I am a relatively new player, I have heard talk about the thought bubbles of customers in the store. Many of them seem to make sense to me, although if these patterns don't hold for you, please lend your thoughts.

Heart next to any symbol means that the customer is pleased. Big heart means you have made a sale, the customer usually walks to the counter.

Green happy face with an exclamation point means that the customer is happy with your prices. Red sad face with an exclamation point means your prices are too high. Customers usually disagree with each other and sometimes change their minds, so you may be able to sell a high priced fish even if a few are displeased...and if you have a lot of customers that love the prices, try jacking them up to see if you can get a little more.

Fish with a question mark? Not sure, seems to mean that the customer isn't familiar with your inventory but I haven't been able to figure out if this means that the customer is confused/uninformed about the choices, or curious and intends to buy.

A particular small fish with no other symbol or with a heart, seems to mean that the customer came in looking for that fish...maybe this can be used as an indicator of the trendy fish to breed as sure-fire sellers.

A fish with brownish green lines means there is a sick or dead fish in the selling tank. This seems to turn off the crowd, even though you can still make sales with those fish in there. I have not been able to sell a sick fish...that is, one with a fungus or ick, but fish in generally poor health do sell and this is a good way to unload them before they die.

Customers with a coffee cup, a car, or a house in their thought bubble are ready to leave the store. I have not been able to persuade them to keep browsing.

Which leads me to traffic patterns of customers in the store. I don't know if I just FEEL more productive or not, but it seems to help my fish sell if I click repeatedly on the customers...kind of like tending to them, pitching the fish. If they are walking away from the tank but NOT too close to the door (where they usually get distracted by home, coffee, or getting to the car), I can redirect them back to the tank to keep browsing and I'm pretty sure this has gotten such customers to reconsider and sometimes buy.

If a customer is satisfied with my prices, repeated clicking on them MAY entice them to buy. If they aren't, I can sometimes get them to "talk" to me and change their thought bubble to something that indicates more interest.

A question mark with a diver means that the customer would be happier with a fancier tank...upgrade soon with a tank enhancement or a marketing research project. Heart with a diver means that they are happy with your presentation of your tank.

That's interesting. My approach to sales has been completely different. Every time I get a new fish, I round the price up to the nearest "5". Then I hit the Sell Fish button and walk away.. I find being patient makes a huge difference even if the customers don't like your pricing. Of course, getting to Level 3 on Marketing/Advertising made a huge difference as well. It's pretty much impossible to not sell a fish now that I am at that level of marketing.

I do agree with you about sick fish. If you get them into the selling tank early enough, I have found it very easy to sell them rather than end up with a dead fish in the tank...wonder what happens when they get them home? Will we see future customers coming back to complain? I hope not

Just guessing here but it seems the customers with the dollar sign over their heads are unhappy about prices.

Also, I do not have a diver yet, but see the diver happy thought bubble over customers' heads sometimes.

All this is of course predicated on the idea that the thought bubbles mean something, and are not just decorations.

You mean that thing is a car? I thought they were thinking about buying a new hat (which looked funny on some of the guys).

well Ive noticed that as soon as someone has made a purchase,before they get out of the door,that its more likely more sales will follow,or maybe im going loopy wth the fish....

agreed

I often sell the first fish as soon as I open the store, before any customers make it in the door. Has that happened to anyone else?

That happens quite a bit... I think it's a sure sign that the fish that sold is priced too low. If that happens to me, I stop selling at once, and raise the price on that breed (if I have several more of those in the Sale Tank, ready to be sold), then go back to selling them.

I always mark up my fish so high it takes about 20 min of price cuts to sell anything.

I think that the frequency of purchasing is somewhat random. yes it has to do with the price of the fish and the amount of fish in the tank, but I have had this happen with fish prices set at their most expensive level.

Since the only thing that that controls is frequency, Then the fish could be sold at any point in that time range. for example if the prices and number of fish I have in my tank would lead to a customer about every 10 seconds, that customer could buy at any point in those first 10 seconds...second 0.1 or second 9.9 . Once that fish is sold, I think frequency is recalculated and you can get another fish sold an appropriate time later, but from my experience that initial sale can come at any point.

My best guess...

I'm selling canary firearrows at $475 and still sometimes they go before anyone has a foot in the door, but I have not managed to sell them for any more

egustafson,

You're probably right, as you understand the programming involved. But as a player, I would rather go on believing (albeit blindly) that I have -some- control. lol!

I think that I figured out what's been happening with the diver thought bubble issue. Some people have a diver in their sale tanks - including me - and still see a question mark next to the diver in the thought bubble.

In one of my games, I have every ornament available and stuffed into the sale tank.

I never see the "where's the diver?" thought bubble anymore, but I still saw some of it in my other games where I don't have all the ornaments.

It is my belief that although the customers' thought bubbles shows a diver, it may actually be any one of the other ornaments - such as the sunken ship, the shell, or the Grecian columns. The program, however, has limited graphics for the thought bubbles, and in this case, it seems that there is only the diver graphic for the ornaments.

In other words, when customers are thinking, "where's that diver?" they're really thinking, "where's that ship?" or "where's that cute shell?"

The situation with the fish types might be under the same constraint. So far I've only ever seen them think about goldbulb, fatfish, or pink fruitfish.

<shrug> Just my take on the situation.

Rainbowfish

Maybe that's pre-order? Because noone walks towards the counter

Those are the internet sales from all your good advertising!

I thought that meant that it was an online sale

I think a plain fish means that they are looking for it, that fish with a heart means they have found it, and that fish with a "?" means they cannot find it.

PS
Has anyone else noticed only a pygmy, the pink fruitfish, and a goldfish (which is not even in FT) appear in such bubbles?

That's weird. I have that "where is diver" bubble even WITH all ornaments. And I agree about the fish though bubbles, see previous post.

I found that when I click the people's head in Fish Store the people will show diffirent icons like Car,Coffee,A money bag with a green smile etc. I want to what do those icons mean? I think they may include tips of selling!