Game Over: New Owner Takes Loyal Clients For Granted, Watches His Store Fall Apart

Being nice to people can go a long way, especially when said people are your customers.

This was proven to be true by the owner of the gaming store this redditor would frequent with fellow tabletop game enthusiasts. He was kind enough to let them make certain accommodations in the store and would always make sure their regular slot was reserved for the group. All that changed, though, when the new owner came along.

Scroll down for the full story below, where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with the OP who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.

It’s no surprise that greeting someone with a smile on your face works wonders compared to a less positive demeanor. While that is true in many environments—from meeting with friends to colleagues, and beyond—it is arguably especially important when operating a business.

The OP shared that the thing that annoyed them the most was the fact that the group would've been entirely cooperative had the new owner just talked to them. “Instead he was needlessly spiteful and lost a bunch of business for no good reason.”

The way relationships are built and people are treated tends to significantly affect customer experience, which can in turn influence the success of the business. According to PWC, customers feeling appreciated leads to tangible benefits for the company, from a 16% price premium—the percentage to which a selling price is larger than a benchmark price—on products and services to increased loyalty. (Considering the fact that finding new customers is often more expensive than retaining the old ones, customer loyalty is undoubtedly a thing to cherish.)

PWC also revealed that negative customer experience, too, can significantly influence the well-being of the business; one way being driving customers away faster than one might expect (which is exactly what happened in the OP’s story). Statistics show that nearly three-in-five customers in the US would walk away from a company they once loved after several bad experiences, while close to one-in-five would leave just after one bad experience.

Unsurprisingly, one of the main factors influencing customer experience is friendliness of the people providing the service and human interaction (preceded in terms of importance only by efficiency, convenience, and ease of payment provided by the business), emphasizing time and again just how important a friendly demeanor is.

No business is exempt from dealing with the outcomes of providing good or bad customer service, so neither are tabletop game stores, especially bearing in mind how popular they are nowadays.

According to statistics presented by Wordsrated.com, more than one-in-five adults in the US play board games at least once a month, and they can reportedly choose from roughly 20,000 board game publishers and 150,000 board games. As for the most popular ones, chess seems to top the list, as there are more than 3 million sets sold every year in the US alone.

Out of the board game enthusiasts, young adults—those aged 18 to 34—seem to comprise the largest group of fans; surveys found that they make up 47% of people who enjoy immersing themselves in a board game (compared to 35% of people 35 to 54 years of age and 18% of adults 55 and older). As for where said enthusiasts are based, it seems that the majority might be living in the US, as it is the country where the board game industry generates the most revenue (based on data from 2022, at least, when it comprised $1,149.00m dollars.)

The OP shared that in Switzerland, where their group is based, you more or less have to take what you can get. “Gaming stores and clubs are not a common thing over here, so you get used to dealing with some negatives,” they told Bored Panda, adding that the situation in the new store has been mostly fine. “The most important part is peace and quiet when playing, a clean and ideal room environment and a non-pushy owner.”