Scuba Clients or Scuba Friends? Advice to LDS* from a Savvy and Intelligent Consumer
*LDS- Local scuba Diving Instruction and Equipment specialty Shops
We can and should have both! Treat your clients as you would your friends and they will keep coming back and supporting your business. If you treat your clients like customers/meal ticket, they will be suckered only once and then leave the sport or go somewhere else.
I have seen, heard, and experienced the fleecing of us, the people who patronize you. The difficulties that you are having financially does not give you license to take advantage of our ignorance when foisting equipment upon us, up-selling training that is silly (an underwater photography merit badge) or convince us we have to collect cards to be a better diver.
If you took care of us as friends, went diving with us and not constantly reaching into our pockets, a rapport will be formed so that when a financial debacle like this hits, I will be more inclined to support you.
At this writing, seven local dive shops have closed their doors since October 2008. My thought is that a broken and lack-of-customer-care dive shop can operate and even thrive during good times, but when the consumer dollar tightens, or new blood stops coming thru the doors. . . they will perish. This is probably part and parcel of what has happened. And methinks, a great many more will fall before this financial meltdown recovers.
Give your clients the best service, give them more than they expect, and train them properly and fairly and they will be yours forever. Your business and personal life will be the better for it and the SCUBA industry as a whole will not only thrive, but grow and expand rapidly.
Signed,
An Educated and Conspicuous Scuba Diving Consumer
We can and should have both! Treat your clients as you would your friends and they will keep coming back and supporting your business. If you treat your clients like customers/meal ticket, they will be suckered only once and then leave the sport or go somewhere else.
I have seen, heard, and experienced the fleecing of us, the people who patronize you. The difficulties that you are having financially does not give you license to take advantage of our ignorance when foisting equipment upon us, up-selling training that is silly (an underwater photography merit badge) or convince us we have to collect cards to be a better diver.
If you took care of us as friends, went diving with us and not constantly reaching into our pockets, a rapport will be formed so that when a financial debacle like this hits, I will be more inclined to support you.
At this writing, seven local dive shops have closed their doors since October 2008. My thought is that a broken and lack-of-customer-care dive shop can operate and even thrive during good times, but when the consumer dollar tightens, or new blood stops coming thru the doors. . . they will perish. This is probably part and parcel of what has happened. And methinks, a great many more will fall before this financial meltdown recovers.
Give your clients the best service, give them more than they expect, and train them properly and fairly and they will be yours forever. Your business and personal life will be the better for it and the SCUBA industry as a whole will not only thrive, but grow and expand rapidly.
Signed,
An Educated and Conspicuous Scuba Diving Consumer
posted by Tevis | 2:54 PM
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