My problem with game stores

everloss · July 20, 2014, 12:03:04 PM

First off, sorry if this is in the wrong forum; all of the others seemed even less related to the subject.

I just came across this sight for the first time, today. The Mad Adventurers Society.

I'm one of those hipster types that "buys local" whenever possible. I'll go to the 85 year old mom and pop business over the national chain always. Fortunately, I live in a city where that is still easy to do. There are reasons those old stores stay open in the face of marketing and price gouging juggernauts. They're personal.

Long and drawn out personal story about retail sales and the importance of customer interaction in the spoiler section.

Spoiler

From my own experience with my job; I work for a large corporation, yet the individual stores are basically treated as their own entity for the most part. The store I help run is located in a neighborhood that is very... different than most. It's mostly retired hippies and hip, socially conscious people in their late 20s and 30s, which is also near one of the largest college campus' in North America.
Nine months ago my store was near the bottom of profitability of nearly 4500 stores in the chain. We had pending lawsuits from customers, employee morale was at rock bottom, customers who weren't regulars were treated with disdain.
Like I said, 9 months ago we were at the bottom of the company. My store is closing next Sunday (for reasons that have nothing to do with profitability or success) being the 33rd (out of 4500) most profitable stores for the last 8 months, and 3rd most profitable in the last month.

How did we manage such a turn-around?
Customer engagement.

Every customer was greeted with a "Hi, what brings you in today?" or "What are we working on today?" type greeting. And not from behind the counter, either. In fact, we took out a big chunk of counter space in order to better move out from behind it and engage with people.

Because my store is smaller than most in physical size, we often do not have specific products and must order them. Previously, many of our in-store product was not anything our customers wanted; it was just the standard crap the company stocked all stores with. So we asked, begged, pleaded, and cajoled our corporate masters to look at the things we were constantly ordering and make them stock items in the store; it worked. Give the people what they want. In some cases, we just purchased products elsewhere and resold them at cost; no profit, but customers appreciate that they can get some hard to find item and end up purchasing other stuff while they're in the store.

Speaking of ordering hard to find things, if we couldn't get something through the usual channels, we started going out of our way to find things for customers, even using Amazon and competitors.

We started free in-store classes so DIY customers could learn to use and maintain products. We started a twitter account and got a local weatherman to follow it, and endorse the store to his 10k followers several times after he had outstanding service.

We gave 5% discounts to students, 10% to military and seniors, and 10% to local businesses (not considered B2B transactions).

People started spending more. For the first time ever, employees were getting bonuses, which simply made them want to help people even more. Happy customers were bringing cookies and ice cream bars, and bags of chili peanuts and bottled water, as a way to say thank you to my team. No one in retail ever expects to get any kind of thanks from a customer, but we are blown away every single day by appreciation shown to us by people we help out and sell to.

TL;DR version

We showed the customers we cared, and in exchange, they quadrupled our business.

We also fired or transferred employees who came to work only to stand around, talk to their friends, and not work.

There are 5 or 6 nearby game stores. My experiences with all of them are very close to what the guy in the link writes about.

Panjumanju · July 20, 2014, 12:16:10 PM

I'm sorry - I don't understand quite what your point is. This sounds more like "My Solution for Game Stores". Is the problem that it's still closing, regardless of the turnaround?

//Panjumanju

Scott Anderson · July 20, 2014, 01:33:06 PM

There is a bookstore that caters to gamers and card gamers nearby named Rivendell. It's been around for 12 years. The guy who runs it quit the securities business to just play games.

It's clean, it smells nice, you can get nice things there and sometimes some really cool old stuff you would normally have to go online to get. As the neighboring store went out of business, he rented out that space to have a game room. But it doesn't feel like a prison cafeteria, more like a library reading area. There's nice quiet music, snacks and stuff. It's just so nice.

There is no way Wal-mart can compete with that. He will be in business as long as he feels like it.

everloss · July 20, 2014, 01:34:12 PM

I guess I could have done a better job conveying my thoughts.

My problem with game stores is that they are more often than not, poorly staffed and run. By that, I mean that the staff isn't concerned with moving product, and the owner (if they aren't the staff as well) doesn't mind having a business that doesn't make money and turns people off.

One solution to that is improved customer service by a knowledgeable and helpful staff.

Something I hear at least once a week at my store is, "I came here because everyone at your competitor down the street is a dickhead." Something I hear almost every day is, "(my friend or relative or coworker) recommended you guys over those other stores."

If I ran one of the 6 or 7 game stores in my city, I would want to hear those same things every single day. I would do everything I could to make sure that new customers have the best fucking experience at my store so that they'll never even think about going to a competitor.

I've been looking at yelp reviews for three game stores (the others don't seem to have reviews yet) and people complain about everything from "the smell of cat urine" to calling a 5 year old "a fucking pokemon kid" to "scam artists" for online orders.

That's bad. But in all cases easily rectifiable by simply being considerate towards customers. These are people who want to hand over their money, and too many game stores don't seem to want to take it!

Someone said on these boards a long time ago, that most niche shops (game, comic, etc) are started by fans who think it would be cool to own a shop, without considering the whole running a business thing.

So that's my problem with (many) game stores.

everloss · July 20, 2014, 01:36:22 PM

Quote from: Scott Anderson;770747There is a bookstore that caters to gamers and card gamers nearby named Rivendell. It's been around for 12 years. The guy who runs it quit the securities business to just play games.

