Smart Businessmen, Fool Businessmen

According to www.ez-tax-returns.com, Service Business is a business in which income is produced chiefly by personal services rendered. And, www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au says that

Service Business is a business that deals in service activities such as a retailer, tourism business, banking, education provider, etc. In your opinion, what is service business?

I have ever heard this statement, “Every business is service business”. Don’t you agree?

Well, if every business is service business, it is service business when you sell clothes, books, or cars. Everybody must agree that it is service business when you sell a tour package, train certain skills, or offer a consultancy service. But selling clothes, books, or cars…?

OK, Before I mislead you too far, I’d better stop here. I am not a businessman nor do I know a lot about business. I am just going to share something I unexpectedly saw at a business place.

The man who did the business ran a negative campaign. Well, don’t be mistaken! It’s not a negative campaign of which you often heard some time ago, which is a practice by politician/s to give impression to public that other certain politician look bad so that they can take certain advantages. In more serious term negative campaign means trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies.

What I witnessed was a practice done by a businessman where they treated their potential customers as idiots. The harassed them instead of treating them nicely. Didn’t they realize that it is customers who made his business kept going?

I have posted my account below in my other blog (please kindly check www.miftah17.wordpress.com ), but there is nothing wrong to share with you. Here, I would like to hear your opinion on what I have seen.

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I was in the mall. I wanted to have some pictures printed since I can’t do it myself at home. I was walking to a counter offering picture printing. Look I was getting close…

There was something stuck on the machine that draw my attention. Now I was getting even closer…

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A notice… yesit was a notice.the big letters were very clear. It said, “Stupid”.“Who is or are  stupid?’, I asked myself a question. Let me find out!

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And now I was there… It was very clear in front of my very eyes. It said (translation), “Don’t play with the machine! You can break it, STUPID!!!”.

What a beautiful welcome for coming customers it was. What will your reaction be at first place if you come to this kind of business place seeing the notice?

Will you pretend not to see the notice and go on using their service because it doesn’t bother you at all? Or will your head get warmer and say something rather angrily to the shop assistant to do something with the notice? Or will you be too astonished to react and you turn to a statue for a few seconds? I don’t know, but are these business people happy to make money from these stupid customers? What did they have in their head?Should we change the proverb every customer is a king into every customer is stupid, stupid to use their service. Wallohu a'lam bissawab (No one knows but God).

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Note: I found this “beautiful” display in Mall Cijantung Jakarta Timur. I recently went to the mall and I saw the counter no more. They have closed their business!