I watched a customer browser Woman’s Day, New Idea and the Herald Sun earlier this week. Browsing is not the right word – she read these almost cover to cover over twenty minutes, tucked away in a corner of one of our shops. I thought she was up to no good so I watched her, the whole time. She licked her fingers prior to turning each page. When she was done, she dropped all three titles near where they are displayed, but not quite right. No manners at all.
I’m okay with browsers, even those who appear to never buy anything. What I don’t like is browsers who leave their saliva behind for paying customers to touch. Who wants that?
Some days, customer experiences are wonderful. Other days, they are frustrating.
What about the pigs who approach the buffet and use the serving spoon to taste the food? Or the grubs who use their fingers to remove unwrapped sweets from a bin and taste them? Or the disgusting animal I worked with who emerged from the toilet, gingerly passed two fingertips quickly under the cold water tap and proclaimed he had washed. (His name was close to his nickname thereafter: “Poo fingers”.) Or the creature who took a clean plate, served himself with fruit from platters in the lunch room, then cleaned it by passing it under the cold water tap while rubbing with his fingers, dried it with a paper towel and place dit back in the cupboard with other clean plates. The kitchen has two dishwashers!!!!
I am no longer shocked by the filthy behaviour of people, or the speed with which sniffles and other illnesses circulate around the office.
One of our staff told me an interesting story about browsing. She is a uni studennt and had to find an article in a magazine about her subject so she and a couple of her friends went into the newsagency and were looking for the article when a shop assistant came up and told them the shop has a no browsing policy and they had 1 minute either to buy a magazine or leave the store.
Now this employee thought she was joking. This employee is very intelligent and well spoken and presented and they explained to the shop assistant what they were doing. They couldnt believe it so they left with there money still in there pockets.. The irony of the story is there are 60 students in this class so the newsagency had the chance to clean up if they found the article with sales from the rest of the class.
I know browsers are sometimes annoying but you never know what they are going to buy maybe not this time but in the future also. I would hate to try and buy a greeting card at this newsagency you would have to be quick in choosing.
Chris, I would appreciate that in your example 60 students may have theoretically purchased a copy of the magazine each but in reality the article would probably have been photocopied or scanned many times over for a small fraction of the cost of the magazine.
The salive on papers & magazines is lost on most people as they are completely unaware they do it and are both offended and embarrassed when stood up about it.
I don’t like it but unfortunately it seems to come with the territory.
As for the free browsing I belong firmly in the “short browse to confirm I want to buy the magazine” category and nothing will sway me over to the “welcome browsing” party. My magazine sales are strong since I took over this business three and half years ago, customer rapport & loyalty even stronger and I don’t feel for a second that I could gain more by letting people freely read magazines and papers in my shop.