St. Tammany farmer., 1906-11-10

out OF the shipment. I immediatel
wrote back for them to select som
other patterns and make them up In
stead. Back came another letter askin,
me What sort of material I wanted. B,
this time l was mad as fire, and
merely wrote on the bottom of his let
ter, Let your Office boy select cloth
And-so help me!-they wrote bacl
again saying they hardly felt lik
making up this size from cloth which
their Office boy would select, becaus,
II the material didn't suit the half
dozen shirts would be dead property OF
their hands. What blockheads som,
people are, anyway! This thing wa!
| getting to be a sort of joke with me
SO l wired in for them please to senl
over to my clothing house and have thu
man from whom bought my cloth Sc
lect the patterns for the shirts. Mean.
time my customer was coming in every
day-I stood him of from time to time
wanting to know If his shirts had
come.
We'll, SIR, I received long letter
stating that the clothing salesman ]
had asked them to have select the ma.
terial, was out of town,-what should
they co? Then wrote in and told
them that they should either make me
some sort Of shirts or else send out a
troop of militia to guard me from my
angry customer; that he had been
waiting for those shirts for six weeks;
to please make me six shirts that were
18 inches around the neck and that had
sleeves 36 inches long; that they could
make them out of chinchilla, mackin-
tosh material, silk, linen, calico, or
lawn; that didn't give a - what
sort Of stuff they used so long as they
made them to fit. never did get that
special order from that house. I had
to place it elsewhere before could get
It filed"
Standing Behind Goods Sold.
"A man must stand behind the goods
he makes, too," spoke up the hat man
ufac.urer, land once in while make
good for his over-zealous salesman, or
keep quiet an unreasonable customer.
One OF my salesman had the habit of
guaranteeing goods sold in this way
he would say to the customer-and I
couldn't stop him-if any hats l sell
you do not give your customers salts
faction, or if one of your customers
make 2 kick on any hat you buy from
me, whether that complaint is justifia-
bic or not, give him a new one and
charge it up to my firm One day, when
a man made remittance he made a
deduction Of six dollars from the bill,
saying that three of his customers had
worn the hats they had got from us for
II months, and that they had come in
and made complaint; that, according
to instructions Of our salesman, he had
charged up that amount. Now, this
customer was Straightforward, hon
est mail could tell that from the let
ters he wrote-and what else could I
do bur credit him with the six dol
lars?"
THAT was good sense" remarked
Watkins. "A customer that isn't worth
six dollars to a wholesale house isn't
worth anything. The trouble with a
great many houses is that they see
the orders rolling into them through
Uncle Sans mails just as easily as the
one-cent advertisements that they
chuck into the waste basket unopened.
fhey forget how their statesmen on the
road must hustle to sell these goods,
however good they may be. I once
sold customer Of mine lot of fur
nishing goods. asked him when he
wanted them shipped. He said Sep
tember l. He was away up In centra
Idaho, and it would have taken three
weeks to get his goods to him by
freight. A letter came into my house |
the first Of September saying that he
had lot received any invoice for his
goods, and asked whether they had
been shipped The old gentleman in
the ofiice-this boys father, here
continued Watkins, pointing to joan
mis- Cariolanus, called me into the Of
fee and asked me where this place was,
and wanted to know If there was any
express Office there. I said Yes, but |
oAAOAy JOu al 0A + 6OAA6 W OAP4 COS
gpds away out there, are your Why
not? said he. I gather that this man
wants his goods in his house and not
In ours by September l. It Is true he
didn't make this clear when he gave
you the order, but at the same time I
.hink I'll just send these goods out by
express prepaid, and let him pay US
back the amount the freight charges
would have been Why said l, If you
10 that you'll lose money on this bin.'
That may be tr,le,' said he, with q
:one Of assurance, but will make 1t
Up ON his future business +
That old gentleman is the king OF
hem all when it comes to taking care
II a customer. tell you, one Of the
best ways to build business is to take
ARE OF the business you have built"
Take Care Of the Business.
II learned that long time ago when
was salesman" remarked largo
Of first-class clothing,
Who had joined the party OF business
men as they walked through the Office.
One Of the very best accounts / have
o-day came to me because one OF my
strongest competitors few years ago
lid not treat one of their customers
xactly as he felt he should be treated.
1ou know this selling a line Of goods !
o second man in a town when you