We've all seen and laughed at Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" episode. This weekend I encountered the Soup Nazi's sister.
I was at a national conference where Cottonwood Press had a booth. At Cottonwood Press, I stress customer service: Go out of your way to help a customer. Be nice. Be efficient. Solve problems with a smile.
But I'm starting to question that philosophy. A booth near us featured nice scarves at a ridiculously low price. People flocked to the booth where the woman selling yelled at the customers. Yes, yelled at them. She yelled at them to put things back where they found them, to stop messing up her piles, to wait their turn, etc. She took cash only—no, no checks. No, no credit cards.
And how did people react? They bought scarves, piles and piles and piles of scarves. The woman probably took in more money than anyone else at the conference—and without a shred of TLC for the customers.
My friend Elaine left our booth to look at scarves, chose five, and set them aside, telling the woman she was just running across the aisle for her money. Yes, the woman yelled at her. But how did Elaine react? She came back to the booth, laughed at how she was yelled at, and—you guessed it—went back with her money to buy the scarves. I guess if you have a good product at an unbelievably low price, people will put up with anything.
Our business was a bit slower than usual at this conference, so I decided that maybe we needed to start yelling at people. "The next person who sets a cup of coffee down on our books—I'm going to let them have it!" I sad. "No more Ms. Nice Guy!"
It was just a passing thought. And, yes, I let it pass. We continued to be nice.
And people continued to flock to the yelling scarf lady.
Sigh.






