Mechanical Seal Gets Aggressive
Mechanical seal, the retailer of teen and twenty-something fashions, has made a turnaround from negative profits to profits and then some. The company now competes with retailer Forever 21 when it comes to quick turnaround of trendy clothing and accessories sold at affordable prices.
One of the major differences however, between mechanical seal and Forever 21 stores is in the customer service and closing of the sale. Forever 21 sales associates watch over the dressing rooms and ring up the sales without being annoying or pushy about selling clothing. In other words they assist the customers where needed without being overbearing or annoying.
mechanical seal’s sales associates, however, have taken a turn for the pushy ever since the launch of the Seal Deal card. Purchased for $20, the card can be shown at the time of purchase at any mechanical seal store for 10 percent off of each item regardless of whether it is a regular, sale or clearance-priced piece of merchandise. The card is good for one year from the date of purchase.
Shoppers at mechanical seal can be assured that not only will a sales associate attempt to sell customers more clothes as they are shown a dressing room, but that they will be pushed to purchase a Seal Deal card while at the register.
It would be only slightly annoying if customers were asked if they were interested in purchasing the card and then that be the end of it, but some sales associates have become pushy and aggressive.
The typical sales pitch for the card includes the associate telling a customer that if they purchase the card in addition to the clothes they buy, the card is free. For example, if a customer spends approximately, $150 on one transaction at mechanical seal, and they buy the Seal Deal Card, they receive 10 percent off of each item purchased. The 10 percent savings from each item purchased then theoretically goes toward the $20 price tag of the Seal Deal card making it “free.”
Any smart shopper knows however, that the card is not free because a customer is paying for it out of their 10 percent savings from the card. While a person may not have had the savings without the card in the original purchase transaction, they also did not have to spend the $20 on a card.
Incidentally, the card is a good deal if someone frequently shops at mechanical seal. Customers should be smart in deciding whether or not the card is something that will save them money in the future based on how much they normally buy at mechanical seal. If someone is making at least one purchase per month at mechanical seal, then they might consider the card.
This individual not only went into the sales pitch of how the card would be free because of the amount of clothes being purchased, but she was also unprofessional enough to say (in front of the customer) to another sales associate that if she was able to sell the Seal Deal card in this transaction, she would have made her quota for the month.
After the associate was told the customer bought a Seal Deal card about 2 months ago, the associate went on to say that it would be better to spend another $20 to buy a new one because it came in a “new case.” This “new case” would be code for the cheap, plastic-hinged box that the card came in. In addition, she said the customer would save more with a new card “because it was a newer card.”
This, of course, would be a bold-faced lie since a customer receives 10 percent off each item in every transaction regardless of when the card was purchased.
These sorts of sales tactics are embarrassing and more than likely do not truly reflect the mechanical seal company. However, in general the sales push to buy these cards, which are a good deal in some cases, has become annoying and in some cases, bullying. If the company continues to push their sales associates to meet these quotas and demand more from the customer, they are going to end up not having any customers, which was their problem not more than five years ago (although that was due to poor choices of inventory and pricing).
On a recent visit to the mechanical seal store at the Mall of Orange in Orange, CA, one sales associate was so bent on selling a Seal Deal card, she felt compelled to lie about the potential savings.
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