Average at Animates

[cichlid_fan]

I agree with the HFF Mt Roskill vs Albany comments

I live 10 minutes from mt Roskill ,but shop at the albany store-spent about $2000 over last 3 months in the albany branch,purely on the better service received over the bridge

[Jennifer]

... I think in the overall picture, the members that are on this forum tend to be knowledgeable enough to source their answers from different places and not rely soley on the 'expertise' of one person. We are on here because we care, in like the many people that walk in wanting to buy all kinds of fish and not knowing a thing about aquariums. Its important to find a store or several which you feel comfortable in and develop a relationship with...it will help you in the long run. We all have different priorities of what we want from our FLS so its nice to have some variety!

Well said!! 8)

[Charlie]

many people who buy from animates are...

not using this forum

dont have a correct understanding of fish (and other products) to shop arround correctly

dont have any expecdations from the server on detail knowledge

[clounge]

Via Manukau?!? What part of Pakuranga do you live in? :-?

Clounge, so you're saying a friendly greeting from a clueless girl with a fluffy dog is all it takes to make you shop at a more expensive store with a smaller range?

I spend my money where I get the best service. Anyone who goes the extra mile to be helpful deserves to get my money. I have spent a lot of time reading these forums about fish keeping and other various sites. When I go to purchase something I will normally ask questions based on what I have learned and take it from there. Like I said I have been to Hollywood more than 8 times giving them ample chances just in case they were having a bad day / busy etc. But each time except once I have walked out of there in disbelief, how can they just ignore me and be so rude? I have read about HFF and how awesome these guys are but on the other 7 occasions they haven’t been a bar on Animates or other stores I have visited. I really wanted to spend money at HFF, hey it is only 5mins away, It is cheaper, they supposedly know a lot about fish (Never really had a chance to find out). Like I said no greetings - no one came and asked if I needed any help. And when I asked for help I got very basic short answers – Don’t bother me or I'm to busy to help you out attitude. You don’t need a degree in sales to be polite and helpful to potential customers who want to spend money on their hobby. It shouldn't matter if you are a learner or a ninja fish keeper it makes no difference. They should treat every customer with the potential of them maybe spending thousands.

This isn’t a bring me down negative post, I’m doing it coz I see great potential in HFF and hopefully their staff or manager reads this and does give everyone a pep talk. While you could look at this as a negative post it is actually a great opportunity for HFF to come to the rescue of 3 potential customers (in the above 10 posts or so) – Easy money if you ask me.

[Brennos]

Via Manukau?!? What part of Pakuranga do you live in? :-?

I work in Manukau.

Clounge, so you're saying a friendly greeting from a clueless girl with a fluffy dog is all it takes to make you shop at a more expensive store with a smaller range?

What Clounge is saying, is people deal with people, not with companies. If you have a bad experience somewhere, you are hesitant to go back. If I go somewhere, and am ignored, I won't go back. I know Clounge, and I know the company he owns, and the service is the best in the country, they are the best for one reason, SERVICE. They are not always the cheapest, but they are at least reasonable, but the people they employ, and the service they give are the best in NZ. Service is what matters, If you go somewhere, and are made to feel like you shouldn't be there, you won't go back, but if you greeted, and asked if you need a hand (esp if your waiting at the counter) you will go back.

As far as range goes, My local animates has/can get, most of what I need for my tropicals, granted they don't do marine, but yeah they are more expensive most of the time.

[David R]

Well perhaps my perspective is a bit different given that I know most of the staff on a first name basis and have been shopping there for 10+ years, but I can't help but feel you guys are taking the whole customer service thing a bit too far, its not like real estate where you can expect the salesperson to kiss your backside to try to make a sale.

In my experience, compared to most animates (the exceptions being ones where I can deal with members of this forum) hollywoods service seems pretty good to me. Nearly every time I want fish from Animates (the frequency of which has decreased greatly over the years, but this was a problem even back in the Jansens days) I have to go roaming the store, usually to the cute fluffy rodents department, to find someone to catch the fish for me. This person is almost never knows anything about fish and often says "which ones are those?" when I say what I want, before making an absolute mess of trying to catch them, which I usually end up doing myself. If I need to ask something I have to wait for them to go off and find their token fish person (often takes a long time, if they're even working), and even then the "expert" often isn't that expert. At hollywood I'm usually left alone to browse (much prefer that to the high-pressure selling approach so common in retail), and when I want something I'll find someone, which doesn't take long in a small store, and that someone will be someone who deals with fish only and should at the very least have had a lot of practice catching things. If I want to ask a question, Levon, Dave, Rena (before she left) and just about everyone seems happy to take time to discus it or look it up in one of the many books they keep under the counter for reference, even if there's a good chance I won't be buying it.

The other aspect is that I'd rather support a specialist store who carry the widest range of fish, food and spare parts. These latest shipments from Germany are the exact reason why I support hollywood, even if the majority of the fish aren't in my specific area of interest. Animates wouldn't go out of business if they never sold another single fish. They are more concerned with taking the easy sales and growing their bottom line to take a punt on a new species like Biotodoma qupido, or the countless variety of Corydoras hollywood currently have in stock. IMO anyone who considers themselves an enthusiast rather than just someone who has a fish tank should put that kind of support for the hobby well above the quality of the smile the staff give you when you walk in the door.

[Caryl]

I am another who hates having shop staff approach me (often several times in a short space of time at one particular chain store, not in Auckland) asking how I am and if I need help. If I want someone I prefer to go and find them, or attract their attention, not have to be chatty every 5 minutes to perky staff member asking me how my day has been and interrupting my chain of thought :-?

