As many of you do, I "sometimes" visit physical retail stores to sample products and just look around. Specifically, I am talking about electronics stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. Strangely, I enjoy shopping at Circuit City much more now because the stores are much, MUCH quieter (no loud hip-hop blasting over the speakers where it makes concentration hard). Yes, Circuit City has much less foot traffic than Best Buy, so this is not really a good thing for Circuit City.Anyway, since I rarely buy anything directly from Best Buy anymore -- they are my "touchy-feely" showroom before I go online to Amazon or Buy.com and save oodles of money with no taxes and free shipping -- I occassionally wil buy something there just to try it out. Hey, they have a 30-day return policy if you're unsatisfied, and I take full advantage of it :-)
The reason I rarely shop there has a little to do with how high their prices are compared to finding the exact same product online for much cheaper (eBay, Buy.com and Amazon always toast Best Buy's prices), but it's how I'm treated when, gasp, checking out. I constantly am pitched magazine subscriptions and extended warranties just trying to buy a disposable MP3 player or USB flash key. They way the checkout clerks try to personalize this line blows my mind: "Sir, with your MP3 player purchase today, you're qualified to try any of these free magazines -- which would you like today"? That's a pretty hard direct sales pitch, with a semi-decent close line. I'd love to have been in the slightly-above-minimum-wage training session where they drone this line into checkout employees, who say it like a badly-acted, robotized stage line without emotion or even eye contact. Jeez Louise. I could be buying a loaf of bread at Best Buy and I'd get the same treatment: "Sir, because of your purchase of Wonder Bread today, ....". More Best Buy marketing genius at work. It's the exact same EVERY time I buy any item at Best Buy. You know what? Not only do I not buy anything at Best Buy any longer -- even to try out -- I don't visit its stores in person or online as well, unless there is something only they have that I need, which is rare. I don't need stupidly-pitched hard upsells when buying a $50 MP3 player, nor do I need an extended warranty on that $35 clock radio.
Recently, I went to make a deposit to one of my bank accounts through the drive-through at a Bank of America location. The clerk is friendly and all is well -- then, she sends my receipt for the deposit back through the pneumatic tube -- and tries to pitch me on something I never asked for. Folks, I understand suggestive selling -- from fast food restaurants (that I don't eat at, ever) trying to upsell everyone to "Biggie Size" or "Add a Coke" to this Bank of America ploy: "Sir, we'd love to give you two tickets to the Redhawks baseball game (local MLB farm club) this evening if you'd apply for a new Bank of America credit card". A credit app comes in the tube with my deposit receipt. Yes, the last thing I need is a credit card. I hate them. I carry one only, and it's balance is small. Yes, I'm one of the few who believe you should pay for things you have (I learned this the hard way), so I am not a credit junkie.
Not only did this credit card upsell come at me from a blind angle -- which was annoying enough -- the 1/2-page credit app was something I would see from a pawn shop in the ghetto or barrio. It was a half-page photocopy in both English and Spanish, and it was probably a tenth-generation photocopy since the entire app was off-center on the 1/2 page and it looked like an old newspaper article from the 1950s. This is the presentation Bank of America wants to give a new credit applicant -- let alone one that is a long-term customer with multiple accounts?
My point is this -- I know retail establishments are hiring these Harvard MBAs to increase sales and deposits -- but a second-grade education could give me these ideas. Not only do they annoy your customers, they drive customers to competitors as well. Like I said, Best Buy rarely gets my business, and this recent Bank of America upsell thing -- which I giggled at and politely dismissed to the teller -- grated on my nerves a little. These examples are not even close to being innovative marketing -- they are annoying "used car" sales pitches. Anyway, I'll reserve harsher bashing on Bank of America until I see this ridiculous credit card upsell a few more times, but I may switch my accounts to a more local bank who treats customers with respect and doesn't push things that customers never asked for in the first place.
Now you understand why I like to prefer online business and purchases if at all possible -- no annoying people and upsells, if they exist, are a click away from oblivion.
