Street Vending, a customer service experience

Granny used to say downtown Kingston is the ‘bestest’ place to shop. In all that hustle and bustle from Coronation Market to Pearnel Charles Arcade you find a range of clothing priced as low as $200, with good service and plenty of jokes.

Everywhere you turn you hear vendors calling, trying to get your attention:

“Yooow!!!! Ova yah suh wi av it: pants, shirt, blouse and panty.”

“Whap’m mi boss, yuh get yours yet?”

“Colah yuh want baby? Weh di colah name? Rose pink?”

“Brown man come tek a look pan mi stall nuh.”

“Mommy yuh need any skool books?”

“A nuh fone card a gi weh, a shoes a sell fi $200”

Those vendors have no formal training in customer service and they never stop till they get your attention. 

When was the last time you walked into a store and got instant attention? Downtown they treat you like millionaire. They wont let you leave without buying something. That’s what I like.

“Hi mi fren, mi hav’ yuh size yuh nuh,” said Sandra as she called to a man passing by. “Everybodi has money, anybodi pass yuh call dem. Eitha dem want someting to buy or not,” she told Go-Local Jamaica.

They will even escort you around Parade to other vendors, to help you get what you are looking for.

The late John W. Nordstrom who co-founded the Nordstrom department store in the Unite States once advised that you must, “listen to the customer. Provide them with what they want. Appreciate the fact that they come to your store, and do everything within your power to ensure they’re satisfied when they leave.”

Recently, a shoe vendor called Leroy ensured I felt satisfied. The man took me to almost every stall in and around the vicinity of the Arcade. I left after more than half-an-hour walking with him without a pair of shoes without the man once showing me a ‘screw face’, despite his efforts.

Not even a ‘screw face’ the man never showed me. Can you imagine how I felt like ‘somebody pickney’? 

Next time you want a pair of shoe, shirt, pants, socks or even a pencil go downtown and e-mail me know your experience. It’s a guaranteed success.

jaevion.nelson@gleanerjm.com

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