own business, and decide what product you want to sell to make money. THEN decide how you would feel if someone you hired was telling your customers to NOT buy something you decided to sell. You'd fire him asap!

[Broomjockey]

You'd fire him asap!

Hardly. I'd want to know if a product we were carrying was crap. If it's crap, then the customer might think "everything they carry is crap." If they think that, they'll go somewhere else. I want a store where my customers trust the opinion of the staff, where they'll go to know they aren't being ripped off just to satisfy the bottom line. Customer satisfaction is the goal. Happy customers return more often and spend more. Besides, if the crap breaks in the warranty period, I lose money on replacing it. Especially if it KEEPS breaking.

[KiaKat]

Agreed, Broom.

In my industry, I have the added oddity of liquor laws. Which, in NY, state that a store can *only* purchase liquor from a licensed distributor. Which means I CANNOT run a return. I can exchange a bad bottle (corked, what have you) for another bottle of exactly the same wine, but I cannot give money back if someone does not like the wine (a return is legally a purchase from the consumer).

Which means I have to get it right the first time. And if I don't like a wine, chances are most of my customers won't like it either. Which means I have an unsatisfied customer who is probably going to badmouth me and the store.

[wagegoth]

It's all in how you say it. I made a practice of telling people the truth about why one item cost less than another item. Sometimes, the cheaper item was a better deal and I would tell them that. I didn't want a bunch of crap returned and have the customers bitch about my failure to inform them about the problems.

[Aethian]

No, it's not right...

It's not YOUR store.... you work to improve the profitability of your store. Maybe someone up the food chain in purchasing decided to carry these because they earn the store 2x the margin of the OEM one... Even if you get a return now and then you still make alot more money.

Save YOUR money... start your own business, and decide what product you want to sell to make money. THEN decide how you would feel if someone you hired was telling your customers to NOT buy something you decided to sell. You'd fire him asap!

So if the employee KNOWS that the item YOU are buying won't last long...you would want them to stay quiet so that you buy that one and then a short time later, buy another?

[casey13]

I'd be pretty upset if someone knowingly sold me crap.

[Mnemjian]

As far as I'm concerned, no. Better to try to sell them something useful and be turned down than have them come back screaming at you "YOU SOLD ME JUNK!!!!11!1panda!"

QFT!!!!!!11@!!

But really, I would say it's right to give your honest opinion of a product if asked... but if they don't ask, I would just let them buy it. They should have at least some personal responsibility to research their products a little before buying them, right? And you might get in trouble if you are talking bad about the merch

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No, it's not right...

It's not YOUR store.... you work to improve the profitability of your store. Maybe someone up the food chain in purchasing decided to carry these because they earn the store 2x the margin of the OEM one... Even if you get a return now and then you still make alot more money.

Save YOUR money... start your own business, and decide what product you want to sell to make money. THEN decide how you would feel if someone you hired was telling your customers to NOT buy something you decided to sell. You'd fire him asap!

I guess that works--if you're one of those people who believe making sales isn't everything; it's the only thing.

I am not one of those people. That disqualifies me for a position in the corporate office.

[CSR Kim]

When I worked at the jewelry kiosk, there were several times where I would recommend a customer go elsewhere to get a specific product. i.e. they were looking for sports team charms that we didn't carry, or a specific style of chain, or whatever. I figured it was good customer service, and it's not like we carried the item they were looking for anyway (usually). I do recall recommending some customers go to wal-mart for cheaper findings (like clasps, split rings, etc.) because you can buy them bulk there, for less. They weren't going to buy from me anyway. /shrug I even had a few people come back and thank me for my help, and then buy something else from me. I got paid an hourly wage no matter what, if the customer was nice I would be more than willing to help them find what they are looking for.