When it comes to customer service, in a nutshell, my aunt said it best. "Treat your customers like they were your friends." I hold that thinking when people come into my store. I have worked my whole life in retail. Mostly in smaller independent stores like my own, but in a few large chain stores too. As said above, you have to base your experiences on at least a few encounters. Especially with small business, where you deal with the same person/people. Sometimes people have bad days, both on the customer and worker sides of the fence. Sometimes, there is mis-communications.
Anytime you get into a business that is busy, you have to wait a long time in line, or speak up. If you go to Best Buy two days before Christmas, McDonald's at noon, a bar on Friday night, you are going to have to wait in line, or speak up to get served. Those are businesses where people usually know what they want. In a large chain store, do the conversations get in depth that often? If they do, most people will edge in the conversation to ask a quick question like where something is. In a specialty store, like a jewelry or reef store, where people ask questions, don't always know exactly what they want, and generally take more time, things go way slower per customer. If someone is talking to me in length about something, most people won't mind someone butting in for a quick question like how much is something.
I believe most businesses in the world try to do as much work with as little labor/workforce as possible. So often times there is a thin line where you have employees with little or no work, and being too busy where customers have to wait. Some times it is easy to predict when you are busy and slow.
Generally the less mark up on items, the less service you receive. There aren't tons of employees at Wal-Mart waiting on you hand and foot. At the other extreme, a car dealer or jewelry store has employees waiting around for you to walk in. Most businesses fall in the middle. Many of the reef stores I have been to have been leaning more and more toward the Wal-Mart side of things in recent years. Mainly because most people in the hobby are very price conscience, and the market is competitive. I try to keep a balance. On the weekends it is busy, and you might have to wait. If you want to spend a lot of time browsing, and talking, you can come at night through the week, and get more one on one time.
As far as a business like this, the owner and customer are dependent on each other. The owner needs customers to buy their wares. As the customer side you need the business to be there to get you the wares you want. As a hobbyist, there were things I wanted in both products, and services from a reef store. I wanted a wider selection (mainly acros), and when I wanted someone to order me some off the wall weird thing like a Lollipop Tunicate I couldn't find a store around here to do that. Those are two of the main reasons I opened shop. I have a "day job" and my reef store is my hobby gone wild. I am not here at my store to put food on the table for my family. I never wanted to open my store because I had the feeling it was something I needed to do. I am here because I am a reefer, and want to serve other reefers. When you come to my store, I hope you think that we are mutually benefiting each other in many ways. Fellowship, knowledge, exchange of tangibles each other wants.
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