The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1920-02-19
Mail Order Man Need Not Worry
About Keeping His Old
Customers.
HIS field NOT RESTRICTED
Local Merchant, on Other Hand, Must
Give Good Values and Service
In Order to Hold
His Trade.
(Copyright)

1t has been said that there is a
sucker born every minute. If this be
true, there are LAO potential custom
| trs of the mail-order houses ushered
| into the world every "a hours and the
| lumber reaches a total of 525, coo every
pear.
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
| mail-Order houses of the big cities al
ways have new fields 10 exploit and
are not hampered in their dealings by
| the necessity of pleasing all their old
customers II the mail-order buyer
| discovers that he has been "stung'
and registers n vigorous kick, 1t means
nothing in the young life of the mail
order man. Why should he worry as
long as there are some ~. 800 800 other
persons in the United States TO whom
he may make his alluring appeals.
Ever Get Money Back?
Did anyone ever hear Of q mail or
| der house refunding a customers
money if the customer was not salts
fed with his purchaser 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 ailuring de
scriptiuns given in the catalogues
The mail order houses prepare for
this contingency by maintaining large
corps of clerks whose sole duty II is
to answer the letters of irate Gus
toners. These clerks, or correspond.
ents. as they are called, exercise all
| their powers Of Cniolery 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 c1iu>c for worry. His
living - not dependent upon the Gus
toner 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 Merchants Field Limited.
Compare the position Of the mail or
der man with that of the retail mer-
chant in the small city or town. The
retail merchant has n certain limited
territory from which he must draw his
trade. All his business must be done
day sitter day and year after year
among the same people. The buyers
to whom he can appeal for business
number only few thousand at the
most and in some cases a few hun
dred. Unless he can make his Gus
toners his friends and bring them
back TO his store again. he cannot con
tinue In business. The result is that
he looks beyond the single sale which
he may be making at the time. II is
Ia his interest to please every one of
his customers II will profit him moth
ing to make big profit of customer
on one sale II that customer is not
satisfied with his purchase and refuses
to come back to his store again.
From which man can the buyer eX-
pect TO get the best values, the best
service and the best prices in proper
tion TO the quality of the goods sold?
From the man who must please him
and give him his moneys worth in or
der To remnin in business OF from the
man who figures that he may never
hear from the buyer again and that 1t
will make no great difference whether
he plvases him or not?
Gets II While He Can.
The idea upon which the mail order
man works is to get the money while
the getting is good. II the customer
is satisfied with the goods which he re
ceives. ali well and good. The mail 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 in his order in the first
place Therefore he may figure that
the customer is likely to take a second
chance even II the first does not tnrn
out to his liking. II the customer has
enough spirit to make kick. the
trained correspondents in charge OF
the complaint department may be able
TO pacify him. II they are not II
doesn't matter much anyway. for there
are millions Of others who may be
Ia