Store Promotion Etiquette

Speaking of ETD, I remember Elika had a problem with this. The mcdonalds-Burger King analogy is very apt, there is NO WAY someone could justify this. Maybe if they were at a smaller Gurl6 location passing out landmarks to the warehouse but I really doubt that. This could even be the same person Elika dealt with, just hopping from hair store to hair store to to and bait their competition's customers. Ban. Super ban. Period. ^^

Befriend the person.

find out where they live.

Find out when they like to be cozy with their Sig Other.

Make a Notecard with approximate times to stop by and chat and a LM

And hand them out in THEIR store

=PPpPPpP

PS - may be more effecive if you hire a PI to get some sleezy .. um Enticement shots.

Ohh

PPS - if they arent attractive ignore this whole post.

I don't think it is fair trade to redirect your customers to someone else's store, especially if this is happening ON YOUR property. Those customers are at your store because:
a. you have good word of mouth
b. you paid a pretty penny for your classified advertisement
c. you advertise in other arenas such as blogs, in world newspapers etc.

By talking your customers into going other stores, this person is skipping all the expense associated with getting yourself a good name in the business and all the money that goes into advertising and using your reputation to get traffic to their store.


I would say IM the person and request them to stop doing what they're doing. They're more than likely to get hostile, at which point you can simply ban them and get it over with.

Troy

I don't see where suggesting someone to put up a tagboard to help others is "pressuring them" into doing it. It was a suggestion only. I think Six's store is wonderful and all she does for new players is awesome. I would never pressure her, or anyone for that matter, into doing anything she/they didn't want too. The suggestion was made, it would be up to her if she wanted to do it. It would just make sense and help new store owners too.

People do that already, though, to a certain extent, though their picks. I wouldn't do it if I owned a store unless it was reciprocated, though. And lets face it, Gurl 6 isn't exactly your average store in SL, the type of person she is describing using her board would get 100 times more out of it than she would.

But it's a good concept, in general, I like the idea.

However, I don't think anyone should feel pressured into being the good guy when people are taking advantage of you already.

Well...I tend to be another Jellyfish myself when dealing with people who are taking advantage of me, so I completely understand your hesitation, Six. I think I need those bitch lessons as well. =P

More than likely, this individual is exactly what everyone is claiming, and more than likely the best course of action is to ban her for attempting to steal business from you on your own property.

However...

What if the customer who IMed you was lying? What if the customer who spoke to you misunderstood what was happening? What if this woman merely was giving out landmarks to a few friends or people she was talking to in casual conversation? Is it worth it to lose a customer (as you said she was wearing your own work), and perhaps many more from her bad word of mouth after banning her, when there is a chance (however small) that it is a misunderstanding easily corrected?

I tend to err on the cautious side in things like this, and I always prefer to speak to the individual themselves before taking action. I may be shy as all hell, and run from confrontation, but I am usually a fairly good judge of a person and their intentions after speaking to them a moment.

I would politely IM her and say something along the lines of: "Hello, my name is Six and I own Gurl 6. A customer commented to me that she was rather bothered by your handing out landmarks to your own store while here and I wanted to speak to you about it first."

The person's response to that will be very telling likely, and if she comes back as a total bitch or highly defensive, then she was indeed being low and underhanded and the best course would be to ban her I suppose. Though I am myself enough of a softie to likely ask her to stop and explain my view before I ban her and only ban if she insists on being a total arse.

If it was a misunderstanding, then you saved a customer and potentially uncounted others she may have told about if you had banned her without talking to her first. if she is a scammer, you found out for sure by her replies and can still ban her and hopefully move on...at least until the next person comes along.

I hate confrontation in any form, but I also am a business person and I protect my customers because I like my customers. If someone is in my store bothering customers, I will certainly do something about it regardless of how uncomfortable it is to me, because I have a responsibility to my loyal customers to make their shopping experience as pleasent as possible.

I wish you the best of luck in dealing with such people, Six, I know well it isn't fun or easy.

-Zoe

Well, maybe I shouldn't use the word "pressured", but Six is a nice person and nice people are easily talked into doing nice things, whether or not they should, heh.

I totally agree with you on Six being nice..and I will apologize for jumping at what you said. It just that the suggestion made sense to me. But there again it's my opinion and everyone is intitled to their own. But like I said, it's totally up to her and I think that talking to said person before doing any action would be best. Better to find out all the information than it is to lose customer over a misunderstanding.

Thats why I said have a public anyones pic section and then have a her pics section.

I know say a link to DE Designs and Girl6 crosslinking eachother would be an outstanding combination.

Now me on the other hand I'm a gadget nut so I want any place that sells spaceships to crosslink me to some guns which will then link me to a place selling wiley coyote avatars =P

lol havent ran into that yet.. those girls were probably hoping for a quickie in IM so they can get some more hair LOL

You don't need to apologize, I really am in a bitchy mood today, lol.

I agree she should talk to her first, to avoid any further trouble. Better to deal with it that way than have someone pissed at you, and your business, if it can be avoided.

Will give head for hair? Can do a backrub/bj package and call it "Head and Shoulders"

Ack I need to stop this line of thought o.O

I consider it "soliciting". I don't allow that in my store. If they want to advertise their store in my store, they should either talk to me about it first, ask me if it's ok or if we can work out a deal, or rent a store at TeaZer Mall and put their signs up in the store.

