Can convenience be BAD for business?

I stopped to get gas the other day and almost fell over from amazement at what I saw at the gas pump.  Right there, on the left hand side of the pump was a slot to feed cash into the pump!  That's right...not just the ability to pay with a credit or debit card, but the opportunity to pay at the pump with CASH!!!

Of course, everybody knows that Convenience Stores don't make any money on the gasoline.  They make their money by selling the highly marked up candy, snacks, cigarettes and of course, fountain drinks!  So, why would you give someone the added "convenience" of using their cash at the pump and avoiding coming into the store?

I started thinking about all the things that have made our lives more convenient and wondering if they are actually hurting business.

Ray Kroc, who built the McDonalds empire, changed the way everyone does business with his famous line, "Do you want fries with that?"  We all know that the easiest person to sell is a current customer.  Once we have them, it's a lot easier to sell them again (and again).  But we have to ask and we have to create the opportunities to sell them.  Keeping them outside at the pump and not inside at the counter won't help to sell them anything else.  Kroc understood that once he had them at the counter buying a hamburger, he could sell them fries and a shake too.

Why do you think that furniture stores set up their showrooms in a zig-zag pattern throughout the store and put the customer service desk at the far back of the store?  It's simple...it forces you to walk through every display in the store, looking at items that you didn't intend on seeing when you just went in to make a payment or to ask a simple question.


What things do you use in the sales process that are "convenient," but not necessarily good for business?  How about e-mail?  e-mail is a very convenient way to communicate with our clients, but it's also an easy way for your client to say no or to avoid you entirely.  "I don't think I ever received that e-mail," is a real convenient way to dismiss you.  It's a lot harder for a business owner to say that they never received something when you actually went into their office, talked to them and handed a proposal to them.  Nothing will replace face-to-face contact ... EVER.  And if we continue to find ways to make things more convenient for our customers, we'll also lose more and more opportunites to sell them additional products and services. 
 
Bring you customers inside from the pumps and never lose the opportunity to ask, "Do you want fries with that?"