I was asked if I would shop at a store that doesn't know what they carry, and won't bother helping you look. Here is the scenario. A guy, a gal, and a 9-year old enter a game store. Their request is simple: "We're looking for any miniature of a fighter with an axe."

At store one, a local game store in Rockville, the store is spacious, with half set up with active gaming tables. There are few shopping customers on that Saturday afternoon and 3 staff behind the counter. We browse the minis section, where the figures are on rotating shelves that are set so closely they interlace like a revolving door. We find 2 of the 3 characters we wanted, but not the fighter. Thus was formulated 'the question', above.

Faced with 'the question', the clerk replies "I don't know, we don't have any inventory tracking". And, err... that's it.

Seriously, that was it. No other customers were barking at the door and all we get is the attitude of "don't know, don't care"? A similar query on whether there were any more D&D pre-pained minis yielded the less than fruitful "that's all I've got."

We bought the two minis we'd found, reluctantly. Yes, we debated whether to just buy them online-- not for price, but because the store was worse than useless. We bought them only because it'd cost us more in time and money to shop online than to simply buy them there. Our conclusion echoes the REM song, "don't go back to Rockville". The store got $11 of our money, for 2 figures purchased grudgingly and with an internal vow that we'll never return. Horrible.

On impulse, heading home, we detour to another store-- "The Family Game Store", in Savage MD. (And yes, that's actually their name.) This time, just the gal and son go into the store, armed with the same "We're looking for..." question. This slightly smaller shop has 1 clerk, and is also running a tournament in their gaming space just next to the store. The clerk, despite being busy with multiple customers, walks us over to minis and finds us a fighter that we love-- but the mini has a sword, not an axe. The clerk then shows us a set of separate weapons we can add on. Success! We are happy!

Not stopping there, he then continues his quick search to make sure there isn't an even better mini to satisfy us. He also explains the technique to modify it, walks through step by step, and recommends which glue to do the sword-to-axe reattachment. He offers that we can come back if we have trouble glueing and he'll fix it for us. He then tells us they have a free mini painting workshop every Sunday. Finally, he rings us up, then goes back to clerking for the other customers.

Gross revenue to store #2: $31 for 1 figure (plus a set of dice, because they were by the cash register), and we are eager to go back there again. Gross revenue to store #1: $11, and customers who'll never return.

Is there a lesson here? Well, if you're not an idiot, the lesson is that customers are not disruptions who walk into your shop, choose items, then give you money. For that, we can and will shop online. Online does self-serve better, cheaper, and with no driving. What differentiates local stores from online shops is customer service, plain and simple. It's all about how you view customers. Our definition? Customers are people who want to give you money if you fill their needs.

Until next week,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net