What are some things businesses do that cause you to not want to deal with them? Bonus points for things that the owners/managers think is good business practice, but that is driving you away.
My examples: I’ve mentioned this before, but the Kia dealer I used before I moved would have the franchise owner, a very old lady, call after each oil change to thank me for using them and ask how things went, etc. It was fine - once - but after 3 or 4 times, the call got old, especially since the calls tended to be fairly early in the morning. I cut way down on visiting them just to avoid the calls.
More mundane: Even if I liked their product, I would never use ADT alarms due to the sheer number of door-to-door salespeople coming by to try and get us to use them. There were 2-3 a week at one point, always different people. Guys, the Jehovahs Witness method is not a good business model!
When watching content from the web they’ve cleverly slid in some commercials, no biggie. I’m watching your content, I’ll watch your ads, I’m cool with that. What I’m not cool with is watching the same ad over and over, and then over and over again at the next commercial break. Are you idiots? Can you not tell that most people will watch the ads if they weren’t so ridiculously repeated on endlessly, over and over. After one viewing they aren’t going to watch any of the ads.
Ditto for television ads that come on really, really loud. How is it not self evident, after a couple of go rounds, that’s it’s easier and simpler to just mute till the ads are done, than to volume up, volume down, again and again, throughout the broadcast. How is that better for sales than just using a normal freaking volume?
Supermarkets that have long lines at checkout. Yes, I know an idle checker is a loss, but what part of, every cent in the cash register goes through a checkout clerk don’t you understand? So the fewer checkers, the less money in the till. Up to a point, but one now-bankrupt market around here pushed that beyond all reason.
There is one chain around here (Canadian Tire) that I avoid going into at all. If you can’t find what you are looking for (all too often) and want to leave, the only way is to push your way past a too-narrow checkout line and annoy the customer checking out. I realize this probably reduces shoplifting (does it really?) but it makes people (me anyway) reluctant to go in at all.
I hate stores that have minimum-knowledge clerks. I understand that Circuit City went bust by following that strategy.
Although slightly off topic, I will mention that when organizations treat their employees decently, the employees treat the customers well too.
Moronic, pushy and ubiquitous advertising. Including door to door or unsolicited phone calls.
Poor customer service - rude or indifferent staff, doctors or dentists (or waitpersons) consistently running very slow or not honoring appointment times without acknowledging and apologizing for the wait. I understand stuff happens, especially in those professions, but IMHO it is not good business to take your clients for granted.
Friendliness and overall good service is important to me and I will pay a little extra for it too.
Stores that have minimum purchases on credit cards. I tend to stop visiting that store if I have to think about if I have enough cash beforehand. Much easier to go to a competitor. Rarely is a store unique and good enough for it to be worth the hassle of stopping by the ATM first.
Overdoing the suggestive selling thing. I don’t mind a mention of a special or whatever but hard sell on a half dozen promotions, the store’s credit card, on-line coupons, offers to text me with specials (useless, I have a stupidphone) that slows down the checkout process really chaps my ass.
Although I will give much credit to the store clerk I approached and told “I know you’ve been told to say a speech but I am in a really big hurry and not in a good mood. Please skip the ad this time and just check me out.” And she did. I will consider going back there now that I know I can skip the ad on bad-for-me days.
I’ve made the following argument to HR: Paying our front-line staff more money won’t make them better workers; but paying more than the absolute legal minimum might let us attract & retain the good ones.
HR totally agrees, but we’ve had no luck convincing the GM. :mad:
For a while now, I’ve been using the Comixology app on my iPhone to read comics. It was an ideal way to shop for comics in a lot of ways: you get to the end of one book, you just click a button to buy the next in the series. Browsing new titles, you could preview a few pages, and if it looked good, buy it right there. It was set up to make impulse purchases really, really easy. I spent a lot of money in that app.
Recently, Amazon bought them, and their first major change to remove in-app purchases. Now you have to launch the browser, go to their website, find the comic you want there, buy it, download it, then find it in the app and finally read it.
