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How was Black Friday for you? I had an interesting one. I was looking for a new camera, some memory cards and additional bits to add to my arsenal and thought that, rather than just pick one up online, I’d head out into a store to give some money to a local bricks-and-mortar business.
The staff were all busy with other customers, so I was very happy to wait. Although I’d already done some research online I had a couple of very quick questions to ask. Once it was my turn, I politely opened up with my first question:
Me: ‘Excuse me, I’m looking for a new camera and need to just know a couple of –’
Salesperson: ‘It’s Black Friday, Sir – we don’t have time for questions. What would you like to buy?’
Me: ‘Well, I’m looking at this camera but I really just have to check –’
Salesperson: ‘If you go to our website, you’ll find the answers to all of your questions there. For now, I need to serve this couple behind you.’
Me: ‘The answers weren’t on your website; I’ve already –’
By this point, he was already serving the people behind me. I was, however, heartened to hear that they wanted the salesperson to process a return. Rather than spending two minutes to answer a couple of questions and make a sale to me, he’d landed himself with a much more time-consuming customer while his colleagues mopped up the sales.
As for me, I decided to go back online and managed to find the answers I needed. My new camera and all its accoutrements will be with me later today.
It may have been Black Friday, but that doesn’t mean we should only process sales for customers who are ready to buy instantly. Of course, on a day like that we need to streamline our sales process so that we’re able to get to everyone, but as soon as we start sending customers away we are left with nothing.
Don’t get me wrong: Black Friday can be a difficult day when you work in retail, and the vast majority of those who do work incredibly hard, both on the day itself and in the build up to it, but would I return to that particular shop?
Probably not.