Lack Of Business Customer Service; Whose Fault Is It?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 22, 2013
I have to admit that there are fewer stores that I go to these days. It's not only because there seems to be so many of them are give a depressed feeling because there's fewer customers, other than on the weekend. It's mainly because I'm not made to feel special as a consumer in that store.
  Alan Cleaver via Compfight |
I don't want anyone following me around. I don't want someone stopping me every 5 minutes asking if I need help. Actually, I'm only looking for a couple of things that I don't feel are out of the ordinary. One, I'd like someone to ask me once, after a minute or two, if they can help me, and if I say no then leave me alone. Two, I want the person who I go to pay to act like they care even a little bit that I'm a customer and that they appreciate that I'm buying something from them.
Some of this might make me seem like I'm spoiled but let's be truthful. How often do you continue going to any place that wants your money when you don't feel like they care whether you show up or not?
It could be the restaurant with the rude server or the store department where you stand there for 10 minutes with people looking at you but not coming over to help you.
It could be the drug store where the clerk mumbles something about a card and never looks at you, or is talking on the phone and won't acknowledge you even though you've pulled out your credit card or cash, believing you're interrupting them.
So many times during a day we might have to put up with someone else's nonsense and have to get over it. No one really likes that, but it's a tolerance here and there. If that's the case, why would any of us continue putting up with it in our personal lives? Soup Nazi from Seinfeld? That guy would have never seen me again; no one's food is that good.
Still, one has to ask this question: whose fault is it? It seems like it's the employees fault and yet doesn't that employee report to someone? Where is the supervisor, manager, director, etc? Where is the person in charge, the one who should be monitoring this employee and either training them, admonishing them, encouraging them or releasing them?
I'm known as the watcher to many folks who know me. I pick up on things no one else does, even though I'm the least observant person in the world when it comes to myself. I can often pick out the person in charge, and I know they acted pretty much the same as the person in their previous position now. You never see an enthusiastic leader and an unmotivated follower, but you definitely see two bored people going through the motions and not really caring because, hey, it's not their money, not their company.
The best restaurants have greeters and servers who are positive and show some type of animation when they're interacting with guests. The same goes for hotels. Is it possible that the decline of major department stores isn't only because of a supposedly bad economy, for which economic numbers have looked way better for the last couple of years, or the feeling of being touched by dementors (come on, read some Harry Potter lol) whenever you go into one of these stores and feel like the life is being sucked out of you, like you'll never be happy again, even if you might be lucky enough to find what you're looking for?
Something to think about; I hope neither of these people are you.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2013 Mitch Mitchell 
Interesting topic Mitch; generally speaking, I know exactly what I want when I go shopping, so a minimum of fuss is what I am after. I tend to like to be left alone when I shop – perhaps that is why I like to shop on the Web so much :P.
But, it is different when being in a restaurant/hotel etc, a friendly waiter/owner can really make a difference on whether I will return.
With shops having little to offer over the Web, I would surmise that customer service may be the cornerstone in gaining repeat business. However, I doubt it would tempt me, the price is really the only thing I care about when I know what I want.
I assume things might be different where you live Richard, but over here we have tons of stores everywhere, and even if you go in and know what you want and pick it up, when you go to pay for it and the person taking your money doesn’t offer you a smile or mumbles when talking to you, don’t you feel less than appreciated as a customer? I do, and I think most people feel it, even if they don’t act on it.