The last thing you listed there has happened before That was the first and only time I ever had the backbone enough to ban someone and eject them so freaking fast.. I was putting out some new products and a girl was talking to her friend and shes like ' oh man this is the ugliest hair i have seen in my whole life this sh** sucks we need to go to ____" i was like finger shaking on the mouse button couldnt get to it fast enough to get her out of there !!! I felt bad that I didnt ask her to stop first before banning but I have never heard anyone be so freaking mean outloud.. ive heard ppl say -- i dont like this on me -- or i dont like this one , etc.. thats never phased me but she was SHOUTING actually SHOUTING about how its the ugliest and i was like RAWRRR lol..


A tag board like that is not a bad Idea - I also have a reserved picks section in my profile that lists " where i get what i put on my avatar" and it lists all the stores i love and the list keeps growing !

She was nuts! Gurl6 has the best female hairs bar none, I always bring folks there who are lookin for good hair o.O

I don't like a few of them, but I know for a fact my two favorite hairs on a girl can be found at your shop

Now you just need more mens hair

Now see something like that would be a ban situation. She was talking bad about your creations in open chat and shouting it with other customers around. I would agree with you on banning her full on. I have told alot of new players about your store Six, some of the best hair I have seen in game by far. Keep up the great work!! Oh by the way..do I get free hair now? lol just kidding.

Ignore the wench.

Talent, class, style and good breeding always rise to the top. She's got nothin' on you, Six!

LOL , sure just create an noobie ALT And thanks to everyoen for all the kind things you guys have said the number of good ppl way outweigh the jerks, in this particular situation though.. the person wasnt being mean was just promoting and I wasnt really sure how to handle it but you guys have had some great suggestions . And Cindy sign me up for that BEEEETCH class ( I mean can you like please sign me up? if you cant thats okay I understand ) <<< see what I mean HELP ! lol !!!!

I was a little bit more harsh the other day about this. I just ejected and banned the one person actively solicitating with landmarks from the parcel, since i'm the co-owner of Six' store.
The response was something like..."was only helping a noob". Nah, not valid in that respect. If you help a noob, then you'd definitely give out LMs to places such as Yadnis or the Gnubie Store...giving a LM to another store that sells the same product is just rude...no matter what.

What would you think if you camped in a Walmart store and handed out flyers for KMart? 1st, people would think you're nuts, 2nd sooner or later the Walmart security would show you the way to the door...kthanksbye. That's not harsh, that's the reality.

PS: the person that was responsible for it apologized for it and is now unbanned. So happy ending

Hmm now this brings up interesting aspect, actually... i mean, suppose there's a newbie in hair store and this store sells special, cheaper hair for new people. _And_ there's another hair store that also sells cheaper hair for new people. Since these offers normally work based on age of one's account (i.e. eventually you get too old and can no longer use such offer) ... would it still be rude to tell a newbie person about another such store so they can grab more hair created specifically for them? ^^;;

Dearly Darlings,

I liked Mr. L's post board idea. I can recall RL being in an art supply store with my much older mother and remarked: "Look Mom, they have student art hanging in here!" It turned out that it was the instructor's....it was a long time before we becase friends because of my "foot in mouth" disease. I truely meant no harm. Second Life correspondence seems to break down the normal barriers for decorum. This has me scratching my purple hair as to why. I too have seen folks in shops with the most deplorable behavior, extremely insulting to the designers and if not that then the costs of items...or inappropriate behavior. I hate shopping here now. There are a few designers I'm on friendly terms with. If I really can't build what I want I ask them where to go. If they can't help me I'll peek in the map first to make sure there are not many people where I want to go. I honestly think if I saw some one in a shop handing out landmarks like that I'd IM them an tell them they were being rather rude.

I've handed out a few Landmarks but mostly to new children looking for places to "ugh" camp...I hate it but it's a fact of Newbie life. I also give namecards out if people admire a pair of shoes or what ever for the designer who made them.

Six's hair is lovely. My RL/SL husband keeps waiting for his own hair to pop up there so he can buy it.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Hmm. I mean if the person is standing there sending everybody to another store that is just wrong and I think asking them to stop would be appropriate, but on the other hand I've been with some girl newbies on occasion and you girls are weird, I'll say this is the hair all the girls like and they'll say "eww" so ok its time to take them somewhere else lol.

But yeah I'd be pissed if somebody was competing on my ground against me-and have had that happen actually. Had somebody with a competing club getting people to go to theirs which I suppose I should get mad about but my thought though was "ok let them go to that place and see how much it sucks and they'll come right back " but then again hair is a different type of product.

And, I'll say this. If I was in a hair store and somebody from another store was sending out landmarks I'd IM the owner as a courtesy.

stand in Mac donalds handing out coupons to burger king.. see how long you last

This same thing has happened to me in the past. I caught a person in my store telling MY customers that she had such and such cheaper at her store, giving out landmarks, TPing them to her store, etc. So of course I banned her first. But my motto is don't get mad, get even....

*snickers* So I went over to her store and asked if I could hang out and promote my store. ROFL! This girl just had no clue. Long story short, her final comment was "it's just a game!" Yeah. Yeah. Whatever you say oh clueless one.

I'd tp tothe store, orbit her, then dump her key to a perm-orbie... then ban them for good measure.