Friday dilemma: The customer is always right

MadKat of Melbourne says:

12:44pm | 07/10/11

Adam Driver “The story is more of an indictment on the stupidity of the welathy and not so wealthy” - I think you’ll find that the wealthy actually don’t shop at Gasp - polyester dresses aren’t their thing - it more for young wannabees -

acotrel says:

04:12am | 08/10/11

Don’t buy there, and tell ten other people the reason why you don’t ! I always walk away when I detect that a business is making every post a winning post.  However abuse from sales staff is something else ! They must believe that customers are privileged to purchase from their business ? -  What deluded idiots they must be ?

Rocket Surgeon says:

01:24pm | 07/10/11

This is a complete mindf**k for the mainstream media and consumer. I think Russell got it but the new panelist clearly didn’t. Basically, GASP have a strategy to boost there profile with hipsters by alienating the mainstream. They have executed it poorly and I find the concept appalling but it will work.
The funny bit is watching the mainstream work themselves into a frenzy. There is nothing so dis-empowering as being told you don’t matter.

dancan says:

02:47pm | 07/10/11

Very true Rocket.  It is funny to see the overzealous reaction by the public at being told “we don’t care what you think/say”.  I wouldn’t shop there and I think they’re most likely all a-holes but,  I can’t help but admire them for making the decision (PR stunt or not) to just tell everyone to f-off rather than release some PR media statement and act out some false sorrow.

Robert Smissen Of rural SA says:

04:52pm | 08/10/11

Maybe she was a “Supre Chic”, certainly sounded “the full Bogan” on TV

Kika says:

03:59pm | 07/10/11

Yeah it’s a little ironic that this whole story came out and the store name is “Gasp”...  The story has given the store the cred they wanted - to be controversial and make their customers feel special by being ‘allowed’ to wear their dresses.

hot tub political machine says:

04:35pm | 07/10/11

Yup, check the story out on Mumbrella. On reading the “nasty email” it seemed to read a lot like a press release with an “our store is special/our store is edgy” schtik to it. I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t ticked off by a PR consultant.

A couple of PR people have commented they are pretty sure its a stunt -a high risk one too but you know the whole “only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about thing”

marley says:

07:49am | 08/10/11

Well, I’ve heard of guerrilla marketing, but this seems way overt the top.  I don’t think much of their long-term business plan if it’s based on turning away customers:  that sort of thing only works for the length of time it takes a new, cooler business to pop up, when the trendoids all head off to shop there instead.

Daylight robbery says:

08:34pm | 08/10/11

(“Welcome to retail in Australia. This is why most people are shopping online. Better range, better prices, better and faster service.”)

Rubbish;  my wife was just about ripped off for perfume off what she thought was a reputable store in the UK for her mother which turned out to be a proxy in the Seychelles.

90% of AU online purchases are in Australia.  Retail has to compete with pure online models.  If you get great service from a brick model business go back if you want service to stay.  If not you are placing service as second to price or simply don’t care when purchasing.

Purchasing in Australia has a bunch of other positive variables,  bigger warranties, back up service, less chance of the business vaporising (cheap item dumping prior to bankruptcy) , no overseas warranty calls, no sending overseas back.  (Don’t forget cost of post)

Some items are cheaper in the US because shop rental is cheaper, petrol is cheaper, taxes are cheaper, cost of living is cheaper. 
Much of the reason some items are cheaper at present is the US printed a bucket load of money because the America is broke.  All their businesses are broke.  Many of the items that look the same are not.

Many Australians are realising the benefits of warranties, service advice on the correct product,  and a guarantee the product will be Authentic.

When the USD heads back to 80 cents to the dollar where it should be on many occassions the difference maybe the AU retailers import duty and GST.

GST is defunct as a tax. Tax reform must happen before Australia loses one of its biggest employment sectors left - retail. Brick store or online.
If not, expect to be America and or England; their retail is imploding because of a 20%VAT.  Their overseas purchases are rife with much tax dodge.

Remember - no tax - no Australia , send your money offshore at your peril, like America.

marley says:

07:29am | 09/10/11

@daylight robbery - I can’t agree entirely with what you say.  Prices here are certainly much higher than in a lot of places abroad - and yes, the costs of shop rental, petrol and wages are lower in the US (but not in Europe) than here.  But there are also inefficiencies, regulations, and plain old-fashioned greed in our system. 

Why would I buy books in a bookstore here, when I can get them online at half the price from the UK?  That’s an issue with regulations on parallel imports, and has little to do with the factors you list. 

Why would I buy a software program here when I can get it for half the price from Canada?  And that’s comparing on-line costs, not brick and mortar costs. 

Why should I pay $800 for a camera made in Japan and sold in a shop here, when I can get the identical camera in the US for $425?  I’ll take my chances with the warranty (I’ve never actually had to call in a warranty on a camera).  Sorry, but I don’t believe that wages and rents account for the near 100% markups we see around us.

If Australian bricks and mortar businesses provided decent service, I think most of us would be prepared to pay a slight premium for buying here.  But the service is generally mediocre to lousy (poorly trained staff and not enough of them) and the premium for buying locally is way too high.  Retailers cannot simply appeal to loyalty to get customers buying locally.  They have to up their game.

Daylight robbery says:

02:08am | 05/11/11

@Marley

Have you been to the UK Marley?  Internet shopping has vaporised retail in many parts of England.  Some shopping centres have for lease signs every third window.  The other is a business model similar to say BigW building its only shopping centre with one building and no boutique shops.

Take it from someone in retail, you have to experience warranty and going vertical on cameras alone wont help you. Ask around, you ll find a few friends who are reluctant to vocalise the bitter taste in their mouths. 

