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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Aggressive sales tactics
can dissatisfy customersAFTER a clerk blurted out a mini-review of the book I was buying -- including specifics about the plot's developments -- I stopped going to that store. But last weekend, after hours of mall-hopping, I was too drained to go elsewhere. Besides, the overly informative woman wasn't behind the counter so it was reasonably safe to end my months-long boycott.
I found two books and joined four others at the checkout. Like most people, I don't relish waiting in lines, so to pass the time, I play a mental game. I use the name of the book's author or the store to form words four letters or longer. The goal is to think of twice the number of words as there are people in line ahead of me before reaching the cash register. (I admit this is kind of weird, but try it sometime; it stifles impatience.)
Eight words later, however, only one person had completed a transaction. The delay was due to customer interrogation. It went sort of like this:
"Did you find everything you needed?"
"Are you a frequent-buyer club member?"
"Would you like to join?"
"Is there an upcoming release you'd like us to hold for you when it arrives?"
"Do you know that if you buy three items, you will receive a fourth at half-price?"
"Did you see our sale on stuffed animals for Easter?"
"Would you like to add a gift card to your purchases today?"
The barrage of questions, tailored to sound customer-friendly, are really nothing more than sales pitches, designed to get a person to buy more than what he or she already has in hand. This kind of aggressiveness has become common lately, or so it seems.
At some supermarkets, insipid elevator music is frequently interrupted by cheerful solicitations for "artisan breads baked right here in our ovens" and "farm-fresh fruits available every day" at Hawaii's "most complimented" produce sections.
Call the cable TV "hotline" to report an outage on your line and you are forced to endure the 60-second babble for a special sports broadcast before you can access the multi-menu options and the 20-minute hold the company uses to impede your lodging a complaint or speaking to a real, live person.
While businesses have to push to increase sales, it has gotten a bit much. At one of the malls, provocatively dressed young women stationed around a kiosk beckoned to shoppers, inviting them to try a new treatment for fingernails. I watched as a 20-something male, unable to resist the smiles and teasings of a seller, hesitantly slid his hands into a bowl of foam, red-faced because of the audience he had drawn and her gentle ministrations. I walked away when he pulled his wallet. It's his money.
Drumming up new customers is one thing, but when buyers are already in the store, when they've selected a best-seller and are ready to pay, when they're trundling through the miles of market aisles with eggs and milk and chicken pot pies piled high in the cart, you'd think the hard-sells could ease off.
In the bookstore line, customer No. 2 -- a woman with two little girls and a baby carriage -- displayed admirable control, answering each of the clerk's questions politely while her restless munchkins pulled at her shopping tote and begged for the bag of soft pretzels inside. Finally, cash exchanged for picture books, she and her entourage exited, taking with them the field of energy that generally surrounds children and harried parents.
Customer No. 3 stepped up. Before the clerk could open her mouth to parrot the obviously required questions, he raised a big hand, palm forward.
"Don't need anything else but this," he said, flopping magazine and greenbacks on the counter, "and I don't care for any stuffed rabbits."
From behind him, I said, "Ditto."
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Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.
