Have you ever found yourself in a store, wandering up and down the aisles, looking endlessly for assistance? After searching for what seems like forever, you finally come across a sales associate. They try to convince you to buy one machine when you have already expressed what you are looking for. You decide to leave the store and regroup. Perhaps you go back to the store a week later and repeat the cycle of searching for an associate, asking questions about the computer you wish to purchase. But you find yourself in the same position of feeling pressured into a machine. If this experience sounds familiar, you might just be shopping at the wrong store.
There are a lot of benefits of visiting you’re small, local Apple reseller versus the big box stores. Box stores work with a lot of different brands of computers, cameras, TVs etc but having too many items to keep track of makes the big stores “jacks of all trades, masters of none.” If you walk into Small Dog or your local Authorized Reseller you probably have a feel of being in an Apple store and not just because you’re surrounded by the Apple ecosystem when you walk through the doors. As an Apple Premier Partner, we are held to some pretty high standards by Apple. We all take regular training courses, we ensure that our stores have a feel unique to us while also making sure we are representing the brand we love to the highest standards.
Associates should strive to build a relationship with their customers, after all, it’s because of customers that we are here! But while shopping online, you don’t build a relationship at all. The idea with large retail stores is to get customers in, buy something, and quickly get them out so more customers can come in. I have been working at Small Dog Electronics for over 5 years. I remember countless customers. It’s the same for my co-workers. This is why many of our customers come in and always look for the associate they’ve spent the most time with; we take that extra time to get to know you, proper techniques, and product information to ensure that we recommend the right solution.
Since I’ve worked for bigger businesses that have left a bitter taste in my mouth, I really could go on about the benefits of shopping small. Working in retail for a decade has made me hyper aware of what works and what doesn’t work in my shopping experience. When I go into a small business that far exceeds the customer service I receive at similar big box stores, it is worth every extra penny to support that business; because people deserve a shopping experience that leaves them feeling confident. And I’m happy to be part of a team that instils that confidence in our customers.