Best suggestion worth R500-00

Moolis Moolman

Moolis Moolman

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What do Customers see in a good LFS? :confused1:
This question always come around when we @ Pet Stop start to do our planning for the next period, be that our 6 month review, annual planning, medium or even long term goal setting or our debriefing and analysis of the past period.

But YOU our customer understand better than anyone what you want and need from us! :lol: So post here or PM me or Send me an email moolis@petstopsa.co.za and WIN:thumbup:

As a lot of you that visited Pet Stop the last few weeks experienced (when I am in the shop), I ask thousands of questions and your opinions. But due to the fact that I am busy with the builders at the “Mini security village” I cannot seem to find the time to ask each and every one their opinion. That is why I am posting this on this forum. I NEED YOUR INPUT

I know there are thousands of opinions and ideas out there and that each and every one of them are important when looking at the bigger picture. So give that feedback!!!!

The person with the best suggestions that we need to implement will win a R500-00 Pet Stop gift voucher! So let that creative juices flow!!!

PS. If a person outside Gauteng win - we will send your voucher's purchase (hardware only) to you, free of charge .
AND
This is not only limited to Marines – it is about Pet Stop in general as well, so Dogs, cats, birds and tropical included.;)
 
Thank you for the emails up to now some great suggestions came in...... please do not stop, keep it coming :thumbup:

On TASA there are already a landslide of suggestions from them:p
 
To sum it up in one word.... CARE.... if a person has to fork out his/her hard earned money towards their passion, they want to be treated with respect.... and CARE- remember, a guy who earns 500 bucks per month and a guy who earns 5000 bucks, to them both the money has the same value. Soooo,if he/she walks into your store, make them feel special, even though he/she only spends pennies.... They the ones telling others about your service;)
 
Sean you have hit the nail on the head. MOOI SO MAN. I am so dissapointed in most LFS's out there. And yes they are sponsors. The owners are 90% of the time not there and has some manager running the place and assistants that are to busy to even care about my needs. typical scenario is i walk in crocs shorts and t shirt and already perceived as not going to spend a lot of cash. Fact is SW is a lot more expesive than FW. so if you see me hovering around the sw tanks FFS show a little interest.... not everyone is bad. Idol Marine WOW WOW WOW WOW is like feeling at home when you walk in Petstop also the same feeling I get. Sorry guys only been there once stay in Randburg. Going out to Dorry's on Friday and i am sure i will be happy when i walk out there. will give feedback. I just find all LFS stores in JHB to busy and they dont actually care.


And last but not least dont rip us off..... Dont try and convince me that your yellow tangs are R995 and come from Hawaii when other lfs is selling for R450 a piece. And no i dont have a idiot sign around my neck.
 
Beeing a marine fanatic I sometimes get a big head and buy stuff that is not suited for my tank, once you get introduced to MASA you get all the info you need, but sometimes this is to late. So my suggestion is proper product knowledge . When you stock/sell something you MUST have all the correct info for that product. As an example,If I ask if this additive is Reefsafe and you say yes, I believe you. Get home add it to my tank and the 2 days later find dead livestock, I get a little upset. This also ensures that I take my buisness somewhere else. I am not saying that you dont have all the info, but this is a general problem, you as store owner might have, but the guys/girls working for you sometimes dont realy know.
 
Keep us up to date, I stay in Benoni and for me petstop is quite a drive.
If I know what you have it is great and I will make the drive and have bought a lot from you, but if I drive all that way for nothing I feel kind of dissapointed.
 
Never been to Petstop unfortunately but the one thing that I think is lacking at most pet stores is information on livestock. You can only generally get more information by talking to staff in the store and this can take quite some time if there are limited staff and lots of customers.

A little sticker on the holding tank with some key pieces of information of the stock such as name, price, difficulty to keep, reef safe, full grown size, minimum recommended tank size, feeding requirements. This may help a lot of potential purchasers make better decisions without the help of staff.

Larger laminated cards could be made available with pictures and further information should the shopper want to further investigate a specific piece of livestock.

A PC connected to the internet with access to only certain websites that supply information on products in your store may also be useful.
 
Thank you all for the PM's and emails!!!

I love it!! the Aquarium hobbyists really do have some great ideas.

KEEP IT COMING and think out of the box some brilliant ideas coming in!!
 
