United States –(Ammoland.com)- This video has been making the rounds lately and I have to say that it is just completely and totally the wrong approach.
Think about it in terms of any other retail establishment.
What if [pick a company] put out a video about “problem customers” or “how to be a good customer” or “what customers need to keep in mind” when they come into their store?
Any customer of theirs (or potential future customer) who viewed the video would be outraged, and rightfully so. From a business perspective, a “good customer” is anyone who wants to patronize your business. Period!!
This video is doing a powerful disservice to the gun culture and to all gun shops everywhere. There should not be an active campaign to establish barriers to entry into a gun shop. As a business, you are there to serve your customers… not just the ones who have the established level of knowledge that you feel is necessary. Those “problem customers” have money in their pocket that is just as green as the lifelong gun nuts who already have it all figured out.
If you are not willing to help them, they are going to take their money to someplace that will.
If any other retailer took the approach to their customers that gun shops do, they would be out of business really quick. Customers should not be lectured about how to behave or what your expectations of them are… you are in business to cater to your customers’ needs and wants. If their needs are not in line with what the business expected, then it falls on the business to make the necessary adjustments to fall in line with their customers. Not the other way around.
This also has nothing to do with the recent increase in gun sales that they equate it to in the video… This has always been the culture in gun shops, and it needs to change! If it really is true that you are too busy to attend to the staggering number of customers in your shop, then the solution is simple. Staff more people behind the gun counter. Stop using it as an excuse to continue treating customers like garbage and just solve the problem. Why in the hell would any business want a customer to walk out of the store with the money in their pocket that they were planning to spend? If it means staffing a few extra people to close more sales and eliminate the “five-deep at the counter“, then do it. Your bottom line will thank you at the end of the month.
These guys should be a case study in every Business 101 class out there. This video demonstrates a completely backward mindset of how to effectively do business with your target market. It is completely the wrong approach for any business to take with their customers let alone in an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds and welcoming first-time customers each and every day.
Instead of taking the time to film a video about “how to be a good customer“, they would have done far more good to educate gun shop owners and sales associates in the proper way to solve the disconnect that the old school gun shop culture has created with this new generation of gun buyers.
About Gunmart
Eric at the Gunmart Blog – Eric is a gun blogger, firearms enthusiast, and sorry excuse for a hunter. He is also an AmmoLand Shooting Sports News Columnist. Leave him some comments on this article before you go. You can also follow Eric on Facebook, Twitter and at his blog, Gunmart. Visit: GunmartBlog.com
Boom! A letter from the editor! Mr Huntington makes some good points, but I am that "good customer" and I can honestly say that friendly gun shop clerks are the exception – overwhelmingly. To be fair, they probably are confronted by a lot of know-it-all jerks. But I don't see why that makes them different from guys who work in auto repair shops or hardware store clerks, both of which, on average, seem to me a good deal more polite and helpful than gun store guys. This is an entrenched, cultural phenomenon peculiar to gun shops that many people have… Read more »
Eric, Thanks for your comments. While I understand what you're saying about the responsibilities of gun store owers to cater to customer's needs, there is another side to the story. As the editor of American Handgunner, I find many of my readers are very new to the industry. As such, they don't always understand the gun culture, bring loaded guns into gun stores, haven't put any thought into the questions they want/need to ask and frankly, are often simply afraid to go into a gun store, often due to the rude reception they've gotten in the past. As someone who… Read more »
Another reason why home based FFL's are becoming more popular.
Gun shop clerks are the rudest in the retail business, right after record shop clerks. Remember record shops?