Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

#1. Serve our customers in a reliable and consistent manner (NEVER CONFUSE THE CUSTOMER)

                A.   Set and keep the regular opening hours established by other respectable retail businesses in your area.

                B.  Pay attention to customers’ buying habits and close attention to what they tell you regarding books and the book business in general.

                                a. They are the ones visiting the other stores with a buyer’s perspective.

                    b. Their compliments about different facets of other operators can be very helpful while their complaints about whatever anyone else is doing should fall on deaf ears. Join in the former conversations and never get involved in the latter chatter.

       c. Customers will tell you when other book stores clerks and operators speak negatively about us so you should be aware that type of talk will come back to bite you. Would you recommend looking for a book at that store to your customer? Dale Carnegie quote: “Criticism of others is futile and if you indulge in it often you should be warned that it can be fatal to your career.”

#2. Buy books with your present customer base in mind but occasionally buy unique “off the wall” books to dress up your store and make it more interesting.

A.     Buy aggressively – you can never have too many copies of a salable book – just stop buying when demand for that book falls off – by then you will have realized that book’s profit potential and often a good book will have residual sales or a resurgence in the future.

a.       Being aggressive will sometimes open you up to criticism from others – here is an excellent blog on the subject http://www.elliacommunications.com/blog/?p=140

B.      You are there as an agent for your customer – to do less than your best is a disservice to them.

#3. Treat your staff well in a manner in keeping with teaching them character and responsibility.

A.      During our twenty years in business we have very little absenteeism and only occasionally have we had someone prone to being late for work. Both situations effect morale in the stores so we quickly talk to any offenders and usually that remedies the behavior.

B.      Everyone is told to take care of their own best interests first - because as a business that is what we have to do in order to serve our customers.C. I have had dozens and dozens of people tell me this is the best job they have ever had – I attribute much of that to their love of books but our consistency probably is a factor.

#4. Realize that as hard as you work to learn as much as you can – you will never know very much about books or the book business – it is too broad and too deep.

A.      This should be a comfort to you, as it is to us, because you can just relax and be yourself and not feel the pressure you should otherwise feel.

B.      Listen and your customers will tell you most of what is important for you to know.

C.      But continuously study everything you can about business, public relations and marketing because a business that stands still will soon drop over dead.

D. Being in this business is a privilege and deserves your dedication and hard work.