Quote:
Originally Posted by TJH
I think you have to give people a little more credit that just to presume that they will buy just because its cheap. If you read my first post i did state i wanted to purchase locally so that i could have the use of a real store for warranty issues etc. Although it is commendable for anyone to set up there own company, it does not mean that the local population owes you a living. I shop where the service is best. To presume that people don't care if these companies are tax dodgers or not is not correct 99% of time. Its a matter of perspective. I have been self employed for 19 years. My father 45 years within the lancashire area. I think it is important that local shops realise that no one owes tham a living nor loyalty. These things are built up over a number of years. The Toolbox is an example of me having a bad experience, nothing more. In some cases price does come before service, but this is not exclusive to the internet. A shop, a store front, a stall call it what you will, it does not make a company nor does it promise good service. Accrington lacks investment, its lack people with business know how running the place. It must be terrible to be a shop owner and see Tesco's move in. But thats progression. We all need to adapt. Both the vendor and buyer.
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I'm not presuming they will buy just because it's cheap, but for the majority of people in areas where unemployment is high and incomes are low it is probably the biggest factor. It does also depend on the product or service you are selling wether the customer really cares about service.
We makes mistakes in what we do, we apologise to the customer. we may not be the best at what we do or the cheapest but we do take great pride in that our customer service would be difficult to fault. We are also wise to the fact that we can be as nice as possible to some people but they are only using their enquiry to us as a bartering tool to drive down somebody else's price or increasingly buy off the internet.
We know that the local community doesn't owe us a living or any loyalty, but the flip side of that coin is that local comunity can't really complain there's no retailers left in town when they all go spending their money on the internet because they save a few pence. If customer service was the driving factor then the robot in a warehouse of an internet company would be dismantled and sold to the local scrap merchant, those robots don't do customer service
