Retailing: The Customer Is SO Right

The newspaper ad offered a 19-in. portable TV set for $8.98, and crowds of pushing shoppers showed up last week at Manhattan’s Masters Inc. dis count store to claim the bargain. Trou ble was that the price before the typo graphical error read $88.98. When Masters’ clerks refused to sell the TV sets for $8.98, the crowd threatened to get out of hand. Masters’ President Jack Haizen made a quick decision: he had the store closed, ordered the sets sold for the price in the ad—though he was not legally obliged to do so—to 46 adamant customers. Cost to Masters: $3,680.

Not every store would go quite that far, but more and more retailers are making new efforts to keep the customer happy at any cost. They need to: in a day when most stores charge roughly the same prices and sell similar merchandise, it is special consideration, quality of service and a good image that attract the quick-roving customer. Courteous salespeople are, of course, the first line of defense, and many aggressive merchandisers now hold training classes, insist that clerks learn everything about the stock. President Mildred Custin of Manhattan’s Bonwit Teller trains each salesgirl to telephone special customers when interesting new merchandise arrives.

No Shoes. Beyond the salespeople, many stores are using new methods to woo the customer. During the Christmas rush, Bullock’s of Los Angeles invites customers to pick up one of two lapel buttons as they enter: a “Browse ‘n’ poke” one that will warn salespeople away or a “Find ‘n’ flee” one that will get its bearer immediate service. To get maximum effect from a sale, Detroit’s Martin Alpert & Son jewelry store instituted midnight to 3 a.m. hours to accommodate night-shift workers. For favored customers, I. Magnin of San Francisco will dispatch a salesperson and a fitter anywhere in the U.S. to show and fit clothes. The store picks up all expenses but sometimes sells $10,000 worth of clothes on a trip.

For Miami visitors who want to do last-minute shopping, Jordan Marsh will send purchases by taxicab either to hotel or planeside. Jacobson’s department store of Grosse Pointe, Mich., serves Saturday tea on the theory that shoppers are exhausted by week’s end and welcome such a break. The Denver Dry Goods Co. requires its buyers to remain on the sales floors during peak hours, both to keep salespeople alert and to help customers with shopping problems. Sears, Roebuck reminds its repairmen to shine their shoes, and Chicago’s Polk Bros, requires its delivery men to remove shoes before walking over fancy wall-to-wall carpeting.

$25 Bill. The complaint department is no longer the cartoonist’s delight. Manhattan’s Abercrombie & Fitch now rotates complaint-desk personnel to prevent them from getting too offensively defensive. This fall, Montgomery Ward for the first time established customer-relations managers in its nine catalogue territories to handle complaints in the rich and rising field of telephone orders. In Atlanta, President Rolland A. Maxwell of Davison’s department store answers letters of complaint personally. President Milton S.

Berman of Foley’s in Houston recently received an itemized bill of $25 from an irate customer who charged for her time, trouble and parking fees on an unsuccessful shopping trip. Berman paid the bill.