Occasionally, I read the Bicycle Retailer website. Today's quote of the day brought back lots of memories. JANUARY 31, 2007 --
"It's no secret to anyone who has ever endured an encounter with a grease-stained, eye-rolling, heavily sighing bicycle shop employee that customer service in this industry has historically ranged from sullen to supercilious to overtly hateful. (It's one of the few retail industries where a condition for employment seems to be utter contempt for the customer, says one industry executive)."
-New York Times, Nov.6, 2006
I worked with some of these people who seemed to hate the customers. Not all bike shop employees show this contempt, but most shops employee at least one of them. I suppose this same thing happens in most retail businesses, regardless of the product they sell.
Sometimes customers in bike shops have committed themselves to peculiar methods and equipment that is incomprehensible to people who work in bike shops. I once had a customer get mad at me because he expressed concern that the 53x12 high-gear on a certain bike wasn't big enough because he was "spinning out" on level ground. I suggested that, in fact, the gear was too big for general use, and that he should instead work on spinning at a higher rpm in a lower gear. Though I was trying to be diplomatic and polite, I think he might have described me as "supercilious to overtly hateful". He was visibly angry and distrustful. Certainly he felt that I was not taking his desires seriously. I guess I could have found him a 62t big ring and increased the gear ratio, and perhaps I would have made a sale. But it wouldn't have been in the customer's best interest, ultimately, for me to have done that.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have my own shop, and that I'm a weirdo, I find myself in the reverse position of having customers who think my peculiar methods and equipment are incomprehensible.
I'm sure master chefs occasionally have to tolerate restaurant customers who dump a pile of ketchup over some flavourful gourmet dish that took hours to prepare from a recipe that took years to perfect.