I thought I was very close to closing a $40,000 sales this week and was very happy that I could potentially break my sales egg early this month to get out from the $0 sales figure, but then the client suddenly stopped responding yesterday, which was suppose to be the day she told me she will make the purchase.
So this client, whom I shall call Christine, came into the store last week when we were quite close to closing, and because I no longer approach customers as much anymore due to the many rejections and awkward situations have faced, and my other colleague being more busy anticipating to close the store, we decided to just let her roam around the showroom on her own, thinking she was probably going to just leave the store after she has seen her fair share of furniture she probably can't afford.
Well, when she was done with her round, she actually reached out to me and ask me about the sofas we have on display, she pointed out a few she liked and inquired their availability, I honestly didn't think too much about it at first because she was really young and I doubt she could afford them, she also told me she had just moved to Singapore and had to get some furniture asap to fill her space up, that then made me think that she is probably still a bit confused about the currency exchange rate and might not have realized that the sofa she is getting is 20 times more expensive than a regular sofa from Courts.
Anyways, I get her contact information, prepare a quote for her and send it to her the next day, not expecting her to actually reply back like most customers do, and she didn't reply back until the following day.
She thanked me for the quote and told me she would get back to me again after she had taken some time to think about them.
Figured she probably wasn't, and that my exchange with her was going to end when I drop her a courtesy follow up text a few days later that she probably won't reply, just so I can tell my boss I did follow up but she didn't reply if he ends up asking about it.
Welp, she did reply a few days later and informed me she is interested to drop by the showroom again to look at more items, I then told her that I was not available on the day she wanted to drop by, to which she told me she will come over when I was around, I thought that was super nice and this when I started to take her more seriously.
So we finally met again and she started sharing with me a few of the items she was interested in, I then asked her about where she was staying because if it was a condo and requires lift access, then getting a large sofa might not be possible as it wouldn't be able to fit into the lift, she was a bit disappointed, so I told her she could instead get a smaller sofa that we have in stock and a few armchair to fill up the space as well as introduce more sitting area, she was very receptive to the idea and told me she will probably purchase the items over the weekend, but she will need to go back and think about the items first.
The next day, she sends me a picture of her condo lift blueprint and ask me if the large sofa she wanted can fit into the lift, her exact message was...
"Could you check this blueprint, I assume the 3-seater can't fit..."
... I looked at the blueprint and it is pretty obvious it wouldn't fit, so I told her it won't and she doesn't respond after that.
The next day, when I went back to work and my supervisor asked me if my customer was Korean because a Korean customer had called earlier and asked about whether her lift could fit a 3 seater sofa, I told him that she was was Korean but it couldn't have been her because she has direct contact with me, it doesn't make sense for her to call the office line directly, PLUS I have already informed her that the lift wouldn't fit the sofa.
I got really suspicious after that so I decided to drop Christine a text to ask her if she was still interested in the product because it was already Saturday and she told me she was going to purchase the items on Saturday.
No response.
And she didn't even bother to read the message, I was observing her profile throughout the day and she did appear online, but she didn't read the message, which made me believe that the Korean who called the office was indeed her.
So not only does she not have the basic courtesy to update me, apparently my messages are not even worth opening. She probably just deleted the chat when she received it because it has just been left at unread for the past 2 days and she was clearly online during those 2 days.
I really do not understand what is so difficult about simply saying...
"I am no longer interested in the product, but thank you for your help!"
..., especially towards a sales person you have been having an exchange with for the past few days, I would understand if it was a one time exchange of me sending them a quote and they don't reply, because most customers are entitled customers with no basic courtesy to drop a simple "Thanks", but I have been chatting with her for a while now, she even told me she was going to buy the items over the weekend, I think I deserve at least an update if you are not planning to get them anymore because I actually reserved those items for her, let me know you don't want it so I can release those items to my colleagues for them to sell!
The thing is, I am not going to suddenly call you and try to hard sell you the items if you tell me you are no longer interested. No longer interested in the item, have the fucking courtesy to just say you are not interested, not just her, but with a few other customers as well, who just leave me at read or don't even bother to open the message, I am not a fucking spam text that you unwillingly subscribed to.
I met this Interior Designer, or at least she claims she is one when she was asking for specials discount, who did this to me, didn't bother to reply to my follow up. Fucking ironic, as someone who also have to follow up with customers, I am sure she knows how irritating it can be to be left at read, yet she is are doing the exact same thing to me.
Anyways, it's bloody rude and I am clearly very annoyed at Christine because she really got my hopes up but then decided to end it off by choosing to ignore my messages.
FINE! Then I will do my best to try and push the items she wants to other customers, so when she eventually decides to come back and get them, I can say to her face..
"Oh sorry, it's sold already, but I can order one for you if you'd like, it will just take 5 FUCKING MONTHS!"
... I'm way too petty.
No comments:
Post a Comment