I Own a Business and Want to know if this is poor service?

Lots of good advice offered so far. I've had my share of bad customers and sympathize. It can be a challenge.

You already know you appear young to potential customers. It might be helpful to get in the habit of identifying yourself as the owner of the store in the early part of your conversations with customers. For example, keep a stack of business cards in your pocket, hand one out to each one you help and identify yourself as the owner when you do this. Besides helping with the balance of power in the conversation when it needs to be exercised, it also subtly lets them know that they are getting your *personal* attention to their needs.

She didn't want to buy from you. Maybe it took her an hour to figure it out. So what. That's her choice as the customer. If you didn't want to spend an hour with her than you shouldn't have done it in the first place. Maybe you were pissed off because the sale was more important to you than the person. I am absolutely sure that she knew this, and that is why she moved on. Good for her. She didn't want to hurt your feelings, but you were being a total jackass. She did the right thing to move on. You might have made a lifelong customer from her, if you had really cared about her, what was best for her, and what she wanted. Not what you wanted. She won't be back and either will her friends.

You missed another big chance here, because you put your fragile ego and a sale in front of another live breathing human being. Just reading your post of how you treated these people pisses me off.

You should have locked the door again when you went out to the car. The store was open, so the fellow was fine in walking inside and approaching you. That is why you are in business, isn't it??? Don't be a jerk. Treat people with respect. You lost three big chances to make long time customers from these people, as well as their friends. You did not need to spend 45 minutes talking with him, but you could have bent way over backwards being apologetic about having to leave right away, as you very gently kept walking to the door and asking if you could get back to him or help him the next day asap. Also I agree that you should have identified yourself as the store owner and that you would be delighted to help them.

Of course, because you destroyed that guy's business. Whoops, that guy was you. There's a clue for you huh.

The way you acted with those three people would definitely get you fired.

A great fellow who was a mentor to me, and who passed less than two years after we met, told me of how he would approach fsbo's, people selling their own homes, every sunday afternoon and evening. I said did people ever give you a hard time? He said oh yes one fellow pulled a gun on him. I pressed for details, and he said the guy hated real estate agents, grabbed a rifle or shotgun, I don't recall exactly what he said, and ordered him off his property.

I said, what did you do? He said, well I left! We both laughed, then he looked right at me and said, "but I went back the next week!" I said, you did? He said, oh yes, and he ended up helping that guy buy and sell quite a few properties through the years. I said, well you've got more guts than me because I would have stayed away from that place. But he gave me a great lesson in determination that I always remember, as well as remembering him, as he was a great fellow and everyone loved him. I don't go to funerals but I went to his. There were people there from everywhere, no one was talking and all were in tears.

Dude,

It is your business. That gives you some leeway to run it as you please.

When I owned a pizza restaurant, I had to tell a few people they weren't allowed to order from us anymore. They would always call back complaining about something trying to get a free one. One lady who loved our pizza always complained about something. This happened about 6 times so I finally barred her from ordering. She tried to order a couple times but we wouldn't let her. Finally after a couple months, she tried to order again so we made the pizza and she never complained again.

Of course most cell phone salespeople and the plans they try to swindle people with are crooked so it is not unreasonable to assume most people should be very leery about any contracts they sign.

Of course it is piss poor service, but it is your store and you can do what you want. Your problem seems to be a lack of decision making skills.

Scenario 1 - You supposedly make 150K in your small store there, yet you have a hissy fit when ONE customer walks away? Why would it matter? You are turning tons of volume.

Scenario 2- Missed sale. One dickhead doesn't deserve another. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Scenario 3- You are the owner and you schedule yourself to close when you have plans?

You seem a tad on the stand-offish side. Do you really think that the cell phone game is best for you? Customers in that line of work can be the biggest douches on the planet.

Young owner

As a senior citizen I have a free cell phone plan that gives me 60 free minutes per month and they sent me a free phone to use with it. The phone is an old type no pictures nor internet just call and answer. It has a stop watch, a calendar, some games and other crap I never even looked at.

