Northland retailers turn away business

We are supposed to be in a recession. Yet a number of Northland businesses seem determined not to close sales even where customers are keen to buy. My own recent experience, and that of family and friends, shows worrying sales and service complacency in businesses selling large ticket items:

• The furniture retailer that provides quotes on the back of a business card but keeps no record of the quote and takes no customer details. This means they cannot follow up to try and close the sale. It also means they have no record of the price quoted if the customer does come back. Furthermore, the business owners have no idea what discounts the staff are offering. My friend was given a quote on the back of a card at this store. When she did go back to purchase the item things got worse: she was told that that price would never have been offered. She did not have the quote with her. She felt insulted but later when she went to another branch of the same retailer (having now found the quote) she got the item for that price with no trouble.


• The car salesman who when approached about a new range said "I didn't go to the launch so I can't tell you anything about it". He didn't offer me a chance to look at the one in the showroom, sit in it, test drive it etc - he just offered to mail me a brochure. When the brochure arrived, he left me a voicemail and again didn't offer a test drive.


• Another car dealership had a run out deal on that I was seriously interested in. The salesman offered me a test drive in a very old model vehicle (I was looking at a new one), and then never got back to me on a quote for my trade in. I even phoned to follow up. I left a voicemail and my call was not returned.


• The car salesman who will talk only to men, when it's a woman that wants to buy.

Large item furniture sales and car sales are not the types of purchases that people make each week. They often think quite hard about them. Once they are in the "sales zone" if the service experience, the product and the price are right they will often buy. But once they have decided they are ready to buy, if you make it hard for them, they will quickly go somewhere else. One thing is for sure, once they have bought elsewhere they will not be back for quite some time.

What do you think? Is Northland the only area of New Zealand that isn't in recession or do these businesses just need help with some basic sales and service skills and processes?