For a while now, we’ve been looking for a new couch. We’ve been to every store in the area multiple times, sat on every couch there is, and have changed our minds about what we want after pretty much every store. During that time, we saw an awful lot of stereotypical salespeople and only a few decent ones.
In some stores, we walked in and weren’t approached by anyone. While I like that, it was also hard to find someone to help us in a number of these stores. They didn’t get our business.
In another store, our salesperson was nice, but overly so. You could tell she really wanted to make a sale. And she was kind of weird, too. “So you heard about us on the Internet?” she asked. It was a weird question because a minute earlier she asked if we had seen their web site yet and we said “no.” When we told her, “No, we found you through the phone book,” her response was odd: “Oh, so you know a lot about us, then!” They had some OK couches and options, but we left feeling a little creeped out.
When we went to our last store of our most recent trip, we finally came across a salesperson who met us at the door (I wasn’t psyched about that), but turned out to be helpful, non-pushy, and asked all the right questions. She’s one of those people that I’m making sure she gets credit for the sale when we actually decide which color we’re going to go with.
So, here are the simple rules of thumb for furniture salespeople: be available, but don’t hover; be friendly, but not freaky; and be helpful, but not pushy.
Posted in Everyday Life