In my ongoing quest to keep my children engaged while off-track, I dropped by the local Game Stop to grab Fuzion Frenzy for the 360 — it has been their favorite XBox game so I wanted to upgrade. I found it quickly and went straight to check-out. The conversation that followed just blew me away.
Salesperson: “Is that it for you today?”
Me: “Yup, that’s it.”
Salesperson: “Have you heard about our preferred customer program?”
Me: (Oh no, not again) “Nope”
Salesperson: “Well, here’s how it worksyou spend an extra $10 today to join and then you get 10% off your future purchases with us, plus you’ll get a cool gamer’s magazine subscription for a whole year. How does that sound?”
Me: “Ummnope, not interested today.”
Salesperson: “Are you sure? It will pay for itself in a heartbeat. It’s a no-brainer.”
Me: “No thanks.”
Salesperson #2 standing nearby: “You really should do it, man, you’ll make your money back almost immediately and you’ll get the mag…it’s sweet!”
Me: “I don’t want the magazine, mostly because I don’t want my kids seeing all the games I don’t want them to have. It just creates another problem for me. And I hardly ever shop here so I really don’t want your deal. It will just become another card that won’t fit in my wallet.”
Both salespeople look at each other, obviously in disgust, rolling their eyes to say how could this customer possibly be so stupid.
Me: “If you’d rather not sell this to me,givenmy decision, I’ll happily go elsewhere. If you guys push too hard, folks like me simply won’t come back.”
Salesperson: “It’s just that most people can see the value and sign-up.” (with a tone that once again clearly implied my ignorance)
Me: “What ever happened to the-customer-is-always-right?”
Me: (as I turn to the door) “You know,there’s a really nice Super Target just across the street”
So, apparently, I’m the first person ignorant enough to turn them down on their great deal. The reality is I’m really getting tired of all these preferred savings programs that attempt to trackmy information and purchasing patterns. I tend to turn them all down on principle and it’s always interesting to see how they react.
Anyway, a great anti-pattern for customer service.