Australia has some fantastic service, no different to the inconsistencies in other countries,  one particular model similar to many of Americas is expanding fast in Australia.

“Sorry, but I don’t believe that wages and rents account for the near 100% markups we see around us.”
Yeah, they do.  Have you seen the price of retail space? Add import tax, GST, and the plethora of additional red tape import costs that go with it.
You may even notice a currency conversion cost on your bank statement by percentage.

Software is an odd one, in different countries that same software company will charge more than another.  Many companies do.  This is to provide infrastructure for training, parts etc in oz.

@Direct “Welcome to retail in Australia. This is why most people are shopping online. Better range, better prices, better and faster service.”

LOL, more rubbish.  A nice bit a spin but it aint that great.  There is plenty of bargains to be had around and some cons.

Here we have people talking about buying online price and then comparing it to retail which provides advice.  You anticipate online to go through product and its advice?

I have ordered a bunch of books online some coming from the UK mostly because they are not available in Australia.  A lot of people miss the postage and post the website price.

Marley, how do I know this?  I work in retail on the floor with people coming in with prices to match.  I run our company commerce website.
We are bricks and clicks in Australia and have increased our gross revenue by over 30% since last Christmas to last year when everyone’s heading downing 9% in Oz.  I used to work for a software company that implemented Asset solutions developed by a company in Las Vegas.
My wifes from the UK spending some time there they have a fading retail.
I may have missed the session time out default. How do I know, Im a web developer.  Im quite often the person behind the site that sends an email like this.

Marley,
Thank you for your business.  We are currently compiling your order. 

Kind regards,
Australian tax payer employee.

Next Christmas Ill be a stay at home dad selling 0’s and 1’s online..

Its not all a pissing contest.

Tezza says:

04:30pm | 07/10/11

Yeah right, Mahrat I suggest you do just that and we will laugh at you when you GET ARRESTED.
And the shop next door is not a hardware shop it’s a dress shop which has gone out of business called Brown Sugar - (life in retail is not much fun) - how do I know the last bit when I live in Sydney. Simple, on Sunday last my wife and I, visiting Melbourne were looking for Brown Sugar where she bought some nice gear last time in Melbourne, found it closed and then noticed that the shop next door was Gasp, remembered the publicity, and looking inside saw the guy with the hair. We weren’t the only ones gawping. So I guess the publicity stunt paid off

Shane From Melbourne says:

02:19pm | 07/10/11

I agree. It sounds like the type of people that go to retail shops to try on stuff and then buy online, thus costing the retail store lost time and money in wages. No wonder shop staff get irritated.

marley says:

02:21pm | 07/10/11

I am impeccably polite when dealing with service staff.  The response I get ranges from pleasant and helpful to friendly but clueless to bored and disinterested.  I’ve only once or twice encountered actual rudeness.  But I regularly encounter people who would like to help but can’t, and even more often, people who couldn’t give a stuff either way.  My impeccable politeness is coming under severe strain.  If you don’t want to be in the service industry and deal with people of all types, then leave it and get a job laying bricks or climbing power pylons or something.

Bruce says:

03:43pm | 07/10/11

One of my most hated expressions..“the Customer is always right” ? What the hell does it mean ? “I want the article half price and delivered free by a butler in a rolls royce” ?? The customer is only ‘right’ provided their request is within the law and the policy and procedures of the shop in which you enter. Whilst I understand there is common sence balance when providing and receiving customer service, there are some both customer and service provider who push the boundaries. A couple of years ago some friends of mine and my self went into a cake shop in a busy shopping complex to buy a $15 birthday cake.  There were options as to what you could write and the simple design you would like on the cake. There were 4 people serving and quite a number of people waiting to be served. I stood back patiently and watched my friends try to decide what they wanted. Twenty minutes passed by after asking many questions to the sales person, still no decision. This indecision went on for little longer, when the manager of the cake shop came over and told the sales person to help serve other customers who had been waiting for quite sometime, and then told my friends to come back when they had made up their minds. Which I believed was more than reasonable. However, my friends took this as being extremly rude and an example of poor customer service and said they would never go back to that shop again.  I view my ‘friends’ very differently now !

The Cement Gead says:

04:27pm | 07/10/11

Sorry ! One is not to blame for your Liberal Party friends! Sorry!

Ben C says:

04:11pm | 07/10/11

@ Super D

It shouldn’t be about proving customers wrong and that’s it - those in sales or services (I’m one) should endeavour to educate customers about products or services. That would show that you are genuinely interested in the customer’s situation, and want to find a solution to their problem. Even if they don’t buy now, they will remember the assistance you rendered, showed them you know what you were talking about - that’s more likely to lead to profit.

stephen says:

08:17pm | 07/10/11

Yeah but the ‘woman’ was a tart, and we, the viewer, were on her side cause she was trying to better herself.
And isn’t that precisely what clothes does to people : give a favourable impression ?
There’s a bit of a game with the buy-and-sell, and it can be good fun if the buyer maintains a sense of humour, especially as the staff don’t know you and you can fog off any rudeness by controlling the ‘sale’, thereby getting as well as a comfortable exchange, also a better price.
Buyers should always keep their cool, and regulate the verbal repartee.

Maree says:

10:55pm | 08/10/11

Jason: Well said, problem is, many customers just do not understand this concept. High effort customers can go to the opposition and let them erode their profit margins.

Shane says:

01:29pm | 10/10/11

@ Jason.  Mate, if I walk into a shop intending to spend hundreds or thousands, sometimes on several items, I reckon I’m entitled to ask the sales assistant at some stage what their best price for the products are.  Friendly and knowledgable service plus a few percent off the ticketed price = happy customer who will come back next time they’re in the market.