When you work in a retail store, you meet a lot of people. And the vast majority of them are great customers. They trust your expertise and judgment when you make product recommendations. They will listen and heed your advice about proper care of their guns and gear. They don’t balk when they’re handed a bill.

But every once in a while, Joe Shopper will present a “customer service challenge,” to put it in charitable terms. Maybe they never wanted to have to call you to fix a frustrating issue with their hunting rifle. Perhaps their mindset is always that goods or services are too expensive. It could be that they believe your gunsmith’s every suggestion is an opportunity to round up the invoice and they’re skeptical. 

Most customers defer to your hard-earned knowledge. But some of them believe they know more than a trained professional who provides this service every day and has seen every situation that leads to required maintenance or failure. 

These are the customers you need to turn around and get on your side. Your job is encouraging an attitude adjustment with argumentative folks. You must become an educator, a psychologist, a trusted adviser. But why should you have to do this?

 

Bite Your Tongue

At online forums, you can read the responses of exasperated retailers who are tired of dealing with difficult customers. They talk of secretly wanting to snap back at the occasional buffoon who wants to supervise the gunsmith’s work and chisel away at the bill when it comes time to pay.

Of course, this reaction would be unproductive, to say the least. To not show patience with your customers and answer all of their questions or inane statements is to risk hurting the reputation of your company and turn away repeat business. This is the bane of everyone who works in the trades as a service provider, actually.

It can become a frustrating exercise to constantly provide clear explanations of necessary work. But that is part and parcel of quality customer service — and what encourages positive Google reviews and neighbors recommending you to neighbors.

 

Diplomatic and Sympathetic

To help you build more positive relationships with prickly or simply uneducated customers, I have assembled a list of four common statements you hear while pricing out products or services — and how you might respond in a way that brings them around to your way of thinking.

1.     “Why does it cost so much? Another guy said he’d do the job for half that.”

Response: Here are my itemized expenses, allowing for a profit that provides a living wage for my employees. If you still think it’s too expensive, you’re welcome to hire the other guy.

Many gun owners don’t understand the many costs you incur to run a store and service or upgrade firearms. Machinery, test ammo, software, replacing parts — all these erode your profit margin.

Add to those hard equipment costs that you need to carry insurances, stay up to date on your professional licensing, pay utilities and mortgage on your shop, and set aside enough to pay your staff and cover associated employment taxes. This is demanding work that requires training and experience to do correctly, and nobody — including your customers — would want to work for free. A detailed accounting like this should make customers realize your service is priced fairly and their money is well spent.

2.     “My dad always said that as long as it’s working, you don’t need to clean/service/inspect it.”

Response: I’m sure your father imparted much great advice to you. But this is incorrect.

Dad meant well, but is he really a firearms expert? Likely not. Gently explain to the customer that it’s important to consider who you are taking advice from when it comes to caring for your firearms. It amazes me that many people are quick to latch onto the false concept that, for example, pump-action shotguns do not require any maintenance or cleaning at all.

To reinforce the need for periodic inspection and maintenance of your customer’s firearms, recommend customers follow a general 3-to-5-year rule to have you check that their most-used firearms are functioning properly and replace any parts that are showing troublesome wear and tear. Offer to show them the damage (or dirt) before and after replacing or cleaning. Remind them that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and the last thing they want is a neglected firearm to break down at the worst possible time.

 

3.     “Just do the bare minimum to save me money.”

Response: The bare minimum does not save you money in the long run.

Of course, nobody wants to spend more money than necessary. It’s easy to assume that as long as a gun hasn’t given them any problems, everything is fine. Paying for replacement parts or maintenance of something they can’t even see and don’t even know needed to be done is no one’s idea of a good time. But if you see maintenance or repair opportunities that will head off a failure in the future, it’s important to lay that out for the customer.