How important is dealing with nice, courteous sales people to you?  I didn’t think it was all that important to me since I usually know exactly what I want and what I am buying before I go into a shop so my contact with the sales rep is minimal.  But then I noticed avoiding a few retail stores in the past couple of years because I thought their employees were either stupid or rude or both.

As an example, I recently brought my pants in to a Alterations Shop to get them hemmed.  I often do this because I: 1. have short legs and 2. can’t sew to save my life.  Anyway, I live in Burnaby, BC and so I go to Metrotown Mall to do this.  There’s a alterations place near Zellers on the second floor.  They have always provided me with good service in that my pants have always come out well.  There’s another alterations place in the mall near the Old Navy that I don’t often go to simply due to where it is located.  But one time I found myself shopping on that side of the mall and so I decided to go there instead of my regular shop.

At the new place woman behind the counter was cold and rude (she could have auditioned for the part of Snow Witch from Narnia) and I regret giving them my business.  The pants came out well, just as good as my regular shop and also cost me $2 less but that’s not enough to get me to back there.  I’ll pay more for the service from my regular place because it comes with nice smiles and hellos and thank you’s.

When I thought about this topic a bit more, something occurred to me.  I run a small service-based business and I pride myself for always being professional and courteous to my customers, so maybe I should raise my prices.  ;-)  But really, isn’t it only fair that I expect the same courtesy from my clients and the people I deal with daily?