are customers always right ?
I'm spending some days of vacation in Israel, and i realized how different could be the little shops and the "structured retail stores"
What a contrast between shopping at IKEA ( in netanyia) and shopping in Herzl street!
at IKEA, we wanted to buy a small transformable table made of wood, exactly the model presented there. We don't have this one in stock , we do have the dark color one. Yes ( me speaking) , but i came on purpose and i do need a table to work !! "sorry you can't have it", (me) "What about this one here in the shop, may i buy it ?, so eventually i've got it now". No we don't sell, and if we accept to sell it , it is at the regular price, no discount because it's used and got some marks here and there !! Same experience in the shutter's department of IKEA !! for sure the customer needs to adapt to IKEAn way of life and not even think that this IKEA is located somewhere in the middle east where bargaining is not a vice !
In Herzl street on the countrary , we had the best possible welcome from a small bed shop owner , it was 7pm, he took his time to show us everything, got it in stock , and delivered it the next day !! cherry on the cake, i got the great feeling of making a big bargain after getting some 100 ILS off the price !
oh by the way i got an other " customer is not always right" experience in a laundry located on dizzengoff street. i brought 10 kilos of clothes, towels to have them cleaned. My wife incidently left in there a couple of wool garnments, no problem, they got same treatment and came as nice Barbie Doll clothes , btw we look for some one to buy them from us !! the Laundry owner remembered me my obligation as a client : sort out your clothes so this does not happen again!! "i don't have time to read the washing instructions attached to your clothes !! it's your problem !!
Actually we bought a nice washing machine , so we don't try again upsetting a laundry owner in the neighbourhood.
Last one was with ACE the leading DIY store situated on the aharbour of Tel aviv, great people in the shop, we bought a lot from them, good information... but yesterday , i parked my car there and was surprized that the cash manager refused to hand over a voucher ( only if you buy more than 200$), i have been in that store every day since i'm in Tel Aviv the last 10 days !! The lady looked surprized when i told her, "never say no to a customer !!"
so more to do to increase the service level in large , structured retail stores !! i'll try to question our local sales training partners in Israel and will publish there opinion here
