A neighbour of mine went shopping with his friend on Tuesday. The shop was offering 25% off everything as it is shortly due to close in preparation for a new launch under new management.
He reported that they browsed around and chose various goods to place in their shopping basket. It was all a bit slow. They started shopping at 4.30 and the clock ticked past 5.00pm. They went back through the shop with maybe £100 of goodies loaded in the trolley when they were met by a person who asked (told) them to hurry up as the shop was closed.
Maybe there was something in her tone. Maybe the old management had just given her the redundancy notice. Maybe she was just having a bad day....
Anyway my shopping couple decided to write off their time and left the shop without more ado and left the assistant to unload the trolley and put the goods back on the shelf before locking up.
Is this a morality tale for our times? We already know that the customer is always right.
As a small business operator I know that if the investment has already been made in the premises, the stock, the signs, the till etc etc you do really really need to make some sales.
The sales training school says we should look out for "buy" signals and moderate our selling efforts accordingly. Two shoppers loading up an in-store trolley is probably one of the best "buy" signals possible.
The last thing that shop needs is some grumpy assistant frightening off the customer at this stage in the process.
Who needs Mary Portas?
We operate two small holiday caravan parks in the north-west corner of Worcestershire near Tenbury Wells. Some of the caravans are privately owned and others are let for family holidays. All caravans have fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms and are connected to mains electricity and water. Most have two bedrooms and sleep up to a maximum of four people. We pride ourselves on our personal welcome and customer care
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