Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

"The day I'm laid out dead with an apple in my mouth is the day we'll pay commissions. If you pay commissions, you imply that the small customer isn't worth anything."
--Bernard Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot

Do you think having commission-based positions hurts the customer experience? 

At Nordstrom I worked for commissions and yes, sometimes I would be disappointed by the small sales.  I knew some of my coworkers who wouldn't even approach customers unless the customers looked like they were going to spend at least $100.  I knew better than to judge a customer by those small sales.  I knew that many of these customers would come back...and they did come back.

Working on commission motivated me to go that extra mile for the customer so perhaps they would come back later and spend more money with me.  However, there wasn't anything fake about it.  I still wanted to give people what they needed and not the most expensive thing on the shelf.  Besides, Nordstrom would actually take away commissions from you if customers returned items, so there was no use in trying to push products onto customers. 

What are your thoughts on commission-based positions? 

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