I have a question regarding a situation that came up today at the store and I’m looking for some feed-back and comments from you 'zerkers on how I approached the situation and how it was handled.
A gentleman and his wife come in the store to buy some wine and booze, I help him make a few selections and he’s ready to cash out. While checking out at the register he makes the following remark:
“… I never pay full retail for my purchases anywhere, give me 15% off”.
This person comes in occasionally, once every several months, in fact the last time he came in was New Years Eve and told us the same line - Give me 15% off. Well, it’s now May, 4 full months later and he’s back. His purchases New Years and today total about $500, $250 each time roughly. Not a huge spender comparatively speaking, but he’s a customer none-the-less and I want him to come back.
Side note:
A few of the people that he does business with and some of his friends come in once or twice every two months and drop thousands of dollars in wine, cognac, and spirits and we give them 15% every single time. I figure this is a way that we keep our customers happy and keeps them coming back. In some cases I’d rather move larger volumes with less margin, than less volume at a higher margin. I mean hell, is that not what we all do with case discounts in the first place?
Bottom line:
I stand firm on 10% and tell him that next time he comes in that I’d be more than happy to give him 15%. I politely add that it would be nice to see him more often, and that frequent and repeat visits would definitely warrant a 15% discount.
Did I handle this appropriately? Should I have done something different? Did I get pushed around too much? Did I not give enough slack? Comments and pointers please. Thanks y’all.