Chapter VIII 



YOUR RELATIONS WITH THE CUSTOMER 



MUCH of the nursery's success depends, as does 

 that of any other bushiess, upon right relations 

 with the customer. The usual rules of honesty 

 apply in the nursery business as in any other, but there 

 are some phases in which this business is different from 

 others. 



REPLACEMENT 



When mention is made of replacement of stock we are 

 treading on disputed and dangerous ground, for there are 

 nearly as many opinions regarding replacement as there 

 are nurseries. But the policy in this respect is one which 

 must be clearly defined, and it should be known by the 

 customer at the beginning of the transaction. 



There are, as we have said, many policies of replace- 

 ment, ranging all the way from ''no replacement'' to 

 ''absolute replacement." The policy of no replacement 

 enables one to sell at a close margin of profit, but in the 

 writer's opinion it is not always likely to engender friend- 

 ship; while absolute, free replacement is expensive to the 

 nursery and too often tends to make the purchaser care- 

 less in the handling of the plants. It would seem, then, 

 that some scheme falHng in between these two would be 

 fairest to nursery and customer. Thus we find many of 

 the most rehable nurseries ofl^ering to replace plants at 

 fifty per cent of the original cost or, in some cases, to 



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