superballs5337 said:
if i was the owner and i had employees turning down business because the employees thought they were dumb and didnt know ne thing the would be gone. business are here to make money not lose money. in all you did the right thing but u should have sold the fish. if it would have been i would have been like give me the dayum fish im a paying customer.
ps. i never said give wrong advice, i said give the correct advice but u must sell the items and in this case the fish. its BUSINESS.
I feel sorry for your livestock if you ever open an lfs. I feel sorry for your customers as well.
I plan to open an lfs one day soon and can tell you all right now, it will be store policy to grant my employees the right to refuse any livestock to people who are likely to cause death or inhumane situations for the animal/s. I agree totally that entering a business venture is to make money, at least to a degree (for me it is also because I love the hobby and wish to share it with others). There is, however, a moral responsability to any business who deals with any lifeform to ensure the utmost care and safety of any stock passing through it's doors. As far as I am concerned, the moral responsability to the animals comes before the money making agenda each and every single time, without question. I will be more likely of firing somebody because they ripped a person off or sold them fish that the person didn't have means to care for properly, or was unwilling to take care of then for not making that extra 10 bucks.
As the owner, I would have no qualms whatsoever with my employees or myself engaging in polite and tactful chatting with the customer to get a fair idea as to what size tank they have, stocking levels, how much they actually know about the chosen species (max size, compatability with tankmates, diet, etc). I also plan on printing out factsheets on each species in stock and keeping copies of them at the tanks so customers can learn about the fish while browsing, hopefully this will cut down the number of impulse purchases as well as give a customer a fair idea of what to expect from any given purchase, as well as enable them to take it home and read up a little before coming back if the said fish is right for them (handy for non-internet based customers who have limited sources to research with). I also plan on printing factsheets on water parameters, etc for people to take home with them too.
Hopefully, in this manner I will provide fish with a better style of living, as well as make customers "aware" of any problems with their ideas without insulting their egos. Inobtrusive methods seem to work best in most cases and by having factsheets for customers to read makes one feel that they "found out for themselves" rather than be told by some dude they've never met before. I will also make it store policy to put factsheets into a customer's bag if they haven't already gotten some themselves, unless the employee knows the person has them already from a previous visit. I will leave it to the employee's descretion as to whether or not they think they should engage a customer in conversation to give "friendly" advice, it's not hard to tell if a person is going to be a wanker or not before you get too far into it and if any customer has a problem then they can speak to me directly and I will decide for myself if they should be sold fish or not.
Good example.
