Anyone who has ever been to a fast food restaurant knows that up-selling is just part of the process. "Would you like fries with that?" "Would you like to make that a meal today?" Sometimes it's annoying, but many times it works and the customer ends up spending more money (good for the restaurant) and receives more of what they want (good for the customer).
I was in Chicago last week for the Subway convention. After surviving the taxi ride from the airport (I swear our driver was Satan's personal chauffeur. No depth perception whatsoever, every time he changed lanes someone was honking at him for cutting them off, pedestrians must've offended him somehow because he kept trying to hit them, I was sending texts to Dawn "tell kids I <3 them"...), I wasn't really in the mood to drive anywhere again so I decided to walk around the hotel. There was a Subway restaurant just down the block a little ways, so I went in for supper (they keep advertising things that we can't get up in Canada). The service was very good and friendly, and when I got to the till, I grabbed the large cup to go with my sandwich.
Let me jump in with a little behind the scenes here. As a consultant for Subway, I have become probably one of the worst customers on the planet because I know what the staff should be doing (even when I go into other restaurants, I'm always pointing out things that need to be fixed...). Anyhow, I was mentally making notes as they made my sandwich. Hmm, they didn't ask if I wanted double meat or bacon... When I got closer to the till, I was anticipating "Would you like to add chips or cookies and a drink to make it a meal?" (or something along those lines). So when I grabbed the large cup, I naturally expected a question about chips or cookies. Instead, the girl at the till just asked if I wanted the meal (not the best, but better than nothing I guess). I said yes and grabbed a bag of chips to save her the effort of asking. Then, for the first time ever in my life, she tried to "down-sell" me.
"This is the cup that comes with the meal," she said, pointing to the medium.
"I know, but I want a large." We don't have 44oz cups at home, so this was somewhat of a novelty for me. And really, the 21oz just isn't going to cut it. It's so hot outside, the metal chairs are starting to look like something out of the Salvador Dali painting where all the watches are melting. I'm only getting this cup because you don't have anything larger and I'm pretty sure you'd frown on me drinking right from the fountain.
"But this one is cheaper." I'm having flashbacks to the Futurama episode where Fry is ordering Slurm at the movie theater and the guy behind the counter tells him, "for 25 cents less, you can downsize to the extra small..."
"That's okay, I'll pay the difference." I know there's a button on their till for substituting a large drink for a medium, and if there isn't, I could seriously walk her through the steps of making one...
She had a really puzzled look on her face as she rang it through and gave me my change back. It's not like I was asking her to cut off her own finger, I was just trying to spend more money for something I wanted.
I've worked with many staff who are a bit nervous about asking the suggestive selling questions out of the fear they may offend the customer. Let me tell you, I'd rather have someone ask me to add things to my order than try to talk me out of something I've already ordered.
I was in Chicago last week for the Subway convention. After surviving the taxi ride from the airport (I swear our driver was Satan's personal chauffeur. No depth perception whatsoever, every time he changed lanes someone was honking at him for cutting them off, pedestrians must've offended him somehow because he kept trying to hit them, I was sending texts to Dawn "tell kids I <3 them"...), I wasn't really in the mood to drive anywhere again so I decided to walk around the hotel. There was a Subway restaurant just down the block a little ways, so I went in for supper (they keep advertising things that we can't get up in Canada). The service was very good and friendly, and when I got to the till, I grabbed the large cup to go with my sandwich.
Let me jump in with a little behind the scenes here. As a consultant for Subway, I have become probably one of the worst customers on the planet because I know what the staff should be doing (even when I go into other restaurants, I'm always pointing out things that need to be fixed...). Anyhow, I was mentally making notes as they made my sandwich. Hmm, they didn't ask if I wanted double meat or bacon... When I got closer to the till, I was anticipating "Would you like to add chips or cookies and a drink to make it a meal?" (or something along those lines). So when I grabbed the large cup, I naturally expected a question about chips or cookies. Instead, the girl at the till just asked if I wanted the meal (not the best, but better than nothing I guess). I said yes and grabbed a bag of chips to save her the effort of asking. Then, for the first time ever in my life, she tried to "down-sell" me.
"This is the cup that comes with the meal," she said, pointing to the medium.
"I know, but I want a large." We don't have 44oz cups at home, so this was somewhat of a novelty for me. And really, the 21oz just isn't going to cut it. It's so hot outside, the metal chairs are starting to look like something out of the Salvador Dali painting where all the watches are melting. I'm only getting this cup because you don't have anything larger and I'm pretty sure you'd frown on me drinking right from the fountain.
"But this one is cheaper." I'm having flashbacks to the Futurama episode where Fry is ordering Slurm at the movie theater and the guy behind the counter tells him, "for 25 cents less, you can downsize to the extra small..."
"That's okay, I'll pay the difference." I know there's a button on their till for substituting a large drink for a medium, and if there isn't, I could seriously walk her through the steps of making one...
She had a really puzzled look on her face as she rang it through and gave me my change back. It's not like I was asking her to cut off her own finger, I was just trying to spend more money for something I wanted.
I've worked with many staff who are a bit nervous about asking the suggestive selling questions out of the fear they may offend the customer. Let me tell you, I'd rather have someone ask me to add things to my order than try to talk me out of something I've already ordered.
2 comments:
Gary
I go thru the same thing everytime I visit a different Wal-Mart or even other retailers. I went thru a register at Zellers once and the cashier sidn't even speak to me or my wife. In fact I don't think she even made eye contact. I remember saying to Robin on the way out that if we had some one like that in our store I would fire them.
Gary you are so funny my favourite thing of reading this is I could picture you saying it.
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