Opinion: Switch on the PC, Jeeves

If you already need that space, then it might be worth it to have some sort of pseudo shop in the front.

This is a similar strategy to the one used at Woolworths, which leaves the front door open after hours while the shelf stackers are working, just in case anyone wants to drop in for a last minute late-night purchase.

But it’s looking less and less likely that a significant amount of your business will be from walk-ins.

With every major vendor now selling direct to your customers online, including Microsoft, and department stores carrying every conceivable gadget for those who want to touch and feel the technology, what does the independent reseller have to offer?

Expertise is about the only answer, along with customer service. But don’t you get sick of providing customer service for junk the punter bought elsewhere?

Yeah, sure anything to make a buck, but heck, there’s not much joy to be had figuring out the problems introduced by all that weird stuff they bought online – without asking your advice.

But maybe that’s our role in the new world order. We’ll be technology butlers.

Ours is not to question or advise, just to put up and shut up and make the stuff work as advertised even when that isn’t the way it was designed or built.

Would Sir care for a PC update this morning? Too busy? Okay, then I’ll just recover from the next crash then shall I? Don’t you worry about that, Sir will find all his documents were backed up last night while Sir was watching NCIS.

Is Sir ready for me to read him this morning’s email?