Clientèle

“ When a customer enters a shop the proprietor, a grey-headed man perhaps, but conveying by his well-dressed person a profound appearance of old-established honest trading, will slowly and calmly set down his pipe on the polished counter, or push aside his cup of tea, and then inquire politely the nature of his customer's demands. ”

“ Then there is a third source of material, scarcely less important than the study of the house and the customer, and that is a study of the competitors—other firms who are in the same line of business and going after the same trade. The broad-gauged correspondent never misses an opportunity to learn more about the goods of competing houses—the quality of their products, the extent of their lines, their facilities for handling orders, the satisfaction that their goods are giving, the terms on which they are sold and which managers are hustling and up to the minute in their methods. ”

“ Indeed, customer service is emerging as a key competitive advantage today, not only in the domestic marketplace, but also in the expanding international arena.
In many industries, service is the product. The service sector accounts for 60 percent of our gross national product and provides some 70 percent of American jobs. Communications, transportation, utilities, banking, accounting, health care, and home maintenance are but a few examples of service industries indispensable to our way of life. ”

“ Here I am—a customer of your railroad just like a man that buys a steak from a b-butcher is a customer of the butcher. If folks wouldn’t use your railroad to send stuff on you would have to go out of b-business. It looks to me like I was doing something you ought to appreciate when I ship a car of freight, and that when I come to see you about railroad b-business, that is goin’ to put m-money into your p-pocket, the least you could do and be fair would be to l-listen. I’m always mighty anxious to keep my customers feelin’ f-f-friendly toward me. ”

“ Our customers buy from us: his customers trade with him—they enter into harmony with him. Store-keepers and customers sing together like gnats over the oak trees; they make things hum. There is a feeling that whether buying or selling you are getting forward. ”

“ No matter how small the transaction, even if it be only the selling of a stick of candy to a little child, put into it the thought of increase, and make sure that the customer is impressed with the thought.
Convey the impression of advancement with everything you do, so that all people shall receive the impression that you are an Advancing Man, and that you advance all who deal with you. ”

“ Every newcomer becomes a customer for those already on the ground, for all that he needs for his maintenance, just as the new born babe furnishes a new customer for the dry goods store, the milk man, not to mention the doctor and sometimes the lawyer. ”

“ But the consumer, to some extent at least, makes up the difference by supplying the service that other retailing establishments offer him. The customer may make a money saving by trading with the mail-order house, but he does so by contributing his own time and labour to the transaction. ”

“ Show as much civility and attention to a customer plainly dressed, and walking on foot, or getting out of an omnibus, as you would to a lady elegantly attired, and coming in her own carriage. The former may prove the most profitable customer. Be careful to exhibit no temper, even if you have had the trouble of showing a variety of goods to one who goes away without buying any thing. ”

“ Learn all you can in an open, fair way, but do not resort to trickery, or [179] to any methods which you would be unwilling to have a competitor use with your house.
The second rule for meeting competition is “Know Competitors’ Goods.” This again involves not only being familiar with the quality and uses of the goods, but with the reputation of the manufacturer and his selling agents, as well as the class of trade to which competitors cater, the class of salesmen they employ, and the ethics they observe in doing business. ”

“ Be careful in making change that there are no mistakes, and insist that each customer count the money received in change before leaving the store. If you wish to be very business-like, take account of all goods sold. ”

“ That again, is the business of the Society. Every member should be a salesman. The kindling would be put up in bundles of uniform size, warranted to be dry and to give satisfaction and delivered at the door by the workers of course. It ought not to be difficult for you to secure a sufficient number of regular customers to insure the success of the business. ”

“ The salesman who has learned to exercise this power is far from being an order taker or even an order solicitor. Literally, he is counselor and guide—an interpreter of the store services which exist to help the customer, and the one to show the store management the need for expert customer guidance in color management. ”

“ We wish to win not only your patronage, but your friendship for our store.
Every up-to-date woman realizes the many benefits, the conveniences, [203] and even prestige she enjoys through having a charge account at a dependable store.
A store, in turn, is judged by its charge accounts—it is rated by the women who have accounts there.
And so, because of your standing in the community, if you avail yourself of our invitation to do your buying here, you are reflecting credit both on yourself and on us. ”

“ THE BLACK HARDWARE STORE
32 Hill Street, Farmdale
[Pg 259]
A well-known business man once said that salesmanship "is selling goods, that won't come back, to customers—who will."
It requires more than salesmanship to do this—it also requires buymanship and service.
We realize this. We know that every purchase you make in our store must have service with it.
Service—good service—is supplying your needs in the best, quickest, and most economical way.
So we start by buying right. ”

“ They firmly believe that a sale is not complete unless satisfaction on the part of the customer accompanies it. They firmly believe in the goods they are offering and they communicate this confidence to their customers. They know that a satisfied customer is a walking advertisement for their store. ”

“ CUSTOMER CONCENTRATION Another way of expressing the idea of customer concentration is just this: Give the customer, while you are serving him, one hundred per cent of your attention, interest, thought and knowledge of the business. Any measure less than that means there will be a loss somewhere and the wise salesman will make sure it is not his loss. ”

“ The power of personal salesmanship and the need of individual initiative are shown in relation to middleman and consumer. The present business organization from producer to distributor is seen to be that of profit yielding according as the group spirit is understood by the advertiser in telling his message.” (Ann Am Acad) “The work is based on lectures delivered before the School of commerce of Northwestern university, and for this new edition has been revised, with some new chapters substituted for old.” ”

