It shows my age but your post reminds me of what happened with Circuit City shortly before they went bankrupt. The reason a lot people still preferred Circuit City, who was the number 2 retailer at the time, to Best Buy were the sales people. Circuit City sales people knew what they were taking about. They very knowledgeable, so they had the surperior customer service. Customers would often only buy from specific sales people. When Circuit City decided to convert their sales people, who were paid by commission, to hourly they got sticker shock. Their best sales people were making $80-$200 plus dollars an hour. So the let all their best sales people go, hired a bunch of college kids, and lost what made them unique from Best Buy. Sales tanked because customers that preferred Circuit City came there because of their superior customer service and now they were no different than Best Buy.
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