Customer Appreciation Day (In Your Dreams)...
Purgatory Cove Fish Dock and Marina
Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:00 am
By: Sam, Lefty and Wade, Proprietors
Well, it’s been a slow week here at Purgatory Cove. It’s still a little early in the season so the guys have some spare time to kill in the boat shed. The other day, Lefty and Wade were chewin’ the fat when the new manager from the fancy boat store walked in. The guys, not bein’ particularly prejudiced, invited him to pull an old crate and sit a spell.
Before you knew it, Clem, from the grocery and unclaimed freight store, also stopped by. The delivery geezer from the NAPA store dropped off some parts and pulled up the broken chair to take a load off.
Sure enough, whenever a bunch of retail type folks get together, the conversation switches to memorable customers they’d dealt with. The fancy boat store guy was complainin’ about sailors never spending any money in his store while his power boaters wanted everything right now.
Wade allowed he’d not had much of a problem with the sailors at the Cove. They seemed happy to pay whatever Wade charged. But it may have just been that they were so anxious to get out of the cove and away from the fertilizer plant.
The NAPA guy complained that none of the boaty type customers they got had any idea of what they were looking for. He allowed as how one recently stopped by to pick up a set of spark plugs for his I/O. When asked what engine he had, his only answer was that the engine was blue. The NAPA guy told the customer that they only had black and green plugs in stock.
The fancy boat store guy tried to top that with what he called his whistle-pisser customers. They’d come in and ask the price of something expensive, like a heavy duty starter for a big block Chevy marine engine. When told the price, the customer would let out a long, low whistle. After pondering for awhile, he then pipe up and ask to use the restroom. A real whistle-pisser.
Wade and Lefty mentioned that knowing your customer was a sure way to increase sales and profits. Just last year they repaired the Judge’s fishing boat. The Judge complained about the amount on the invoice. Wade then asked him who was that cute little thing baiting his hooks last week, The Judge then paid promptly and included a big tip.
It turned out that Clem had the fewest customer stories. It seemed no one complained about the prices on the unclaimed freight items. As far as the food prices went, he was still cheaper than the nearest supermarket, two towns down.
It was the fancy boat store guy that ended up topping all the stories, though. He sold an expensive radio to a customer who wanted to install it himself. It was one of those big marine VHF units with the fancy display screen and all those buttons.
The next day the customer shows up, yelling about the radio being faulty and who was going to pay for all the time he spent installing a bad radio. Seems he couldn’t get the radio to switch from channel 16. After a few minutes the customer kinda sputtered out.
The fancy boat store guy picks up the radio and studies it a bit. He then peels the channel 16 decal off the display screen and hands the radio back to the suddenly quiet and sheepish customer. Well, the guys realized they couldn’t top that one so they just kinda' gave up and drifted away.
Other than that, it’s been a slow week here in Purgatory Cove.
