Originally posted by DrEvilmonki
Maybe they simply don\'t care to much about you guys as customers. It doesn\'t mean that they don\'t care about their customers, just that they are targeting different people.
in general for the stores these days i\'d say you are right they are essentially making them into recruitment/indoctrination centres for those unfamiliar/new to the hobby and milking them completely for inferior plastic kits and trying to force their existing customers to stay at home and order direct from them which has the advantage of not having to handle the under 14\'s
but it also has disadvantages in that its disrespecting the existing customer by saying \"you do things our way or fuck off\" which is poor customer service as we all know the golden rule that the customer is always right and if there are customers wanting the product /service then the company should atleast be trying to accomodate them
a simple solution to this would be rather than just checking stock counts for sales so you can replenish items but to have a tally sheet of items customers have asked for when the lobotomised poloshirt wearing \"marines\" *cough* have plagued them with all manner of questions when they\'ve gone into the store this would mean that they could see which stores need a few blisters of say aspect warriors/ SoB imagifiers/ demonhosts etc. sent to them as said lobotomised \"marine\" *COUGH* telling the customer to try mail order (in store, by phone or online does not mean they will as most will be disparraged and spend their money on something else more than likely not even GW related
where as if the store emailed a request for say no more than 10 blisters in a week of unavailable stuff in store that had been requested by customers and told them \"pop back in a week or 2 we should have a delivery of them by then\" instead of \"try mail order\" this will show not only respect and care for their custom but also allow for possibility of up selling and introduction of players to different models and maybe even start them out on playing a different race the average space marine player may decide they want grey knights in their force eldar players may want to experiment with aspect warriors etc.
i feel like i\'m explaining brain surgery here or something as someone who has worked in many retail outfits and run a few stores involving specialist items (including one that had a mail order system too) i can appreciate the limitations of shelf space and the need to push new products but i can also appreciate the needs of the loyal customers those that have come back time and time again and been my bread and butter for years
it makes more sense keeping them happy than it does to have new unfamiliar things on shelf in hope of somebody wanting them and it\'s not like we are talking about having a dealership full of jaguars in italy surrounded by showrooms for ferraris
this is something simple and low budget that will entice more to open up their wallets that have closed them due more to the companies inaccesability to their wants and needs
if they even wanted to go overboard if this showed success they could do in store features of classic of the month or something similar by announcing it in WD that across the country for a limited time they will be having the classic necromunda escher gangers next month these will be the prices and they will only be available outside of mailorder for a month so if you want them pick them up then
this admittedly is not as cost effective but is more marketing effective as across the board it will get the attention of customers that don\'t go in store as much any more but still check WD and the net in hope that GW will release something they want and see some of their favourite minis and decide to pop in and pick them up to bolster their forces or if its not what they want but see that its an on going thing they may feel more encouraged to pop in and ask their lobotomised \"marines\" *cough* if they will be getting in such and such a unit/charachter etc. and when that will be so they can pop in and get it
yes to a company that focuses a lot of its specialist products in mail order this could seem unneccesary and cost inefficient
but it wouldn\'t just be existing customers coming back to top up their forces with this sort of initiative but it would also attract new players especially those under 18 (who don\'t own their own credit cards so are limited to their use of mail order and with youth money managing they are more likely to spend their money on available products instore to carry on with painting and leave mailorder to birthdays an christmas when relatives have given them cash not knowing what to get (or knowing and feeling to daunted to get it by going instore and possibly coming out with the wrong item as lobotomised \"marine\" *COUGH* has suggested to said relative that they don\'t really want that they would probably be like this more as it is the hot property item of the moment seeing as they are encouraged to push their products and in some instances like with most stores will be encouraged to push certain lines more than orthers as there are slumps in sales or an excess of stock in store that needs to be gotten rid off )
if these relatively new players (which those under 18 would be) saw items for bloodbowl/necromunda/battlefleet gothic/gorkamorka etc. in store and the store was running a tournament league or just a few introductory games in store that month too they are more encouraged to make an impulse buy to join in where as if the products were mail order exclusive and there was a tourney held in store then the players would be limited to those who already have items to do with the game and a few others that have decided to use mail order or ebay to get stuff together quickly for the tourney and in general it would show less reaction and encourage less impulse buys as the same items as usual are available instore and they already have what they want from those product lines
really it\'s not rocket science and for the first suggestion there is no real increase in costs as the store has indicated interest of someone to buy those items so they can be shipped with the next lot of items due to be shipped and if the customer has not returned to purchase them in the next month or two they can be sent back to head office with the rest of the product send backs for red distribution like other companies do with their stock
the later idea admittedly would require market testing on say a few random stores in differing locations to see if it would reap necessary increase in profitability to sanction the costs of shipping those items running tournaments and publishing the necessary marketing but again this isn\'t hard to do for a company like gw that even keeps its marketing pretty much in house for the most part
and as a side note the later idea would also help those out who do commisions and those looking to part ways with models from games they no longer play as they know there will be an increase in demand for the items too around the the period that they will be instore
so very true though and rather unfortunate as it can be seen from this thread alone even if say one in twenty people feel similarly that is still 5% of potential customers or existing customer that they are not catering for or just meeting the needs of and a a 5% increase in sales is always a good thing something that would help the company a great deal more than regularly increasing prices that for the most part may see them an increase in returns but sees more and more people leaving their products behind and using what they have, or proxying miniatures from other ranges and/or exclusively using ebay or other similar services to get what they need on the cheap
