Does The Owner Really Know?

Posted on Jul 7, 2010 | 0 comments

UPDATE: I wanted to provide an update regarding what has transpired since the writing of this post. Although I am still skeptical on the actual system that exists to provide feedback from the sales teams at individual stores back to the corporate offices, I am happy to report that this particular situation was very effectively responded to and handled by corporate personnel at Kane’s Furniture. In fact, their swift and aggressive approach toward rectifying this situation allowed a previously lost sale to be closed. I would like to personally thank Kane’s Furniture for their response and I look forward to enjoying some awesome pieces of furniture to be delivered to us from their warehouse in the very near future.

Just a few days ago my wife and I experienced an interesting circumstance at a local furniture store in central Florida. After two evenings and over four hours of combined furniture shopping, we pulled the plug on a significant purchase at Kane’s Furniture.

Unfortunately, misguided communication from the sales representative nixed a savings discount that was previously promised to us. A multi-thousand dollar purchase lost over a few hundred dollars. Apparently, upholding some misunderstood policy was more important than closing a sale and gaining a happy customer.

The salespeople claimed that a hard lined owner tied their hands. “I’ve watched a $20,000 sale walk out over $200” quipped one of the sales representatives. This comment solidified my decision to forgo the purchase. My wife and I unanimously agreed to walk away from the deal unless the promised pricing was upheld. It wasn’t. We left.

I walked out the door shaking my head as another sales representative chased my wife to give her two tins of butter cookies. As I walked to our car I wondered if Kane’s family-owned corporation is aware of such customer circumstances or if the ownership is actually the culprit behind creating them.

I’m sure that Kane’s Furniture has trained their sales representatives on the rules and regulations of their sale promotions and discounts. However, what is often missing is the feedback loop to monitor the effectiveness of training and implementation of the intended systems.

A good friend of mine is an owner of three Subway stores. The other day he mentioned how he “doesn’t know what he doesn’t know” about the daily happenings at his stores. On one hand, effective systems should enable such autonomy. However, there must also be mechanisms to verify the effectiveness of business operations.

The key is to identify ways in which you can leverage your business systems to not only guide performance but to provide inherent feedback on actual performance. In the absence of feedback you “don’t know what you don’t know” and this is a risky way to run a business. Just be sure that if you choose this route that you stock a few extra tins of butter cookies to send home with your unhappy customers.