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Show NEW ONE BORN (2 EVERY MINUTE Mail Order Man Need Not Worry About Keeping His Old Customers. ,ljSiJ HIS FIELD NOT RESTRICTED Local Merchant, on Other Hand, Must Give Good Values and Service In Order to Hold His Trade. 1 fp? (Copyright.) It has been said that there Is a sucker born every minute. If this be true, there are 1,440 potential customers custom-ers of the mail-order houses ushered Into the world every 24 hours and the number reaches a total of 525,600 every year. Of course, as Mark Twain remarked regarding reports of his death, these figures may be exaggerated, but they serve to Illustrate the fact that the mall-order houses of the big cities always al-ways have new fields to exploit and are not hampered In their dealings by the necessity of pleasing all their old customers. If the mail-order buyer discovers that he has been "stung" and registers a vigorous kick, It means nothing in the young life of the mail order man. Why should he worry as long as there are some 99,900,999 other persons in the United States to whom he may make his alluring appeals. Ever Get Money Back? Did anyone ever hear of a mail order or-der house refunding a customer's money if the customer was not satisfied satis-fied with his purchase? Don't all speak at once, please. The big mail order houses in the cities expect to receive a large number of complaints from their customers. They know that much of the goods which they sell will not come up to the expectations of the buyers, whose ideas as to what they will receive have been formulated from the pretty pictures and alluring descriptions de-scriptions given in the catalogues. The mall order houses prepare for this contingency by maintaining large corps of clerks whose sole duty it Is to answer the letters of irate customers. cus-tomers. These clerks, or correspondents, correspond-ents, as they are called, exercise all their powers of cajolery in an effort to appease the complaining customers, but if this is found to be impossible, after an exchange of letters, the mail order man has no cause for worry. His living Is not dependent upon the customer cus-tomer to whom he has already sold goods. "There are as good fish in the sea as have ever been caught" and he turns his attention toward the landing of the new fish. Local Merchant's Field Limited. Compare the position of the mail order or-der man with that of the retail merchant mer-chant In the small city or town. The retail merchant has g certain limited territory from which he must draw his trade. All his business must be done day after day and year after year among the same people. The buyers to whom he can appeal for business number only a few thousand at the most and in some cases a few hundred. hun-dred. Unless he can make his customers cus-tomers his friends and bring them back to his store again, he cannot continue con-tinue In business. The result is that he looks beyond the single sale which he may be making at the time. It is to his Interest to please every one of his customers. It will profit him nothing noth-ing to make a big profit off a customer on one sale If that customer Is not satisfied with his purchase and refuses to come back to his store again. From which man can the buyer expect ex-pect to get the best values, the best service and the best prices In proportion propor-tion to the quality of. the goods sold? From the man who must please him and give him his money's worth In order or-der to remain in business or from the man who figures that he may never hear from the buyer again and that It will make no great difference whether he pleases him or not? Gets It While He Can. The Idea upon which the mall order man works is to get the money while the getting is good. If the customer Is satisfied with the goods which he receives, re-ceives, all well and good. The mail order or-der man knows that the customer Is the kind of a man or woman who likes to take a chance or he wouldn't have sent (n his order In the first place. Therefore he may figure that the customer is likely to take a second chance even If the first does not turn out to his liking. If the customer has enough spirit to make a kick, the trained correspondents in charge of the complaint department may he able tn pacify him. If they are not. it doesn't matter much anyway, for there are millions of others who may be i caueht with the same bait there is one born every minute, you know. It is well for the consumer to re-memhqr re-memhqr these facts if he Is ever tempted to take a chance on the offerings offer-ings of the marl order house. The home merchant has something at strike In every sale that he makes. The mail order man has nothing at stake. The home merchant has everything at stake on the manner In which he treats his customers, for lie cannot get others to take their places. The mail order man has nothing at stake for it Is to ! his Interest to get all that he can out ' of each salj. knowing that he may never have another chance at that par- j tlcular customer. I Which is the safest man to do busl- ! ness with?. |
