UnSelling: The New Customer Experience

Chapter 10Are You in the Customer Tolerating Business?

We see data all the time: Sales are up, sales are down, here are the external factors why. Companies will point to factors seemingly outside of their control, as though we aren't all a part of creating the environment we work in. They may even sometimes mention internal factors, but they never mention individual factors.

There is no better way can I explain this than by telling you about the time I tried to buy some overpriced headphones in Best Buy.

My two oldest kids were in the market for Beats by Dre headphones. Being 16 and 12 at the time, how they look is paramount to how they sound, and apparently cost is irrelevant. With saved-up gift cards and birthdays within calendar range, we headed out to pick up two pairs of these life-changing devices.

Since Best Buy was close by and the gift cards were from there, we decided to pop in, ready to purchase. We were looking for only the most basic form of customer service: the one where the purchase decision had already been made and we just needed someone, anyone, to take our money.

We walked through the store and located the headphones on our own, finding them enclosed in the kind of glass case usually reserved for atomic-grade plutonium and royal jewels. Excitedly, we stood there for a few minutes looking like we wanted to buy them, since we couldn't open the case without help. ...