The largest extent of my sales experience comes from my ten months at OfficeMax in between my senior year of high school and my freshman year at GCC. During this time I developed a large collection of customer stories, but one story stands out in particular in my mind as the epitome of an uninformed customer.
It’s a semi-busy night, and I’m working up at the register ringing customers out. A couple that looks like they’re in their mid-50’s approaches my register, and is obviously visibly agitated. They hand me a USB extension cord that they had purchased a couple days ago, complaining that one of our best sales associates had sold them the wrong product. I offer to hold the item up at the front, and encourage them to find the proper product and we can exchange the two.
This would’ve been a normal interaction if it weren’t for the fact that they proceeded to bring the same exact product back to the front for an exchange. I then had to spend 5 minutes proving to them that the two items were completely identical, and then another 10-15 minutes showing them how to use a USB extension cord properly. Apparently they wanted their keyboard to reach further from their computer, and a wireless keyboard was out of the question… and learning and explaining this required another associate be pulled off the floor to manage the registers with me as I was tied up for the foreseeable future.
Ultimately they left with their original cord and slightly more knowledge than they came in the door with. It just astounds me that in an age where the information of the world is available at your fingertips, there are individuals who would rather drive to a store and argue with an employee for 20 minutes, rather than attempting to solve their problem on their own. Yes, selling has shifted as customers gain access to large quantities of information that wasn’t widely available 20 years ago. However, don’t assume that every customer takes advantage of this information, or you’re likely to lose your connection with them.
BoweryJE22
I feel like assuming anything in a sales scenario isn’t a good idea.
I find this to be overwhelmingly true. I fix computers and do IT work on the side, and the vast majority of what I do is just type the problem into Google, click the top result, and follow the instructions on how to fix it. Most people have the capacity to fix most computer problems, they just lack the confidence or know-how to Google the solution themselves.
Amazon.com is a perfect example of this. I don’t think people realize how much money time and effort can be saved just by shopping online. It really solves a need people are just unaware of it.