Getting What You Pay For
A couple of weeks ago, I (Sarah) was shopping at La Cantera, a local mall in San Antonio. As I walked through various levels of retail, I realized that in this industry, you absolutely get what you pay for. At BCBG, I was offered wine as I walked through the door, and had multiple people approach me to offer their help. The store was perfectly organized and all of the employees were well dressed and professional. Then, at Forever 21, I fumbled through people and clothes just to get through the doorway. I couldn’t tell who was working there and who was shopping. There was a line to get into the dressing rooms, and seemingly no one to help get the line moving. I walked out with a headache and then realized that in shopping there, I was getting what I would be paying for; next to nothing.
This mall experience reminded me of a blog I had read by Seth Godin. He was relaying this “get what you pay for” message through hotel and restaurant service examples. Seth made the point that it might cost these industries more to offer better or kinder service, but in the business world, it barely costs us anything to treat our customers well. I learned that you get what you pay for in the retail world too, and we have the choice to sacrifice quality customer service or cash. Since it doesn’t cost us (in businesses) anything to treat our clients and vendors well, why don’t we always go above and beyond? One of Salesby5’s core values is to deliver more than what is promised. What can you do today to impress your customers?
November 14th, 2008 at 11:39 am
great post!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I work at La Cantera and boy I sure hope your (Sarah) experience was a great one in our place
This is a great post because going above and beyond does not take a lot of bells and whistles and dancing monkeys. It takes opening your mouth, being kind, helpful and profound so that your customer will walk away with the sense that they were affected a little more positively when they left than when they walked in.