COMBATING THE INTERNET SHOPPER
of shoes he has ever had on in his life . Despite her valiant efforts to close the deal , our heroine meets stalwart resistance from the time bandit . He informs her that he would like to contemplate his potential procurement of said magnificent shoes overnight . She cheerfully agrees , as she was instructed and trained to do during our many staff meetings . Then , he pops the telltale question . “ You wouldn ’ t mind writing down all the information about the shoes and inserts for me , would you ?” he asks . Her friendly and practiced answer creates an expression on Mr . Pinchapenny ’ s face that makes me giggle no matter how many different Mr . or Ms . Pinchapenny ’ s I have run into in my career . Her answer is “ I would be very happy to provide you with my card , but our policy is to keep track of the items you liked in our computer system . If you will step over to the counter with me , I will enter your information along with the items you were interested in . That way , you will have my number on the card and , if you let me know when you are coming in , I will pull everything and have it waiting for you when you get here .”
Customers that truly just needed a little time to mull over the decision never had a problem with this . In fact , they loved the fact that not only would they not have to start all over , but that they didn ’ t really even have to try to keep track of the card . And the items could be set aside and waiting for them to make a much quicker trip out of their second visit ! Customers that argued or pressed to get the information in writing left disappointed . Retailer- 1 . Nefarious Ne ’ er-do-well- 0 .
Dave , the other pedorthist , and I were blessed with a reputation as above average foot problem solvers . As such , we had a fair number of people
38 Pedorthic Footcare Association www . pedorthics . org