14/02/2022
One Dollar
“Isn’t everything at $1 each?” She asked.
I replied: “Not all, some are of better quality, so more expensive.”
She exclaimed “But your post says $1.”
About a month ago, I posted a variety of items up in Carousell (for sale of course), from coffee cups and saucers, latte glasses, old school kopi glasses, to bowls, plates and nice pasta bowls. Some were from the previous owner(s), some were bought new when I started the cafe.
The price field doesn’t allow a range, so I indicated as $1. Ok, I admitted I could have been more specific in the description to say that the prices will vary depending on the items in concern. But nothing was stated explicitly that every item was selling at $1 each, or all the items could be bought from me at a total of $1.
So this couple came on a Sunday afternoon after I informed them the address through a series of Carousell messages. I had intended to spend the afternoon in packing and sorting out stuffs, but what happened eventually was around an hour (from my rough estimate) of “entertaining” and price negotiation with them.
After the first 5 minutes, I had already replied and explained firmly that every item would have its own price. Despite that, they repeatedly brought up the point of the $1. Not a big issue to me at all actually.
After supposedly confirming their shopping list, I added up the price to be $79. So I told them: “$79 in total. But I let you have all these for $75.” Their immediate reactions seemed to me that they had expected a much bigger discount. I remained firm and said “These plates are already value for money, very good quality ones.”
The lady grabbed 2 rolls of disposable plastic cups (100 pieces), and said “$80 including the cups”.
“Wah, cannot like that leh. You can’t just take and add on the things like that.”
So this process went a few rounds with a few more items.
After the bill was confirmed and money was paid, she took a bottle of flavored syrup and shoved me another $5.
“No no, I already told you this is $10. Outside selling at least $15.”
“This is expiring in a few months. If you can’t sell, you also throw away right?”
“No, I would bring home. Even after the stamped best before date, I can still use it myself.”
So for that one hour or so, I took on the role of a salesperson dealing with somewhat demanding customers looking for budget purchases. Not that I have anything against them.
Their expenses: $132.
Their gain: 2 boxes of items which I estimated was more than $300 worth if the items are purchased new (maybe I should do a calculation on this).
My expenses: time which I could have spent on packing and sorting.
My gain: a tiny bit of real life, real-time experience of in-person sales, not online or through messaging.
A few days after this, I was commenting to my friend that frontline service staff has the chance to see and deal with lots of different people and encounters in every day of their work, and has to constantly adapt and fulfill their customers’ needs.
How many dollars are you willing to pay for good customer service?
