I wanted to talk today about the rapidly fading customer service experience in this country. I realize this isn't really a crafty topic, but it's a good lesson for everyone who makes and sells products. It's fascinating to me how little emphasis is placed on serving the customer these days. It's all about the marketing, the credit applications, the personal information grab...and it's gotten to the point that the people who deal directly with the customers are so busy asking for our phone numbers, email addresses and zip codes and hawking the store's credit cards, telling us to go fill out online surveys and towing the party line that they can't do the most important thing, make the customer feel valued. If we don't feel valued then we don't feel excited about shopping at your store.
It's a lose-lose.
I have in the past month had to TWICE drive a half an hour to a store to have the security tags removed from items I purchased. That's an hour of driving total and the price of the gas and the time out of my busy day and in both circumstances I was offered nothing for my trouble. The first time the manager did apologize, but mostly by bitching about her lame employees, which is kinda lame if you ask me. The second time yesterday the manager at another store also checked us out, he also apologized and then followed it with a half assed attempt at a humorous excuse for his employee being human and making a mistake. I'm sorry your employees are 'lame' and 'human'...I'm not really mad at them. I'm human too, we're all human and we all make mistakes. I'm frustrated that you can't be bothered to acknowledge that my time matters and that my having to drive back to your store is a huge inconvenience. Why not give me a store credit or a coupon? Why not stop making excuses and start making me happy?
Is that asking too much?!
Really it was the second response that burned my biscuits. That manager by brushing it off as a mistake and not offering a solution made me feel like my time wasn't important. Everyone makes mistakes, I understand that. He made me feel like I didn't matter and that's bad business. I posted about this on Facebook and got a slew of comments from people who have had this same issue with the security tags and the lack of response from the retailer. Plus we all agreed that the store alarms go off so often they've become ineffective. So here's a customer service problem that is apparently out of control and corporate America would rather focus on getting our email address so they can help us 'save more money.' I always laugh when they tell me how much money I saved shopping...because let's face it folks...I'd have saved a lot more if I stayed home. I know you inflate the prices so you can put things on sale and get me to buy them, I'm not stupid and neither are most consumers. Oh and if you keep treating me like a target demographic, I may save my money and stay home more often.
Half of the time the customer service people can't even be bothered to thank us for shopping or say, "You're welcome" when we thank them. They're often outrageously rude. I have had cashiers bitch about their line being too long and muse about why people can't use the self checkout and I think, "Honey you do realize the self checkout is your job being outsourced to a machine, right?" My mom and I often talk about this disconnect in our weekly world problem solving phone marathon. We're both baffled.
Oh and while I'm on the topic of self checkout, if I'm going to check myself out and bag my own goods I would like a discount. You saved money and I want a piece of that pie. Stop making me work for you while I'm handing you my hard earned money. The self checkout lanes suck. Every four items won't scan and then you have to wait for someone to assist you, and they're usually put out by the whole experience. I want to be served, I want to feel like I matter.
I spent twelve years waiting tables and I owned a retail fair trade handicraft gallery for five years, so I know all about service jobs. If we can't get service right in this country, we're really screwed. Everything else has been outsourced. Service and personal connection are all we have. Treat every customer like they matter and you will find them returning over and over again. It's good business.
Snarkily yours,
Madge
No comments:
Post a Comment