5 Ways To Turn Off Customers (for Brick and Mortars)

By Chris Crum - Tue, 08/05/2008 - 11:26am.

Try Avoiding them!

Here's a quick list of ways to keep customers away from your store, and probably dig your business's grave.

1. Bad Location

Bad location can mean a couple of things. First, it can mean "out of the way". There is a reason that businesses tend to be located near other businesses. Opening up near competition can work negatively or positively, and the decision to do so is a debatable one, but opening up near other businesses will most likely bring you more customers, particularly impulse shoppers who are just out shopping in general.

Bad location can also mean a "bad" part of town. The "bad" adjective is also debatable, but as an example, if you are running a crafts shop, you may want to consider not opening it in the red light district next to the adult video stores. If you are running an adult video store however, you may find the same area great for business.

2. High Prices

Price is obviously a factor in most purchasing decisions, so if you are selling goods or services that can easily be obtained elsewhere for a fraction of your prices, it probably won't take long for your business to dwindle.

As online shopping has become more popular, finding better deals is easier than ever - a fact you may want to consider before jacking up your prices.

3. Dirty Store

If your store is not clean (and this includes public restrooms), people will be turned off. Nobody wants to walk around a messy place searching for things to buy.

Dirty or untidy places create an unpleasant atmosphere, and may make your competitors seem more appealing in the customers' eyes. It is easy for some kinds of stores to become untidy in the madness of a busy day, but try to keep it the opposite as the day progresses because while you may know that your store has been a madhouse that day, the later-arriving customers may not.

4. Pushy Salespeople

I have talked about this at length a couple of times, citing a certain electronics retailer as notorious for it. Don't have your sales staff harassing customers just to push them into buying certain items.

Train them to be there to help the customers, but not to make them uncomfortable.

5. Poor Customer Service

Last but not least, the cornerstone of repeat business - customer service. Nothing will make a customer more angry than a customer service representative that is unhelpful, or worse - spiteful.

Customer service is about helping the customer, not upsetting them. Yet all too often, you hear or experience horror stories about it. The customer may not always be right, but you will do well to remember who is keeping your business from going under.

There are other ways to turn customers off, but if you avoid these 5, you'll be headed in the right direction. Anybody want to add anything?

News Tags: employees, Brick and Mortar, Sales, prices, customer service, location, customers

About the author:
Chris is a content coordinator and staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz and the iEntry Network. Subscribe to SmallBusinessNewz RSS Feeds.

Comments

By Jason (SBN reader) - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 9:20am.

poor customer service

After reading the article on customer service horror stories I have a current situation that I'm going through that I would like to share. A customer bought a table and chair set from me, electing to take it home and set it up themselves. Once the table arrived they inspected it, loaded it up and took it home. As they were unloading it they damaged the table top pretty badly, but swear up and down they didn't do it even though it was fine when it left the store and signed a contract that stated it. Anyway I went out to the customers house immediately and looked it over. After inspection I said that I would be willing to send out a repair guy and see if there was anything he could do. Unfortunately the damage is too bad and the table will need to be sent back to the builder to have that section replaced. The whole table top will have to be refinished as well. That's going to easily run between $500 or $600. Now because of my initial generosity and trying to have top notch customer service they expect me to foot the bill for their mistake. They're talking about telling everybody how horrible of a store we are if we don't loose money by fixing their mistake. What are you supposed to do now! Unfortunately I find the more I'm willing to help and provide good customer service the more I get screwed. It's getting worse as the economy goes down. It's customers like this one that turn a lot of stores in to customer service nightmares. For some unknown reason the standard seems to be the more you give the more they try and take advantage of you and are will tell everybody you're wrong if you don't give in to unreasonable demands, especially when it's their fault. The longer I run my own store the more I find truth in a line from the movie clerks: "the customer is always an a**hole". Customer service should be the corner stone of any business but when you're continually taken advantage of for fear of bad word of mouth you get soured to the whole thing really quickly. Eventually it can get you to the point where you just don't care. Which is where I'm heading. Just tired of getting screwed. This is the other side of the equation that nobody seems to cover. An article on how to combat this type of thing, how to deal with it and where to draw the line would be great. This is an area that seems to get no coverage and in my case would be greatly appreciated.

By Chris Crum - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 10:04am.

RE: poor customer service

Hi Jason,

Thanks for reading, and for providing a thoughtful comment. I have to believe that your problem is not uncommon (I'm a big fan of the movie Clerks too!)

