Two things I dislike are shopping for shoes and pushy salespeople. However, on my last shoe shopping trip, I found the right kind of salesperson who transformed the entire experience.
At Brown’s Shoe Fit Company in Durango, Colorado, Chris Bjorklund had a great experience with a salesman named John.
While I was looking at the shoes on sale in a store in Durango, Colorado, a salesman asked me if he could help. After I said I didn’t need any assistance, he started chatting about the beautiful day and asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from Northern California, he asked about the recent earthquake in Napa County. He was genuinely curious and engaged with me in a sincere way. When other customers came in, he found ways to connect with them, too.
When I finally started trying on shoes, he was patient and knowledgeable. If a shoe didn’t fit right and wasn’t comfortable, he would say, “You don’t want to buy a pair of shoes you don’t absolutely love.” I must have been in that store for nearly an hour (and tried on at least 10 pairs of shoes) before deciding on a pair of low-cut brown leather boots. In the meantime, I learned that John, the 23-year-old salesman, loved most outdoor sports and was majoring in social work with the hope of eventually working in prisons.
The most surprising thing of all, however, occurred at the cash register when I stepped up to pay. John was hand-polishing my new boots before sending me home with them! Has that ever happened to you in a shoe store?
As a direct result of my positive customer service experience at this particular store, my husband and I returned a week later and he bought two more pairs of shoes! Outstanding service attracts repeat customers.