This thread has certainly gone to some strange and unpleasant places. I just wanted to make one more post, several days late, to clarify my position.
To begin with, I actually do enjoy my job, which is to serve customers in a friendly and professional manner. It is also my job to educate them and make them feel comfortable. I am well aware that besides that being my primary responsibility, it is even more important considering internet competition, and the desire that many customers have for human contact.
In my original response to Lowrider57, I went off the deep end a little about a very small percentage of customers who
for reasons of loneliness, and sometimes even emotional disorders, make repeated visits to stores of all types without ever intending to make a purchase. When Lowrider57 elaborated on his original post, we made peace with one another and it was put to rest.
One poster said something to the effect that I was a whiner, and should not be in sales. I would ask him, and everyone else in any occupation or profession that they earn their living from to ask themselves if they too do not complain to co-workers, friends and loved ones as a form of pressure release from the frustrations that we all encounter in our jobs. If I don't belong in sales for that reason, then I submit to you that I have a lot of company, because everyone that I have worked with in my last 5 retail sales positions vents to myself and others on a regular basis about these small annoyances.
I do indeed believe in building relationships with clients. Luxury goods are not groceries, and a salesperson must be prepared for several visits from a potential client before a sale is consummated, and be happy if it happens even then!
The satisfaction of connecting a client with something that they really love is wonderful, but mixed in with that are some really difficult experiences. Fortunately, they are in the very small minority, and it is certainly true that if you cannot shake them off quickly and move on, you would likely do better in another field.
I strongly believe in the merits of brick and mortar as well as the internet, but if I had more money, I would patronize brick and mortar more for audio purchases, because of the experience you can have with a good dealer (like John Rutan at Audio Connection) as well as being more likely to know what you are buying before you buy it. Unfortunately, I am not financially able to do that most of the time.
I am sure that the reason that I received strong negative reactions from some posters is that they, like myself, have had some horrible retail experiences that involved rudeness, incompetence or even just indifference. That is not how I operate, and I am sorry if I gave that impression.
Mitch4t, Thanks for a provocative post. It hasn't always been pleasant, but it has at least been interesting.