[Adrienne]

I enjoy shopping at HFF and I find the staff very willing to assist, and if the store is not packed out happy to stand and chat. I also do not like being stood over and appreciate the fact that once I have been browsing for several minutes someone will come and ask if they can help and if I say no thanks will go away until I either ask for assistance or leave.

[Neon]

+1 HFF are great

[SamH]

If I want someone I prefer to go and find them, or attract their attention, not have to be chatty every 5 minutes to perky staff member asking me how my day has been and interrupting my chain of thought :-?

Tell me about it! I'm not good with people and I usually know what I want to buy, I just have to review my options. Worst part is when they ask my mother says "Yeah, he's just looking for a _____, can you help us?" :evil:

[livingart]

mothers,

we do love them

[SamH]

mothers,

we do love them

[Gatito]

_________________

Within reason, anything is possible

Hahaha, this is how i read that last post

[livingart]

you read it right gatito

[bdspider]

I'm another who doesn't like being approached! If I need a sales person it's only ever to direct me to where in the store I need to go. I don't want any sort of advice from them! Don't you guys realise their 'advice' is just trying to get you to spend more money? (Did I mention I'm a cynic? ) besides, most of them aren't even experts at what they sell. If you're a weekend shopper, chances are your salesperson is a student who only works 10hrs a week or something.

That's why the internet is great, if I need unbiased advice I can find it.

That said, I do like to have friendly service if I do ask directions and when I'm at the checkout.

[Barrie]

I don't want any sort of advice from them! Don't you guys realise their 'advice' is just trying to get you to spend more money?

I too dont want to be hassled (like the ASB bank)

I will however dissagree in general with your comment.

I offer the best advise I can and will often recomend something that is cheaper and better.

Nothing gets up my goat more than people that ignore the advice I offer (when asked) and then they become experts in 5 minutes when I have over 40 years experiance in my field (glass)

I simply love it when people belive they know better and it ends up costing them

[David R]

Nothing gets up my goat more than people that ignore the advice I offer (when asked) and then they become experts in 5 minutes when I have over 40 years experiance in my field (glass)

I simply love it when people belive they know better and it ends up costing them

+1, although its not so applicable in my current job, but you can tell the new Newmarket station wasn't designed by a driver....

[Barrie]

+1, although its not so applicable in my current job, but you can tell the new Newmarket station wasn't designed by a driver....

I can say that I have never given advise in my trade that I wasnt 100% sure of.

[bdspider]

Yeah, we're talking about salespeople here, not people who have learnt a trade. You've missed the point a bit.

[Barrie]

I am a sales man and a trades man

[clounge]

Yeah there is nothing worse than a salesman jumping on your back with annoying small talk etc. But there is importance that the staff acknowledge you and let you know they are free and willing to help if you should need them. This can be as simple as a basic "hi" or eye contact with a smile or making themselves available though out the showroom. Not all behind the counter out the back talking etc While this should probably not be expected every time while the store might be busy etc. I would expect a reputable store to at least do this 50% to 70% of the time. I feel bad myself if I don't say hi to a person that comes in to my store. (After all they have made an effort to come and visit with probably a high expectation to spend or spend in the future) I know it is impossible to do it everytime ,and everyone has there bad days - and you can not keep everybody happy. But showing that you care about service is not a hard thing to do.

If you ask a staff member a question - do they have a certain type of fish in stock and you get a blunt "no" and then they carry on working. This happened to me last week. Just Pathetic. Those types of answers just make me not want to ask any advice or for help to buy something. I ended up driving all the way over to Albany and was able to spend my money happily. Maybe I'm just expecting that my local fish store isn't just that and mainly they are just there for the enthusiast that already knows more than the average beginner.

[breakaway]

One more thing to consider here is that the people that are happy with a shops' service will often not go on a forum and post praise. But people who feel that they've been hard done on the other hand, will spread negative publicity even though it may well have been an isolated incident.

I've found that it's a matter of building a relationship with the store. Get to know the people, and they will treat you well. It's like this almost everywere - I own a motorcycle also and first time I go to a new dealership for a service on a bike I get charged full price, but once you get to know them, you get a lot of hand outs and insane discounts etc. Fair enough really. Like a loyalty program.

[cichlid_fan]

Its not up to the customer to get to know the store worker -its up to the store worker to get to know the customer, 'rapport building' ,if you want to maximise your sales and get repeat business its right up there with product knowledge

[Fruju]

NORTH SHORE REPRESENT!!! :lol: :lol: , roskill may have great stock all the time, but i like the albany branch much more.

[HummingBird]

I'm another who doesn't like being approached! If I need a sales person it's only ever to direct me to where in the store I need to go. I don't want any sort of advice from them! Don't you guys realise their 'advice' is just trying to get you to spend more money? besides, most of them aren't even experts at what they sell. If you're a weekend shopper, chances are your salesperson is a student who only works 10hrs a week or something..

I'm a student who works 9 hours a week at Animates. I appreciate your sweeping generalization, but not all sales people are like this. Personally, I give people advice to the best of my knowledge (and I do consider myself an expert on all of the fish & products we sell) even when that means saying they can get something cheaper elsewhere, or telling them they don't need the product they're looking at. We don't work on commission.

All I say to most people who wander into the fish section is "Are you okay there?" half the time the person will say yes and I'll walk away, but the other half they'll have a question about a product, fish, or some problem they're having with their tank. We can't read people's minds, the only way for us to know if they need help is to ask them. A lot of the time I'll be so busy they won't have a chance to approach me themselves, and in my experience a lot of people aren't forward enough to go out of their way to bother a salesperson.