Dealing with the Mistress!
This is exactly how the story was told to me so to all males reading this, I promise I’m not picking on your sex.
A very wealthy, regular, male customer comes to the store. He always purchases items within the range of $2-5,000. He consistently purchases two gifts of equal value and does not have preference when it comes to sales associates. Over the past couple of month’s you’ve noticed this customers is having one of the gifts shipped to an address just outside the city…about an hour or two away. The sales associate does as he asks, and with pleasure mails the gift to the address he requests.
Two weeks pass and a young woman comes in the store to exchange a gift. She say’s her boyfriend gave it to her and would like to exchange it but does not have the receipt. You proceed to look up her boyfriend’s name and purchase history (you don’t know him) so that you may know the value of the item. You locate his name and ask the young woman what she would like to see. She asks you to show her something you think she would like based on his other purchases. You go back to the computer and say, “Would you like to look at the matching earrings to the sapphire and diamond necklace he purchased you?”
Oops…The sapphire and diamond necklace was for his other mistress and not the mistress standing in front of you. She is furious and asks when and whom he purchased it for.
What do you do?
The employee who had this happen to her blatantly lied to the customer. She said, “Miss, I’m sorry, I’m new here and looked at the wrong last name. I haven’t figured out how to use the computer system. Let me get you a glass of coffee or tea and we can discuss which colors you love or maybe some simple diamond stud earrings. Diamond studs would go great with what you’re wearing or even a pair of your favorite jeans.”
The sales associate lied blatantly and top of that she buttered the customer up. How would you handle the situation? Would you lie? Do you now call your client (the man who made the purchase)…you don’t want him to be upset and you want him to keep purchasing from you? Do you need to advise him of what happened or stand to lose him forever?
Danny commented:
my husbaand has a woman on the side wgo is always trying to destroy
my mrriage and i don't know how to deal with her and to get my
husbandd to stay true to our marriage vows
Hedda Schupak commented:
I don't have a retail store, so I might be all wrong here, but I
think the sales associate who "lied" can be forgiven. I don't
condone lying as a rule, but as my mother taught me, there is such
a thing as a "white lie," like telling your grandmother that her
silly new hat looks very pretty. Here, the woman was clearly trying
to smooth over a very uncomfortable situation, not deliberately
trying to deceive. And, in that vein, if you don't approve of that
kind of lying in your employee, do you approve of the man's
lifestyle? Or is that ok to overlook because it's putting money in
the cash register? In my opinion, the associate did right, your
role is only to sell jewelry, and if it all blows up in the man's
face, it's not your problem. He had to have known there were risks
in deceiving two women and he chose to take the chance. (And just
for the record, the same holds true for a woman deceiving two men.)
Shanu S. Guliani commented:
I agree but disagree too...Point of Sales Systems are used to push
additional sales. In some cases looking up the purchase history
helps to initiate conservation about other pieces and even helps to
sell matching items that you might not know that a customer has. A
POS is a great sales tool. Men come in all the time and say, "I
purchased my wife a ring last time but I don't remember the style
and now I want to buy her the matching earrings." You can look up
the price and still turn an exchange into a bigger sale. The real
question is how to deal with the mistress when you've looked up the
purchase history and given away the secret of the other woman?
Robyn Hawk commented:
I totally concur with the first response to this topic. As sales
people we are always taught to turn an exchange into a sale - in
this situation you want to remember that this person in front of
you is not your customer so any recommendations for additional
items need to be made from observations and her requests. The
purchasing history that the sales person used to make a
recommendation from has nothing to do with this customer - it
should only have been used to verify the price for the exchange.
There is no reason that you couldn't however, through observation
of her style, ask if she would like to look at the pendant to match
the earrings she just picked up through her exchange.
concerned commented:
Our industry has been plagued by situations such as this and the
employee’s response is the reason it has become an epidemic.
The only reason the woman would want to see items based on the mans
past purchases is to find out the price range she can shop. The
associate who went to the computer should have used the
gentleman’s records to only VERIFY the price, not use his
past purchases to start the selling process. Only use past
purchases to start the process if it is the purchasing customer
themselves, or a very well known guest..but even that is risky. We
are in a business of romance and disclosure, revealing what and who
things are purchased for, even if it’s just a hint is
irresponsible.
