Excuse Me! Where Can I Find The Common $ense?
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Mukund Srinivasan | Dec 17, 2009
I was on leave last week and spent a morning in the Festival City. While there I wandered into Shoe Citi. The salesman walked up and told me that if I purchased anything for Dhs 300, I would get a discount of Dhs 100.
Looking around for something nice I found a pair of shoes that I wanted to buy. The price tag was Dhs 230. Off I went to the cash counter and was all ready to pay when I remembered that I could get that discount. So, I asked the cashier to give me the discount and let me pay Dhs 200 only.
Unfortunately, their policy clearly stated that to get the Dhs 100 discount, customers had to spend Dhs 300. The salesman at the cash counter told me that I was free to pick up something else for Dhs 70, to get the Dhs 100 discount. I tried to explain that it made no sense for them but a procedure is a procedure and had to be followed.
On his insistence I picked up five pairs of socks making the total bill Dhs 300. I paid Dhs 200 and walked out with 5 pairs of socks free plus a Dhs 30 discount on the shoes!
I wondered what business sense that made for Shoe Citi. It made terrific sense for me though. I wonder whether it is because I am a finance geek. The salesman followed the set procedure and caused an unnecessary loss to his company and I went away laughing at bureaucracy.
So, the question is, should we follow a set procedure or directive, irrespective of consequences or should we apply common sense?
Filed Under: Miscellaneous
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This is more to do with someone who has defined a marketing promotion without thinking it thru. In this case, my guess wud be that they wud have had an average bill value of less than 300 and were trying to push it beyond that. Anyways a 1/3rd discount is rather generous by anyone’s standards. If the discount level had been thought thru u wud have benefited n also the store wud have gained.
hahah, that’s really a big boofup by marketing ppl of citi shoes… but it was hilarious.
Regards/ Jamal
The salesman at the big shop often has no rights to deviate from the managemwent directions.
The salesman at the tiny shop usually is more flexible.
may be the rep building customer loyalty so that you will prefer to go to the same shop for your future purchases
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