No matter what you do, or how hard you try to sell to a potential client, there is one thing you can do that will instantly cause them to leave; and never come back. I bet you’ve all seen it happen before, and I can almost guarantee that over 70% of us have dealt with it at one time or another in our business careers. It’s something that I doubt you’ll think of instantly, but when you hear it; it clicks.
Trying to con your client will immediately make the potential client lose all respect for you as a business and as a person. I know because I had this happen to me today while doing some Christmas shopping. If you run a business and you try to swindle your potential customer out of money and they realize it, you’re as good as dead to them; at least that’s how I felt today. How would you feel if it happened to you? Probably as furious as I got today. Here’s what happened:
I went today to a trade show to find some good deals on Christmas gifts for my family. I came to a booth that was selling hats and t-shirts with Christian phrases on it and since my father is a Christian, I decided to look and pick out a t-shirt and hat to give him. The total price came to $23.00 and I gave the guy $40.00 expecting $17.00 back in change. Key word; expecting.
When the cashier realized he didn’t have the change on him and only had $15.00 instead of $17.00, I told him I had two singles and that I could pay $22.00 instead of $23.00. He then proceeded to ask for the $2.00 and gave me the $15.00 back as if that was my change. Now, if you’re adding, I gave him a total of $42.00 now and was expecting $19.00 back in change at this point.
The guy proceeded to try and explain to me what he was doing, and handed me back $17.00 which was the original change amount. Problem was, the $2.00 extra he has now is MY money. I told him that this wasn’t right, that the $2.00 as mine and he replied with and attitude: “Calm down”, like I was supposed to relax when this guy was trying to run a scam on me and steal my money. Yes, it’s only a couple bucks but its the principle behind it.
Now, I had the $17.00 in my hand and he had my $40.00, so I gave him back the $15.00 and asked for my $40.00 back and told him that he just lost the sale totally and because he wanted to try and get an extra couple bucks out of me, he’s not getting ZERO. I was so angry I had to walk away before I said or did something I didn’t want to.
If you look through the story, you can see a couple things the guy did wrong and you can see how it progresses from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. Let me break down a couple things he did wrong, and how you can avoid the problems in your own business so you don’t end up with an angry customer like I was today.
First, the cashier seen that I had $22.00 instead of $23.00. He also knew he didn’t have proper change for the $40.00 I paid with, which is technically his fault. Now, if you’re ever in this scenario, the best thing to do would have been to let the customer slide on the extra dollar. What this would have done was canceled everything out that happens next, as well as had the customer leave happy, and ready to tell someone about how they saved a dollar because of the nice cashier at that shop. Again, a dollar might seem like a small amount, but a lot of people count pennies to do shopping, so imagine how far that dollar could actually go with them!
After this happens and the cashier sees that he doesn’t have proper change, he could have easily asked me if I minded going to another booth to ask for change or he could have went himself while I waited for him. The booths are so close, he could have leaned over and asked the person next to us but he chose not to. I would have gladly went to get change from another vendor, or bought a pop from the food stand in order to get the proper change, but he never asked.
When the story gets to the point of him trying to rip me off the $2.00 and then taking MY two dollars and giving it back to me like it’s the proper change, he immediately sets off tons of triggers in my brain and I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs at this guy. I know a lot of other people who would have done just that; I’ve seen it happen many times when I was there. Don’t ever try to rip your client off, even if you’re jacking up the price an extra $20.00 on a service you’re offering just because he/she doesn’t know your exact rates. It’s wrong morally, and if/when the client finds out, you’re in for a heap of bad reviews and word-of-mouth from that person will do nothing but harm for your business.
Keep your customers happy, and they’re return to you or send people to you. It’s the best way to not put yourself in this position. If you want to lose a customer in one easy step, rip them off. If not, do everything in your power to make the customer happy. Who knows, that one dollar you let them slide on might be the conversation piece that customer has with a friend who is looking to spend big money!
Do you have a story similar to this? Maybe something happened online with a business you were working with? Feel free to drop a comment and let me know. I know I can’t be the only one this happened to before.
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I forgot to add into the article that I also had a problem with a lady at this place last year who tried to charge me $14.00 tax! A purse I was buying my girlfriend was $35.00 and when she told me what I owed, I was shocked when she said “$39.00″. Needless to say I yelled, screamed, called her an idiot and explained why she was an idiot.
I know theres someone out there with another story like this right? Please tell me I’m not the only one.
like this story,,, its good, I’m new to business and newly just setting up, a merchandising and retail support,, still not had customers,as of yet,,, but my point is that i worked for a company an they skimped on my wages, it ended up me working for a full month 7 days a week an in the end i owed the bank money cos they skimped on my wages so i spent bought stuff (essentials like food) thinking money was going to be in,, end of the month no money, i owed the bank money, i had receicts for everything that was bought on behalf of the company, so you’d have thought they’d give me my money back, no way had to take them to industrial tribunal ,, still owe me money but ahh well ya gotta move on aint ya, but the company was doing this to other people an d employee’s as well, I was not the only one, this was two years ago, the companies still in the same game as im setting up in now, thats why im setting up in business ,,, I got that %$^&*((((*(+ ing fed up of being stabbed in the back by employers demanding loyalty when their loyalty is elsewhere
anyhooo im waffling now ,, i’ll get me coat,,, im off
keeep it up
Your comments remind me that there are customers I don’t want.
I also think that business advice that consists essentially of, “Don’t try to swindle customers out of money” is obvious.
Maybe this advice would be better tagged, “Don’t buy crap at flea markets from people from out of town.”
My gut says that maybe the person just doesn’t know how to make change. I’ve come across that a lot! When I was a teen working at McDonald’s I was horrible at making change on the fly. A customer basically told me I should know how to make change and from that point forward I learned how to add change in my head. So now I know how much change back I should get or how many more pennies to give to get an even amount of change back. Not everyone knows how to do this. Actually A lot of people don’t. I would say he was probably just really confused and flustered, before thinking he was trying to con you.