Jan and John Maggs Antiques

Client/Customer Relations 101

Early this past September a dealer friend spotted a cupboard in our booth at Heart-o-the-Mart in Brimfield. He quickly decided to purchase it, planning to bring it to one of the Vermont foliage shows at the end of the month.  A few weeks later, at Rhinebeck, he came bouncing into our booth to tell us this story.

As planned, he had brought the cupboard to Vermont. Soon after his show opened, an interior designer took interest in it. After some discussion, the designer left "to think about it."

Not long afterwards, another shopper stopped to admire the piece. When she left the booth, she indicated that she "wanted to talk with someone about it."

A bit later the two women met in another dealer's booth. The reader may now have guessed that the two women were designer and client. The designer said, "There's a piece in this show that I really like. Let me show you."

The client replied that she, too, had seen something that she liked very much. They walked along together to show each other what they had found.

Needless to say, both women had found the same cupboard. And each wanted to own it.

According to our friend, the ensuing discussion escalated quickly into an argument. The dealer was asked to resolve the conflict and reluctantly allowed that the designer had seen it first, whereupon the shoppers agreed that the one who had seen it first should be the one to buy it. The client left the booth, and the designer purchased the cupboard.

Later in the day, the client returned to our friend's booth to assure him that, although she was not pleased with the result, she felt that he had acted fairly.

"But," she added with a wink as she left his booth, "she'll never work for me again!"

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