The Price of Service
Something interesting happened today, and I call it interesting because you don’t find very often anymore.
I went to my neighborhood art store (Plaza) during my lunch break, mainly to browse but also to look for a better solution for when I need a magnifying glass. Just as a side note: I do have a regular magnifying glass and even one of those neat arm lamps with a magnifier built in. Problem is that I hate having to hold a standard one, and the lamp for some reason gives me a slight sense of vertigo. However, I digress…
Anyway, I was perusing their selection of head-mounted visors, and was wondering what the differences were. The manager of the store came around, and asked if I needed any help. I explained to him what I wanted, but wasn’t sure what the differences were between the models (the box’s didn’t do a damn bit of good explaining anything).
Now, since he’s the manager of a small art store, it didn’t come as a galloping surprise to me that he’s also an artist. He told me that he had used these particular visors for a while, and knew what the differences were. Here’s where things started to get interesting. He asked me exactly what I was I would be using them for, to which I explained I was an oil painter in the fantasy genre, and needed something when it came time to the fine details. I told him that I tend to get very close to the canvas during the detail phase, so I wanted to make sure that what I bought would be the right magnification. He instructed me to open each box and try them out right then and there.
On the surface that might not seem so noteworthy. However, when I weigh against other experiences I’ve had in other stores; it really said something about this guy. Anyway, so I did just that, and tested out each one. After I did so, he asked me if I had ever heard of or used a different magnifier, something called a “Linen Tester”. When I said that I hadn’t, he hunted one down for me and let me try it. After doing so I realized I liked it much better than the visors I had just tried on.
Here’s what I have trouble getting over. This linen tester is about half the cost of even the cheapest of those visors. So this guy spends about 10 – 15 minutes of his time helping me with my questions about a visor, but based on our conversation decided to recommend a product that works better for me and costs half as much. After all was said and done, he asked me my name, and gave me his. To me, that’s class.
Again, this might not seem like such a big deal to some people. However, most other places I have gone would have just given me the bare minimum of information, if any at all. I was fully prepared to buy one of those visors, which averaged between 35 – 50 bucks. Other places would have let me buy them and not bothered to recommend something that might have worked better, but was cheaper. It’s these same places that seem to have forgotten that the price of good service is a little bit of their time, but the dividends pays can be great.
I’ve been a customer of places like DickBlick.com, mrArt.com, and others and for the most part didn’t have any reason to complain. However, I’ve been to other stores like Michaels & Jerry’s Artarama and walked out wondering how they claimed to be an art store at all. There is just something about the personal attention, and genuine interest in helping me do what it is I am trying to do that keeps me going back to Plaza.
I already had this sense of wanting to support my local art store rather than live by the mail-order concept. I think what happened today at Plaza is a pretty good indication as to why.
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