It's clean, it smells nice, you can get nice things there and sometimes some really cool old stuff you would normally have to go online to get. As the neighboring store went out of business, he rented out that space to have a game room. But it doesn't feel like a prison cafeteria, more like a library reading area. There's nice quiet music, snacks and stuff. It's just so nice.

There is no way Wal-mart can compete with that. He will be in business as long as he feels like it.

That sounds like a cool shop that I would enjoy visiting.

Phillip · July 20, 2014, 04:59:44 PM

Poor customer service seems to me usual in commerce generally these days, but I can understand it more coming from peons in a big-box chain that's a subsidiary of a global mega-conglomerate -- and especially when they're halfway around the world.

That it should be crappy in an operation with a much lower hierarchy seems especially galling.

Scott Anderson · July 20, 2014, 05:08:11 PM

We have two very good game stores in greater Providence, RI. The other one is a total hole in the wall back down an alley near some razor wire. It's also awesome. But it's a 180 degree different vibe.

P&P · July 20, 2014, 06:52:50 PM

My problem with gaming shops is the way they attract That Kind of gamer. The ones who can't get a regular gaming group because of poor social skills or personal hygiene.

Spinachcat · July 20, 2014, 07:06:52 PM

Here's the real lesson.

If you are working for a shitty store/company, get a new job fast. Run, don't walk.

Being part of a turnaround is thankless bullshit because turnarounds are extremely hard work with lots of extra hours (most likely free hours) and at the end, you either make the company lots more money or your store closes and you lose your job anyway.

And as a former headhunter, let me assure you that when I read "turnaround" on a resume, I knew I found a sucker who'd put 60 or 80 hours into a job for a 40 hour salary. Companies LOVE suckers. Great candidates for recruiters to market like hotcakes, but their divorce rate and burnout rate was laughable. But hey, there's always more people eager to add "turnaround" to their resume.

robiswrong · July 20, 2014, 08:17:17 PM

Quote from: P&P;770787My problem with gaming shops is the way they attract That Kind of gamer. The ones who can't get a regular gaming group because of poor social skills or personal hygiene.

Yeah, this.

Patrick · July 20, 2014, 08:42:10 PM

Quote from: robiswrong;770793Yeah, this.

One of our local stores, Pandemonium, has a HUGE sign at the entrance saying, " We will ask you to leave if other customers find your manners or hygiene offensive."
I have never seen a catpiss man in that store ever.

Arkansan · July 20, 2014, 08:54:52 PM

Yeah customer service seems to be a frequent complaint in the hobby gaming bushiness. Then again it's a large enough problem in retail in general that the places I have got good customer service stick out in my memory.

The things I would like to see in a lot of FLGS are;

1. Greet everyone who walks in the door, don't wait for them to ask for help

2. Don't go way out of your way to give me your opinion on a product that you don't like. If you can't come up with anything nice to say about it then just give a basic run down of features. I have seen people walk out empty handed plenty of times because the jackass behind the counter spent 15 minutes telling them why game A sucked. You just fucked your self out of a sale genius, you may hate the game but they may have loved it.

3. For the love of god don't hire your buddies, I never see this work out well.

4. Grow some balls and kick out offensive people. That neckbeard who is cursing up a storm, whilst playing MTG at the table, and calling kids who play Yu-Gi-Oh or whatever "noisy little retards" is also costing you money. His ass needs to go.

Mistwell · July 20, 2014, 11:43:02 PM

I agree with you Everloss, and that is my experience as well. There is ONE good game store in my region (Game Empire in Pasadena). All the rest are just like the one described in the link you posted. I walk in, and often I get no greeting at all, and I never get any engagement beyond a greeting (if I even got one of those).

I went to a hat store in Monterey this past week. I had no intention of buying a hat, I was just casually browsing, and I'll be damned if I didn't buy one anyway. Because they engaged me, and asked what sorts of hats I liked, and what climate I lived in, and what I have liked or disliked about hats I have had in the past, and what sorts of occasions I find myself wearing a hat, and a good conversation was had. And by the end, I had a new hat I really liked, that fit me very well, and was light weight, and had a style I really like, and matched several outfits I own.

Game stores in my region (other than Game Empire) just don't do that. They seem to be run by a bunch of nerdy introverts who are only interested or able to engage with the people they already know. And it's a problem.

daniel_ream · July 21, 2014, 12:40:01 AM

One of the best books on running a business I ever read said (I'm paraphrasing from memory): "Clients expect customer service reps to have the patience of Job, the intelligence of Einstein, the wisdom of Solomon, and the grace of Gandhi all for $7.25 an hour. Here's the real problem: so do their employers."

To get good customer service you have to hire for it and train fr it, and you have to value it enough to spend that time and money. Most companies get good customer service by accident, because their staff happen to be naturally friendly and gregarious.

Traits that are not generally in evidence among the gamer community, which is where most game store employees come from. I've been physically assaulted by the part-owner of a game store in my hometown without provocation, which is my personal highwater mark for bad service.

Sommerjon · July 21, 2014, 01:37:43 AM

Quote from: everloss;770748I've been looking at yelp reviews for three game stores (the others don't seem to have reviews yet) and people complain about everything from "the smell of cat urine" to calling a 5 year old "a fucking pokemon kid" to "scam artists" for online orders.

The smell of cat urine...hmm... taking a wild stab and saying that's The Guard Tower?