I'm afraid that there is probably no definite answer for how to deal with a situation like this, and that is probably why it is a topic not covered so often.

Perseverance is the best thing that I can come up with. As tempting as it is to give up on society, and it may sometimes seem like the customer is always an a**hole as you say, it really isn't true. If you continue to keep providing the best customer service you can, some of these people are going to spread good word of mouth, just as the bad guys spread negative WoM. The difference is that the good guys probably aren't as vocal about it to you. The bad guys will tell you that they're going to tell everybody how much you suck because they're still trying to get something out of you, whereas, the good guys leave your store feeling satisfied and may not see any reason to take the conversation even further or express their gratitude. This gratitude may eventually come out however, when they're telling one of their buddies who is in the market for what you are offering, that they had a great experience with your business. Some will actually even go out of their way and write about it :).

That said, it is up to you to set your own limits. if you don't feel that taking care of a customer request is your responsibility, than it is your call (as long as you are not contractually obligated), and if the request was something as outrageous as the story you mentioned, other potential customers can probably empathize with you.

In fact, this may be a good reason to start a business blog. Could be a good way to get your side of the story out there.

After this, maybe I'll write an article on it after all? I guess I pretty much just did :)

By Jonathan Boettcher (SBN reader) - Sat, 08/16/2008 - 11:21am.

Re: poor customer service

My favorite line from Dilbert:

Dogbert's First Law of Management:

a) The customer is always right and,
b) They must be punished for their arrogance.

By Heather I. (SBN reader) - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 10:28am.

Something else that turns off customers

Thanks for the great article! As the owner of a small town specialty bookstore, I fight the clutter and mess problem daily. But there is another big KILLER to a small town business -- that is a store that posts hours and doesn't stick to them. Being there when you advertise is important. I've seen a neighboring business go straight downhill because he is not there when customers expect him to be. He owns a food specialty store and routinely changes his hours, shows up very late, and takes off during the day. It is not acceptable to post a note on the door saying you'll be back in an hour (or two)! Several businesses locally have failed due to this problem. A lovely candy store tried to make a go of it recently. In addition to smoking behind the counter (another thing that can kill your business is cigarette smoke), she would be gone from the store during posted hours. One time I wanted to take my kids on a Saturday and she had a note saying she was gone to a candy convention. I could write more, but you get the picture!!

By Chris Crum - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 10:44am.

RE: something else that turns off customers

Hi Heather,

Yes, those are good ones too. I actually wrote an article a while back addressing a similar situation to the store-hours problem.

By R. Hiebert (SBN reader) - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 3:01pm.

5 Ways...

Good stuff, but this only a short list of potential turn-offs. There are more and any one of them will turn off customers for good. Have you noticed that the big franchises that don't need to worry about clean premises or courteous staff get the customers irregardless? That is sure no excuse for shoddy appearnce or poor customer relations. Maybe that's why having an online presence with all the non-brick & mortar characterisitcs is so attractive.

By Chris Crum - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 3:20pm.

RE: 5 ways...

Yes, there are certainly more ways. That's why I like online shopping ;)

By Ed Sykes (SBN reader) - Sat, 08/09/2008 - 9:45am.

Customer Service

Also, bad first and lasting impressions will drive customers away from your business. Reps that do not smile (and smile even less when they start interacting with you) when you come in the store will drive people away. I drove even further away to buy a cell phone because the closer store had unfriendly clerks.

Go to my National Public Radio interview on customer service at www.thesykesgrp.com or read my articles on how to give great customer service at http://www.thesykesgrp.com/Articles.htm. Customer Service, don't leave home without!

By Chris Crum - Mon, 08/11/2008 - 8:38am.

RE: Ed Sykes

Yes, people like courtesy too.

By Sallyanne - Web Design (SBN reader) - Mon, 08/11/2008 - 4:32am.

Bad Customer Service...

Hi All, What a horrible situation Jason! No-one should feel like they are being taken advantage of, and a customer shouldnt put you in the position. It should be a two way relationship and you should be able to work with each other to get the problem resolved. However i agree with Chris...that quote isnt always true and the good customers you get will obviously help to boast business...the chances are that the person may just be threatening you in order to get you to sort the table out and may not go through with the threats at all but it is very sad that the customer feels they need to do that in order to get your attention...they have obviously had a hard time of it with another store perhaps?? If this is the case then at least you can pride yourself on being one of a dying number of stores that offer good customer service! Although you may need to chalk this experience up on the 'forget about it' board!

5 Ways To Turn Off Customers (for Brick and Mortars)

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