Five Things a Customer Should Never Do When Shopping for Home Furnishings
You know that old saying that a customer is always right? Well, that is not necessarily true. From years of working in the furnishings industry, we see it from both sides-the stores and the customers—and we’ve heard some horrible customer stories.
Here are the five things that you can do to make stores hate you. Well, okay, hate is a strong word, so let’s rephrase this-don’t do these things or stores will NOT like you too much. In fact, they might talk about you until the day you die!
Bargain too hard without regards to how the store can make money. Now, you’d say, don’t they mark up a ton already? But generally, if you are asking for a discount of 60-80% of the listed price, you are asking too much. Recently, one of our rug dealers was asked to discount a rug from $5000 to $1250. Now, that’s a bit too much. Stores have to make money in order to survive; otherwise there will be no place for us to shop.
You take up tons of a salesperson/designer’s time, and then shop it around for a cheaper price. Honestly, that is the worst offense. If you take up someone’s time, give them a chance to earn their business. It’s unfair to them to spend time with you and lose the sales to someone else for a couple of dollars less. It’s a small industry, people always find out.
Order custom-made order, and then change your mind. But instead of admitting that you changed your mind, you find something wrong with it so the store has to absorb the cost instead of you.
Play decorating without any intention to buy. Everyone is busy, and most store designers work on commission. Don’t have them come over your house, measure things, work on floor plans, and then not buy a thing. If you must, play on your own time.
Be inconsiderate, and that includes item 1-4 above.
Generally, it's easy to be a good customer. Just be fair and considerate in your dealing with them like you would with anyone else. And here's a really
big secret: you'll get treated much better when
you are nice.
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