A Friendly Vendor Gets Customers - My Experience.

I don’t know if this is a saying everywhere or in just my country but over here we value customer care or service a lot. As a result, there’s a popular saying “A welcoming or friendly seller gets returning customers”.

I’ve been hearing this and listening to the experience of friends and family but I got the full hands on experience days ago when I went to the market.

My mother is the jovial type that will try to connect with every one she buys something from even if it costs just a penny. She wants to feel welcome and she also wants to appreciate you for your hard work.

But when my mom tries to have fun with you and you do not seem like the welcoming type, she doesn’t become your customer. She might buy that day but that will be the last time you see her.

If not for school I don’t usually go to the market to buy food stuff although I do buy clothes from time to time but even with that I kind of have specific people I buy from and so before now I haven’t had that experience.

Just realized I haven’t said hello or hi to my humble readers and I am just ranting. Pardon me please.😅

So what happened to me? About two to three days ago, I went to the market to buy food stuff for my friend, my roommates and I. I went specially for cabbage, onions, tomatoes, pepper and carrots. Finding cabbage to purchase was very difficult because it wasn’t a market day and it looks like it’s in shortage.

Searching for cabbages.

Cabbage has been really costly here and that’s probably why it’s scarce. I roamed large parts of the market I am familiar with but with little success.

This was all I say at first. No vegetables at first.

I finally found this vendor that had just one cabbage to sell. She wasn’t around but when I stood at her chose and looked around, she came from her friend’s to attend to me.

cabbage

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures.

Learning from my mom, I greeted her and told her what I want. I immediately asked if that was the only cabbage left and she said yes. I already made up my mind to try searching because I was going to buy 2 and not one.

I said to her, “Ma, is cabbage in shortage or what cos I’ve searched the entire market and it seems you’re the only one with one”. Of course the answer I was expecting was a yes cos who wouldn’t want to sell?😅

She said yes she’s the only one with a cabbage and didn’t add anything else. The cabbage was small and wasn’t fresh at all. It had bruises and signs of spoilage so I said “Ma, but your cabbage is small oo, how much are you selling this?”

I think she took offense with this cos her already not smiling face became even worse and I could feel anger in her voice. She then said again she was the only one with cabbage and if I wouldn’t buy I should go and stop degrading her business. Maybe she was in a bad mood or something but I don’t see why she should take offense. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I was offended cos already I didn’t feel welcome and so I told her I wanted to get some other stuff and so I’d return. I went further into the market and found this vendor with a lot of cabbages. I briefed a huge sigh of relief.😮‍💨

Before I got to this vendor, she already greeted with a soothing welcoming voice;”Good afternoon my customer..” I was like wow she knows how to lure customers in.😂

I stood and we laughed about the day and how I was her first customer. She could have been lying but I didn’t care. At this point, I was ready to give her my money.😂

I told her I wanted cabbages and she gave me the prices. It’s the same as the first vendor’s only that this one was bigger. She also had 2 sizes, the smallest was 5 Ghana cedis and the biggest 7 cedis. Thus, 2.17 steem and 3.04steem respectively at the time of writing.

I was like, “Ei, your cabbage is expensive oo” all in an attempt to knock a few pesewas or cedis off. She said I know the system has become very tough for everyone and it wasn’t her fault. We then continued to speak about how the current government after so many promises has failed to live up to the hype.

I offered to give her 3 cedis for the smallest and 5 cedis for the biggest but she then said that was the prices at which she purchased them and so she wouldn’t be making any profits. She pleaded and said I could have them for 4 cedis and 6 cedis.

I agreed and she sold to me. There wasn’t more chit chat after this cos the other stuff pretty much have their fixed prices but she gave me more instead of the fixed number.

Leaving with my items.

I noticed where she’s set up in an attempt to be a regular customer. She told me on market days she’s not set up there and showed where she sells on market days and I promised to be there the next time I was in the market.

We said goodbye and I left a happy customer. I called her Ma a lot that I even forgot to ask of her name.🙂

So with just a few smiles and extra time for a demanding or frustrating customer like myself, she didn’t lose me but gained a regular customer and good recommendation to my friends on campus.

With this experience for the day, I learnt the value of treating your customers nicely.

On my way home.

Please share your experiences in the comments. Let’s get interactive and get to know about how vendors have lost us due to bad attitude or something else.

Thank you.