In the 2 or so years I have had it I`ve managed to build up to 513 minutes credit. What plan would be best for me to get that would entitle a free phone good enough to take pictures and about how much would I have to pay per month.

Someone said I could just buy a photo phone and transfer my chip to it keeping my free minute plan and avoiding the monthly fee plans. If this is true what phone should I buy? How much would it cost? I`d buy it from you trust me. I`ll post my credit card number and adress then you could ship it to me since I do not expect you to waste your time on someone who would turn around and buy it from his local store.

Thanks

I am currently in Jersey btw

I trained withGuglelmo Marconi wrote:

As a senior citizen I have a free cell phone plan that gives me 60 free minutes per month and they sent me a free phone to use with it. The phone is an old type no pictures nor internet just call and answer.

I've never used a cell phone but might try one.

Where do you get the free plan like that?

While rare these days, threads like this are why I still troll the forum.

It is through something called safelink wireless and is a govt supported program

1- 800 867 7183 and there is another number bu that might be an activation number 1-800 378 1634

www.TracFone.com

free seniors phone is true wrote:

It is through something called safelink wireless and is a govt supported program

1- 800 867 7183 and there is another number bu that might be an activation number 1-800 378 1634

http://www.TracFone.com

Thank you.

Sadly it is not available in California.

warm legs wrote:

If I worked for you I'd have a LOT of respect for you as my boss. I have been forced to eat shit in the name of customer service, when in fact it was obnoxious abuse from customers thinking they were always right. I quit those jobs as soon as I could. You get word of mouth from your employees too.

Thank you. That's how it actually happened. I got excellent staff from competitors and from local colleges referred to me by my employees. Our customers were not typical for their geographic area, mostly high end, as company attracted status conscious people for expensive services and goods. Virtually all were great and loved the improved service and atmosphere, but those who were the equivalent of well dressed petty thieves, or were the type that saw staff as people to abuse, got their shock of the year. They were told no, quickly and with reasons, from me, a nobody. Every single one pushed back, because evidently they found that typically gets them what they demand. Nope. That just got them information of which of our competitors could best meet their requests.

Interestingly, there was customer word of mouth about these few interactions. If the abusive customer was the owner of a local car dealership, a month or two later another car dealer comes up to me and says, hey heard you told xxxx to go elsewhere. Good for you. None of the dealers or his employees like that guy. The same was true of people in other fields. Very unscientifically, I had found the half dozen biggest jerks in a county I had no history in and told each of them to behave or leave. No one else did that to them, which was ashame, I thought, for all of the people that dealt with them year after year.

There's some money you don't have to make and we gave it up happily. Business grew because we stood for something and none of us sacrificed our dignity to people who abuse those who serve them. My staff came to expect that their customer interactions would be positive ones, so they became more positive with the customers. Find a business you believe in and run it the right way. People will be happy to work for you and the 99 out of 100 customers you keep happy will be plenty for success.

Good luck.

Young Owner wrote:

Here is my next questions then . . . many of you who say I offer poor service, then give an example of how I SHOULD have handled service. But the examples you give are manipulation. I think this is the biggest problem I have with sales, I believe if I treat people right, then I will do ok, but I refuse to manipulate people like I feel is being recommended by many dissenters.

For those of you critics, I make over $150,000 a year. I'm ok with not making $150,100, or even ANYTHING over $150,000.

Am I your ISM??? First off if your helping 500-700 customers a month and your only making $150,000 a year then yes your service must suck!! Your hit rate must be alful. I would suggest hiring a few good sales reps and let them make you money. You'll take home a little less but at least you won't have to deal with jackass customers all day. And if you were making that much a year you should have employees working there while you look at expanding your business by doing B2B sales opening new stores etc....But on the bright side if the numbers you are saying is true then only pissing off a few people isn't too bad.