The first rule of retail has always been, “Know what you sell.” Keeping an accurate, up-to-date — and easily accessible –inventory, is a vitally important component in maintaining healthy customer relationships.
There are some Toronto indie bookshop owners, however, who prefer to let people wander — to send them on their own book-finding quests with the words, “If it’s not on the shelf, we don’t have it.”
The customer has already made the effort to walk, drive or bus it to your shop — why are they being made to earn their book as well?
It doesn’t take much to keep track of what you sell. If you don’t feel like spending a fortune, there are free inventory software downloads like inFlow (inflowinventory.com). You can even stick with something basic like Excel, if you’re so inclined.
The main thing is to make shopping at your store as easy and painless as possible. Yes, there are those of us who trek down to our favourite book joint with the hope of coming across some unlooked-for treasure. But many customers walk in with the intent of finding a specific title and don’t appreciate being jerked around.
No, you won’t always have what people are looking for, but you can save them some time and frustration by eliminating unnecessary ambiguity.
7 thoughts on “"If it's not on the shelf…."”
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Brian, I must respectfully beg to differ–not absolutely but in part. First of all, as for entering every single volume into an automated inventory: this is not an efficient use of time in a one-person shop selling used books where many are in the $1 to $10 range. The offhand “If it’s not on the shelf” remark, however, is a bit high-handed and cavalier. How about a middle ground?
People who walk in asking about one specific title don’t all fall into the same group, either. Some will stand in the doorway to ask, and if told their title is not in stock will turn and leave without so much as glancing around at other books. Others are either truer book-lovers or not in as much of a rush and will take the time to browse and possibly buy, finding other treasures, though the treasure they sought was not on your shelves.
In my store, I generally know what I have, or, at the very least, I know where I would shelve it if I had it, and this is the key to my solution. If I don’t remember seeing the book requested, I can still say, “Well, I don’t recall having that, but let me look. If I had it, it would be…” and I walk back to the appropriate section, usually followed by the person who made the request. Sometimes that person finds something else, sometimes not, but at least he or she has found the bookseller welcoming and helpful and has penetrated some distance into the treasure trove of my shelves.
P.J. – Your line “usually followed by the person who made the request.” Shows the difference between salesmanship and just minding the cash register.
I’ve been in bookshops where the store owner looked up as I entered, did a quick analysis of me that made me feel like I was unimportant and went back to reading their book while they stayed behind the counter.
Good idea to at least ask a potential customer a couple leading questions and if you can, build a relationship that will bring them back again. Even if it is a summer tourist just passing by. You never know when he will be passing by again.
Yes, it can be a monumental task for one person to manually enter every single title into an inventory system — especially if you’re running a larger-than-usual bookshop.
My beef is with the owners/staff who can’t even be bothered to get out from behind the safety of their counter and help you look.
And you’re right, being told that “if it’s not on the shelf, we don’t have it,” is particularly cavalier (this is an actual quote from a handful of Toronto bookstore owners/employees), and not an attitude that is conducive to serving the book-loving community well.
We have a great computer Inventory System, but it’s not infalable. So, if it’s not in there, I’ll say “I’m not sure if we have it; let’s go see.” After all, retail is more than just inventory – Customer Service! I never get to sit down in my store; I’m always running around helping customers or putting away books. Darn. 🙂
I would never expect any store’s inventory to be infalable. Just knowing that the owner has put the effort into cataloging his titles, and thereby enhancing his or her ability to help me, says a lot about his or her attitude toward keeping his clientele happy.
Knowing what you have (or having access to such knowledge) is the foundation on which successful retail businesses are built. Everything else — the owner/staff’s world-view and the environment it creates, merchandising, etc… — are what complete the shop’s story or branding.
If you have an owner/staff that is hell-bent on hiding behind their counter, doing as little as they can to keep people coming back, then you have a store that doesn’t deserve to be open.
Okay, so besides the problem of fallibility of inventory systems, there is the problem of shyness of book people. It’s true–many people who dream of having a bookstore are more comfortable with books than with people, and the same is true of many people who come into bookstores, but the onus is on us, the booksellers, to push beyond our comfort zone, to make people who cross the threshold feel welcome and comfortable! And here’s another thought: “It looks like I don’t have it in stock, but I’ll be glad to order it for you.” How hard is that to say and do? As Dana so right says, CUSTOMER SERVICE!
I must admit, as a customer I like stores of two different varieties. The stores that have very rare books and are kept less like stores and more like museums. I don’t mind this. Books to me are art both in ideas and physicality. But I also like the stores that are disheveled and not organized. The chance for an unknown treasure being unearthed increases dramatically. As long as a store has good stock and plentiful stock,I don’t care whether it’s arranged like a doctors office or piled like a hoarders living room. Just to be in the presence of books themselves is
the real fun!