“ Her principal work is to trot around in other stores and learn all she can about their 'specials' and prices, and get all the information possible in order to keep her employers posted on what their rivals are doing, and besides that she is expected to prowl around this store at irregular intervals, and we are not supposed to know that she isn't a legitimate customer. ”

“ But you didn't ask me, ma'm. We always help customers all we can. You see our experience—living right among books all the time—that sort of thing makes us able to help a customer make a selection, you know. ”

“ Day after day, as I sit behind my counter, or warm my old hands by the cheerful blaze of the fire, do customers come to me to buy something or perhaps to sell some loved relic in order that they may live. ”

“ We purpose to hold the work, when completed, as a subscription book, just as during its progress to completion, and we trust our agents will appreciate this positive adherence to price, which is to their advantage, and to the credit and character of the business in which they are engaged. ”

“ Where a business serves consumers direct by means of retail stores, as for instance, the chain tea stores, the chain cigar stores, the 5c and 10c stores, the system offers one of the best means of bringing the business into close personal touch with customers. It gives customers an opportunity to examine the wares at their convenience, and at the same time it gives the local branch manager an opportunity to build up good-will for the distant proprietor. ”

“ And every merchant will be judged of by his customers in proportion to the courteous treatment they receive from him, or from clerks in his store. The lawyer or the doctor will also acquire popularity and patronage as he exhibits courteous and kind treatment to all with whom he comes into social or business relations. ”

“ Those who are sensitive to consumer needs and services and recognize that well-informed consumers mean business-repeat sales and sound market relationships-can expect to be rewarded with continuing opportunities to serve and profit. ”

“ When they could not have secured the ready cash they needed upon purely business grounds, firms accommodated through the efforts of a salesman become life customers and a perpetual advertisement for the concern which has helped them, always saying a good word for it whenever possible. ”

“ We, however, who are primarily interested in the shop, are apt to forget that success, instead of hinging upon shop management, depends in many cases mainly upon other elements, namely,—the location of the company, its financial strength and ability, the efficiency of its business and sales departments, its engineering ability, the superiority of its plant and equipment, or the protection afforded either by patents, combination, location or other partial monopoly. ”

“ The necessary theoretical matter is presented by means of illustrations taken from actual experiences of merchants. Reality without minute detail is the spirit of the work. Particular forms of retailing—chain stores, department stores, and so on—are not mentioned in the treatise. Location, organization, accounting, buying, sales, and pricing, the factors whose management means success or failure in any retail establishment, large or small, receive thorough treatment. ”

“ Arrived at the great, impudently advertising, roaring, trading firm that dealt with books as men deal with goods in bulk and, interviewing the manager as man to man, she had driven her bargain, and a good one, too. ”

“ At all events, we mailed a few letters to customers explaining the matter, and a business on this basis was commenced and quickly grew to large proportions.
This fact made it dangerous, for the larger the business the greater the risk. We had to continually have an interest in the market either on one side or the other, and if the business was large our interest must be in proportion.
For some time the business was most satisfactory. My judgment of the market was correct, our customers were well pleased, and we made good profits. ”

“ It was observed that upon entering a shop here the customer invariably removes his hat out of respect to the store-keeper, whether man or woman, and remains thus uncovered while perfecting his purchase. ”

“ When we affirm that brokers’ shops are strange places, and that if an authentic history of their contents could be procured, it would furnish many a page of amusement, and many a melancholy tale, it is necessary to explain the class of shops to which we allude. ”

“ In one, as a book or patent agency, the agent works for one or two persons at a fixed commission and needs no capital. In the other, as that of servants and of supply companies, the agent is also in a certain sense a principal; he obeys no one’s orders, fixes his own commissions, and makes his profits directly from the public. Here are a few points for agents:
287. Book Agency.—The book agency depends partly upon the kind of book, but chiefly upon the kind of man. The right man selling the right book can make enormous wages. ”

“ Wine-merchants will naturally compete every week promiscuously, sending what they consider their best samples, and leaving with the hall-porter tickets of the prices. Confectionery to be done out of the house. Fruiterers, market-men, as butchers and poulterers. The Agent's maitre-d'hotel will give a receipt to each individual for the articles he produces; and let all remember that The Agent is a VERY KEEN JUDGE, and woe betide those who serve him or his clients ill! ”

“ Our idea, on the other hand, that which underlies the arrangements of our shops, is that a customer wants, perhaps a new book, perhaps a ten-and-sixpenny book, perhaps a shilling book, without minding much what the book is about. ”

“ The salesmen are trained, tactful, tireless and efficient. They travel from town to town and place to place, visiting every nook and corner where human beings congregate, in order to sell the goods carried by the firm. ”

“ Other customers are buyers from commercial houses, bringing out of town men who are here to purchase goods. In addition to this there are many traveling men who bring friends who gradually become regular customer.... ”

“ Service is the very soul of the certain success selling process. Service must be studied as a purpose until the principles underlying the fullest satisfaction of the buyer's real needs are mastered, and all false misconceptions of service are cleared away from the salesman's idea of his obligation to the purchaser of his goods of sale. ”

“ The proprietor of the shop looks calmly on with apparently no interest in the business, but it is more than likely that some understanding with the itinerant vendor exists, and that when the purchaser has departed the shopkeeper will get a commission for the use of his premises. ”

“ If a client asks about the rating of a customer who has just ordered several million dollars worth of goods, the bank may be called on to furnish this information in a very short time, even though the customer resides halfway around the world. ”

“ It is indeed clearly self-evident that on many accounts the man in business must give attention primarily to the service he is trying to render. The clerk in the store must devote himself mainly to his customers, to his merchandise, to his other duties, not to his salary. ”