Price is mostly irrelevant if knowledge AND service is top notch.
This is my exact sentiment. Very well stated.
double agreed!
What this guy said.
Additionally, I have a little niggling things here and there, but .. oh well, here they are.
Stock. I grew up in a town where there were 4 big pro shops, not including getting gear through college (manufacturers sponsored teams), but each shop was able to keep a lot of balls/products in stock. If you bought a ball, they'd have it in stock and within 45 minutes, they'd have it punched up and ready for you to walk out the door. Only when they were completely out of stock did you have to wait for new stock to get in.
Same thing (if not more) when I moved to Las Vegas. However, where I am currently at in Sacramento, it's different. No-one basically has a ball in stock, as it's more on demand; If you want to buy a ball, you go to a shop, pay for it, then they order the ball from another supplier (waiting 2 - 4 days for it to get in), then wait to get it punched up, then you're good. Yes, patience is a virtue, but when you're waiting for almost a week for your product to get in, not barring any other circumstances.. I'll leave it at that.
Knowledge. I'm not only talking about knowledge of the ball works, its shape, what it will do, etc.; I'm talking knowledge of your game. How the operator sees how you roll the ball, what you do with it, and what info they can get about your game from seeing you throw the ball. With that, they match your game up to the ball you are looking for.
Ability. The operator should be able to go off of the specs for your hand: span, PAP, etc., and not what he thinks you should have. If they can't do that, even despite the fact that you bring in a sheet showing what those specs are, there is a problem.
Honesty and Integrity. As they say, no matter how much you put yourself out there (fancy ads, sales, etc.), there is no bigger advertisement than word-of-mouth. the more positive that is, the better the shop will be, and the more customers will go to it. My pro shop in Omaha (where I grew up) has been in business for nearly 60 years, and still is the biggest pro shop in the area. Everyone knows and trusts the people working there, and no-one that I have seen or known has ever had a bad fitting come out of that shop.
I was actually considering bringing in one of my tvs on Saturday and turning the Team Trials stream on.
Back in the day, they actually had both their TV and radio on on Saturday afternoons; the TV to watch the tour, and the radio tuned to KFAB to listen to the Cornhuskers football game (the state religion of Nebraska is College Football). Back then it didn't bring in many more customers (because they were watching the tour at home anyway), but nowadays it wouldn't hurt, because most wouldn't even see those. Plus if you could pull it off, a Smart TV at the least with WiFi, so you could get something like the Qubica/AMF World Cup, Nats, Collegiates, etc.
Sorry, digressed. Back to the thread.
All of these are reasons why I not only still use my pro shop in Vegas (they are online as well), as well as a local shop. It doesn't help that the local shop also does business with the shop in Vegas either (sub-dyed shirts, etc.). But if you stay competitive with prices, keep up on stock (if possible), and retain those traits above, you'll keep customers coming in, and develop that history honesty, integrity, and positive word-of-mouth advertising that keeps people coming back.
Not to plug any pro shop, but the ones in particular I speak of are K&K Bowl out of Las Vegas, and Tom Kelley's Pro Shop in Omaha. Those grew completely out of word-of-mouth advertising (although Kelley Sr. was on the tour back in the 60s/70s).
BL.
