A store clerk who found a way to say ‘yes’ kept this customer

THE ARMCHAIR MAYOR (COLUMN) — I shopped this week at a store I swore never to patronize again.

I have two rules about places I spend money at. One is that the customer must always be right. The other is that the place must always find a way to say yes to me. Saying “no” is not an option.

The reason I’ve gone back to the store in question is a clerk who found a way to say yes. He rescued my faith in that store, and saved the store a customer.

I won’t get into specifics, but it went something like this. I asked for a product I knew the store had in stock. The sales clerk who was serving me pointed out the product was not on the shelves but that there was a similar product there in front of us.

I said I didn’t want that product. He said there was also another product on the shelves in another part of the store that was better, though more expensive, than the one I wanted. It became quite clear from our conversation that, in his opinion, I was being a bit of a cheapskate.

Anyway, it wasn’t possible, he said, to get the product I wanted.

“So,” I said, “You’re telling me no?”

I like to be clear on whether a store is telling me no. He avoided the question, twice, finally just shrugging his shoulders.

I then vowed to myself that this would be the last time I ever bought anything from that store. But enter clerk number two.

“Show me what it is you’re looking for,” he said.

As he was listening, the first clerk came within earshot, looking quizzical. The second clerk explained what I wanted.

“I know what he wants,” was the reply.

As my hackles rose, the second clerk asked the first clerk if the supervisor was on duty.

“Why?” asked the other guy.

“So we can get this customer what he wants,” said clerk number two.

But clearly he was on his own. He then took the bull by the horns, ignoring the first clerk. “It will take a while to dig it out of storage,” he explained to me. “If you give us 20 minutes I’ll have it ready for you.”

See what I mean? One guy said no because it would have meant leaving his comfort zone and maybe even breaking the company rulebook. The second guy empowered himself to say yes to a customer who had shopped there for 10 years.

So I’m back there because a guy who’s just a guy with a part-time job knew enough about the meaning of customer service, and had enough pride in what he does, to make me feel good about being a customer again.

ABOUT TOWN — Vancouver Quadra MP Joyce Murray, who ran second to Justin Trudeau in the leadership race, was in town last weekend for a Liberal fundraiser. . . Ran into cowboy-entrepreneur-film maker Larry Foss downtown. He’s still on the long road to recovery after a terrible throw from a bucking horse seven years ago, but he’s a fighter. . . Thanks to TRU VP Christopher Seguin for picking up my coffee tab at Blenz on Friday. We were in the lineup together and he generously paid it forward. . . Had a phone chat with Patrick White of the Globe and Mail in Toronto for a story he’s doing on the newspaper industry. . . The Kamloops-Thompson school board’s regular meeting Monday night will have an extra degree of tension, since they’ll be talking about controversial recommendations on boundary changes, including possible closure of Stuart Wood elementary. . . Speaking of which, I’ll be talking with Trustee Gerald Watson on CBC Radio’s Coffee With The Armchair Mayor next week.

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