What We Shop for: customer service

Sometime back I wrote that the best day to go shopping was the day before Thanksgiving. The infer was that the shop are all stocked up for Christmas in goods and in sale staff. They know the day after Thanksgiving they will be swamped with Christmas buyers so they are getting ready.

The day before Thanksgiving, the shop are empty because all of the non-working women are home fixing Thanksgiving dinner. The working ladies rush right to the grocery store after work. So the "Christmas shopping stores" are empty.

Men Jeans

I said in that sublime report that going to J.C. Penney the day before Thanksgiving was wonderful. They had goods on sale and they had abundance of workers to help you select what you needed. We were in and out of there in an hour and we had a bundle of gifts for our 32 grandkids, our great grandchild, and their parents.

I worked at J.C. Penny years ago.

I worked in the evening part time to earn a wee extra cash because I was heading back to graduate school.

I am an engineer but I was concerned in the sell firm and how it operated. I learned that each of the J.C. Penny shop in the Denver areas carried separate merchandize according to the needs of local customers. I learned the power of newspaper merchandizing, and I learned something about store management.

I didn't check to see if they had separate prices for the same merchandize in separate shop as Wal-Mart® has (what the shop will support) but I assume they did not.

(It's customary that Wal-Mart® does this. Buyers in cities with complicated shop shop nearby in the separate Wal-Mart® stores. Maybe Wal-Mart® knows that just brings more sales. The more time a buyer spends in your store, the more money he will spend. If he visits three of your shop in one day, looking for the best price, he will buy more than if he visited only one store.)

Well, I have another good report on J. C. Penney. I went into the store for their 40-50% off sale on men's clothing. I seldom buy clothing, but when I do, I buy a lot of stuff.

I started by selecting a sport coat. Soon a woman come up to us (I was with my wife) and gave us a hand. Then her supervisor showed up and helped too.

I couldn't believe that we really had help in selecting our stuff. I bought two coats and the ladies tried to find pants that would fit me. But they didn't look just by size. No the pants had to go good with the coats. They were very indispensable about the whole matter.

I premium a combine of pairs of blue jeans while they were looking the pants. I ended up buying five pair of dress pants along with the two sports coats. Next, we tried to find dress shirts that would fit my bull neck. We ended up by having these special ordered.

When they rang up the bill they suggested that I grab a J. C. Penny reputation card to save another 15%. That was another bucks or so in savings so I took the card knowing that I could really pay the bill then and there.

They said why not wait for the bill to come in. There would be no interest charged as long as I paid the bill on time. Since I had the mail order materials arrival in too, I decided to let them put it on the card.

Now, it's hard to get that kind of service these days. We were in the store for over an hour and we had two clerks working for us full time. I idea that was great.

So maybe buyer service isn't dead. You just have to find a group store that still has that good old buyer service.

I noted that the clerks were specific in getting reputation for the merchandize sold. The supervisor made sure the first clerk got full credit.

When I worked at J. C. Penney they had dropped sales commissions. I idea maybe they have put it back in place again.

I know the fulltime employees at J.C. Penney in Denver back in the early 1960s were very unhappy that they no longer got commissions. They preferred the excitement of generating commissions over the guaranteed wages increase they received based on their past commission sales.

Curious about the commission situation at our local store I had another nice experience, a person who knew exactly how to talk to a buyer on the telephone.

It's sad to me that sales are continually lost because of untrained workers who are rude, uninformed, or abrupt on the telephone.

I told the young women who answered the telephone about my shopping perceive and that I was writing a second report in which I mention J. C. Penny.

I told her about my work perceive at J. C. Penney and I asked if they were now paying commissions.

She explained that some shop paid commissions on definite items and that some did not. If commissions were paid, they would be paid on suit coats such as I purchased. The store I visited was not paying commissions.

I asked if incentive wage increases were given based on sales.

She didn't know for sure.

I called over an hour before the store was open, so we did not get that answer.

I assume that sales are leading to management and that they checked the sales of employees when giving wage increases, especially to supervisors.

Here is my opinion: Pay commissions to your sales people on larger-ticket items, train them properly, and they will give the buyer the best service possible.

In the store I visited, I still got the best possible service without the commissions, but that is part of the work ethic and training in the Twin Falls store. So, I guess you don't really have to pay commissions for good buyer service.

But what about this: Why were the employees at the Denver store back in the early 1960s where I worked unhappy about not being paid commissions when they were still earning the same money?

Look at it this way.

You need an extra bucks this week to take on vacation. You go into the store, work your tail off, and you earn the extra money right when you need it.

That's my theory.

You also can "hit the jackpot" on a singular day if you are paid a commission.

What We Shop for: customer service

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