Now, I’m not all “RAWR! OUTRAGE!” about it, but it’s enough of a pain in the ass that I’m much less likely to take a chance on a new book based on the previews. But it’s even dumber than even that. Comixoloxy licensed their storefront tech to both Marvel and DC. I can use their versions of the app, which are identical to the Comixology app, except for content (obviously)… and the in-app store. And since most of the books I buy are from the Big Two (and between them, mostly Marvel) I’ll just buy the books in their apps, and cut Comixology and Amazon out of it completely.
This whole bullshit was started because (allegedly) Amazon didn’t want to pay 30% of every purchase to Apple. Now, they’re getting 100% of no money at all from me.
Going to some business at an hour when I imagine they might be open, and finding said business NOT open, and NOT finding any placard in the window showing what their business hours are.
You want my business? Tell me when you’re open then.
I’m looking at YOU, United States Postal Service. (But there are other, private, business too that do this.)
Upselling. Not only upselling, but having the front-line purchase expediters do it, slowing up the whole line… and then having them sign the person up, adding 2-5 minutes of wait for everyone. There are places where having a clerk who is genuinely assisting you choose your purchases is a good thing; having a clerk try to sell you add-ons and memberships and insurance can’t be a sensible bottom-line operation.
I avoid The Home Depot because the staff is too helpful. Every time one of their employees walks by me, he/she asks if I need help. It’s very annoying. I go to Lowe’s instead.
I too hate the upsell. Especially at fast food drive-thru’s. I don’t frequent them often, but there is a Taco Bell close to work that I do sometimes make a run for at lunch. Every single time I order “two tacos please” I am asked "would I like to try the new special, would I like to upgrade it to a number 3, would I like a drink, would I like desert, do I see the amount on the screen, do I agree with that amount, will that be all, oh … are you sure you don’t want a drink with your meal … every.single.time. It’s difficult not to get pissy. Yes, I understand they are told to do this. It’s just irritating as hell.
Angie’s List did something like the OP’s Kia dealership.
If you’re not familiar it’s a website where you pay to sign up so you can read and post reviews of local service companies like dog groomers, tree trimmers, plumbers, etc etc. I’ve been a member since at least 2005.
Angie’s List doesn’t work unless you leave reviews. And I think they also charge more for an area/region/city where there’s lots of activity (lots of reviews). So they really want reviews reviews reviews!
A few years ago they started calling me like 3-4 times a day, often early in the morning, to ask me for reviews of companies they saw I’d looked at on the Web site. Finally I answered and let them go over their spiel and the girl started walking me through writing a review, basically filling it out for me over the phone.
Not only did I dislike the persistent calling, I also didn’t like the idea that reviews were being posted by people who were half-watching a tv show or on the way out the door or sitting on the toilet.
I complained several times about it, and the calling stopped. Not sure if they stopped the practice altogether or if I’m just on a “do not call” list. But since they stopped, I did re-subscribe for a few more years.
My coworker, who is higher up and handles the money, gets very blustery about how he thinks American Express is ripping us off with their charges and fees. He gets to the point where he actually asks customers if they have a different card when they go to pay. “Oh, do you not accept Amex?” “No, we do, it’s just that they’re KILLING us with their…” cue miniature rant.
He thinks he’s doing a great service to the company by avoiding a small fee. Meanwhile, I can see what’s going on in the customer’s eyes as they evaluate if they want to patronize us ever again.
I’ll say one good thing about those: Sandwiched between the ads, they show local weather forecasts. It’s worth it just for those, particularly if you’re traveling out-of-town when you stop for gas.
(1) A few local businesses have selected locations where parking is essentially non-existant. Okay, the rent is probably low. But after one visit, mainly to see what the new business offers, I assess the convenience of finding a parking space versus the need to patronize the business. It often results in “pass.”
(2) There is one local (non-corporate) retail plumbing outfit that has a no special orders policy. The business does have an excellent in-stock inventory, I’ll give them that. But as a result I assume they have good access to the wholesale distribution network. So I’m baffled by the policy. In any case, I rarely go there because I prefer to give my business to a more “full service” operation.
The three Home Depots around my house are the opposite. I swear the must get trained on how to avoid customers. I’ve seen them start to walk down an aisle, see a customer and then duck back out of it. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember. If I’m working on a project that I know I’ll need help with, I’ll go to Lowes. A while back I saw a Yelp type review that said “These guys with the orange aprons, they work here right?”
