What's In a Price?
At Home With Merle
Current Column - Spring Furnishing
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Table Talk.Getting Added Value From Your Salesperson
Mixing Woods and Stains in the Same Room
About once a week I have a customer asking if they can get a better price on a piece of furniture that they located online or at a competing store. I thought it might be helpful to address this subject in this column. It is a straight-forward question. The answer is not quite as simple.
The focus of our business at House of Oak and Sofas is to assist homeowners in solving decorating problems. We think that is best accomplished through one-to-one conversation. We attempt to increase the comfort level of our customer without using a high-pressure sales pitch. We strive to create a beautiful showroom staffed by knowledgeable salespeople to help you view, try out, and check the quality of our furniture. We work on a high volume, low profit pricing system to give the customer the best deal we can afford. We want you to come back as permanent customers. Therefore, House of Oak & Sofas is not an on-line retailer and we don't expect to match their prices.
Buying new furniture and creating a beautiful home is serious business. Buying from a catalog or online, without seeing the product, is risky--especially for anyone who has given a lot of thought to planning their needs and fine-tuned their home furnishing plan. Having a trained salesperson with 10 years of selling experience help you make the right choice can be the best bargain you will find as you furnish your home. The trained salesperson will often ask questions that the buyer never considered.
Online retailing is much more focused on selling and shipping than planning and service. Many online retailers set up business with no inventory and work out of an office environment where a small staff receives online orders and passes them on to manufacturers and shippers who complete the order. They do not need a showroom and therefore can sell the merchandise for a lower price. Free delivery costs are built-in to the price of the product and often full-service stores like our own become their showrooms. A few customers come in and check out the quality of a product and then go back to the internet and place their order. Although many of the largest of these online dealers have failed in the first year or two after startup, we recognize that online retailing is here to stay. A further complication of online buying is obtaining service after the delivery.
Finally, when comparing prices between stores the consumer might ask several questions. First, are you willing to pay the few extra dollars that a larger store spends to show a large variety of furniture so the customer can "touch and feel" and make a better buying decision? Second, are you willing to pay a little more to have well-trained, knowledgeable salespersons help you through the critical steps of creating a beautiful home? And finally, are you willing to pay a few dollars more to compensate salespeople fairly in order that the business can provide them with health benefits that permit them a quality standard of living?
If you answered most, if not all, of these questions with a "yes," then you are probably most comfortable browsing, dreaming, shopping and finally making a purchase at House of Oak & Sofas. Our business model is based on developing satisfied customers who know that a half-hour conversation with one of our sales associates will often steer them away from a major decorating mistake. With over 100 years of combined home design and decorating experience, we are confident that the prices at House of Oak & Sofas are highly competitive.
So, in the end, the answer is often, "No, we can not lower the price." If the item is going on sale soon, or just went off a special promotion, we will tell you. We will offer any available perks like free delivery or special financing. We do our best to treat all customers fairly. In the end we know that we bring them a great total value package.
Thanks to all our great House of Oak & Sofas customers who continue to put your trust in our business.
Until next time, keep asking questions. Send them to mrfurn@msn.com and I will answer as many as I can in person or in my column next month.
