Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

"I want a Nikon 5200". "No, you want a Sony P100". Huh?

So a couple days ago I did something I am told all the time I am not to do. Something that makes a sale much less likely. I don't know why I did it, and I know it was by very low odds that it worked out in the end.

A customer comes in and says she wants to get a compact-ish (i.e. small but not super-tiny) digital camera in the 4-5 MegaPixel range. She has narrowed it down to between the Nikon 5200 and the Canon SD410, both of which are about 400 bucks.

I tell her that there is no reason why anyone should buy an SD-series Canon Digital Elph, which I think is true. For the money, you could get a Nikon that takes sharper pictures (one megapixel higher, and for the same price, as a Digital Elph), or for the same image quality you could get a Nikon that is $100 dollars cheaper and has other advantages (powered by AA batteries rather than proprietary Li-Ion, more ergonomic, etc - Canon Elphs are shaped like little bricks). For example, take the two cameras she was comparing: The Canon had 1 megapixel less and was the same price as the Nikon. Easy choice.

Then she said that it was very important to her that the camera be compact, and that image quality also ranked high - the main reason she was leaning towards the Nikon.

Then, here's where I do something crazy, a wild gamble: I say that she can get a Sony P100 for $350 (that's $50 cheaper than the other ones), it's smaller, has a better movie mode, better interface, faster performance, FIVE megapixels, etc. The customer had it narrowed down to one item, she was gonna buy it, but I had to throw another one in there and "muddy the waters" as she herself put it. Why?

I'll even go farther and say that the Nikon would be the more profitable sale for the store AND FOR ME, as I get more comission on Nikon products because Nikon rewards stores and salespeople who sell their cameras with, well, a few extra dollars. So why did I have to show the woman a Sony? Because it was closer to what she wanted, because I knew she would see no advantage in the Nikon, given what she wanted. Maybe I was feeling guilty about selling that rich woman that Casio. Maybe I wanted this customer to tell her friends "This guy at this store stopped me from buying a camera so that I could make a better decision". Maybe I wanted to take pride in working for people rather than for the store. Maybe it was just because my manager wasn't there and I decided to try something crazy. I dunno. It went against the training which we receive at the store, which says 1) don't show them more than one camera, so that they trust you that this one is best, and 2) once they're close to picking one camera, leaning towards it, praise it to no end and make the other ones sound inferior. This maximizes sales, but does not quite maximize the customer's satisfaction with their camera.

I take way too much pride in my work.

posted by Remus