Gifts special. So say if you buy a chromis you get a chocolate for the wife free. And if you walk out with a clam, anenome 5 chromis and a couple of goldies then maybe a bunch flowers to keep the misses happy. Most of the time we so rushed to get the livestock acclimatised and buying flowers for the wife is the last thing on our minds. then everyone is happy
 
wors143 said:
Gifts special. So say if you buy a chromis you get a chocolate for the wife free. And if you walk out with a clam, anenome 5 chromis and a couple of goldies then maybe a bunch flowers to keep the misses happy. Most of the time we so rushed to get the livestock acclimatised and buying flowers for the wife is the last thing on our minds. then everyone is happy
Click to expand...

Haha, love this idea :) What about having somebody in on weekends to give the ladies a manicure so we can shop for hours in peace :biggrin:
 
Thanks Pet Stop for trying to make a difference in your trade, its acts like this that could make a world of difference to livestock in SA.

I think LFS shops should be all about the wellbeing of the animals in their care! Especially if the shop also doubles as a "normal" petshop. Its not how they make me feel welcome and pampered... its how the animals are kept and cared for while in their care. Be it a fish, Coral, birds, cats, dogs or many other animals being sold in our petshops. To many times I enter a LFS or petshop and exit so depressed because the animals or fish are treated as a "money making thing".

Thankfully some of our LFS do understand the importance of treating their livestock humanely.

Fish and corals in prestine holding tanks.
Shop personnel not too 'busy' to see dead fish floating in tanks.
Informing the buyer of the parameters (SG and temp) in which the livestock was held (helps when acclimatizing at home).
Minimizing stress to animals when new stock arrive by switching holding tank lights off.
And the best of all..... choosing a beautiful Surgeonfish or Maroon Clownfish and out comes the plastic container to catch it. No nets.

Its small things like this that should be important... Not necessarily how I'm treated!
 
What I like to see at local stores is that me as a customer gets greeted and that the service is personalised , if you see me entering your store on a weekly basis try remember my name and show some interest in my tank such as asking what livetock I have in the tank , what size tank I have and what my plans for my tank is etc . EG if I have a softie dominated tank then why not suggest a coral , fish or invert that will suit my tank .

i live near one of the sponsors on the forum and almost every friday / saturday morning I'll come pop in and have a look at what stock is in and if there is anything that I am looking for , and I know one of the assistants there that really takes the time to get to know my tank and always advises me on what I am looking for . Other stores you go in and get helped and you get served by some kid who does not even know the prices of the lifestock not to mention the requirments , now me personally I get upset because the shop assistant is getting fustrated with me as I am asking so many questions and in the end I dont even go for the product be it hardware or lifestoke because I dont feel statisfied with the information I got , in the end I'll rather go home read about it or go to another store where I know I will get the answers I am looking for.

I think what it boils down to is the service needs to be a point that I want to come back or tell someone and when I come back I can go to the guy who helped me last and say thanks your advice , info or suggestion worked - Help me again please . I feel that if the face of the store ( I.E. The shop assistants ) are friendly and knowledgable you are more likely to retain customers and thus allows us as the customer to be happy when we go home an add our fish in without any problems .

Thanks
 
wors143 said:
Gifts special. So say if you buy a chromis you get a chocolate for the wife free. And if you walk out with a clam, anenome 5 chromis and a couple of goldies then maybe a bunch flowers to keep the misses happy. Most of the time we so rushed to get the livestock acclimatised and buying flowers for the wife is the last thing on our minds. then everyone is happy
Click to expand...

So I should actually talk to the wife? ;)

Seriously this is another aspect we need to look at! :p
 
Helga & Ares you both have valid points!

Helga - You should see the tears every time we sell a parrot, they become like children, we love and care for our pets as much as their new owners should love them. If a Petshop do not do this they should open a different business!!!!!!

Ares - I think every marine customer of Pet Stop would testify that Shawn know their aquariums and would only give advice he honestly believe is the correct one for that customer :) But Yes how can we give advise if we do not know the system, we would be waisting you HARD EARNED MONEY and loose your future business, both a NO, NO!!!
 
One problem I find with Stock in LFS's, are names. There would be 3-5 different species of fish in a holding tank, but then a different list of names outside. For someone still learning about fishes, or just starting out, this can confuse the living daylights out of them! (It did confuse me at first, now I have an encyclopedia on my phone!) So please, keep the names updated to the species in the tank. Pics would also help with identification.

I used to see a fish in a LFS, then go home and search the name, only to find it does not match the fish that I saw...Then spend hours looking for the fish in a pic, then find a name, then do research...

So short & sweet, keep correct names with stock.
 
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