Notes from the Cape

The amp for my hi-fi has been a little problematic, so I have been looking at upgrading it to a new one. My amp is quite a fancy one that connects to the DVD player, uses Dolby Surround sound etc, so the replacement gear is not cheap.

So, I have been spending time in the Hi-Fi shops, looking at what is currently available, and getting an idea of what sort of price I will need to pay.

One of our better Hi-Fi shops is Tafelberg Furniture, in Diep River, Cape Town. They have got three home-theatre rooms permanency setup, so you can go there any try out the different combinations of equipment.

I went there on Friday, and all the sales assistant were busy. So, I just went into one of the demo rooms and started playing with the equipment. Because there was nobody to help, I started doing things myself, connecting the different gear to my heart’s content.

I found a couple of receivers that interested me, but I wanted to find out more, so I took the gear out of the shelves, looked at the connections on the back, compared with other equipment etc. So, I looked like a little child playing with his lego blocks, spread out around him on the floor.

Do you know that during the entire time that I was there, not a single sales assistance came to see what

a) I was doing taking apart their home-theatre demo room or

b) see if they could assist me?

Bear in mind that I was not looking at cheap gear, you could easily (assuming you have the budget), walk out of that room R200,000 poorer. These were big ticket items that I was looking at, and nobody offered to assist.

Tafelberg, if you want to make the sale, get your staff into gear! One onion to you.

Tags: orchids and onions, tafelberg furniture

For her birthday, Lois wanted a new pair of sunglasses, so on Saturday morning, we went off to Spectacle Warehouse to see what we could find.

While Lois was looking at sunglasses, I tried a few pairs on myself, and I found a pair that I quite liked, but I wasn’t really looking for me. Lois found a good pair of sunglasses that she wanted, and when I paid for them, they told me that they would give me the second pair that I had ben looking at – at no cost!

Now this did not happen before we had made a decision, so it was not an incentive to get my to buy. They were not running a 2 for 1 special. The sales assistant simply told me that we would have the second pair at no cost, just because she could!

That is what customer service is all about – !

• Did it cost them anything? – probably
• Will it build long-term customers? – yes
• Will we tell everybody about the great service? yes
• Did she have to do that? – no
• Will we be back? of course

Well done Spectacle Warehouse – three orchids to you.