I recently took my daughter to a large retail chain that specialises in fabric and craft items. Now, this store is a discount store, so I wasnât expecting red carpet treatment, however I was expecting to be treated politely. Sadly this didnât happen. Now, just for the record: itâs probably my fault. I have been to this store before and experienced the same poor customer service before, so I had no right to walk in there expecting they would have improved, and yet I did – my bad.
That out the way, hereâs what happened. After wandering aimlessly for a while, with staff walking past making every effort possible to avoid eye contact and giving every indication of being on a vital mission that couldnât be disturbed, we eventually stumbled upon the right section. My daughter picked out some ribbon she wanted that came on a long role and would need cutting.
We approached the cutting desk where a female employee was standing cutting material. No other customer was present. We stood there for a bit until I ventured an âexcuse me?â Without looking up, she replied âIâm serving someoneâ.
Now, I understand there is more than one customer in the shop and that staff may be already occupied but where were this womanâs manners? Simple eye contact, a greeting and then an explanation would have been sufficient. âHello, Iâm just cutting this material for another customer and then Iâll be able to assist youâ.
Would that really have been so hard? Apparently yes! So we stood there waiting, and then without looking up again she says âgo and stand on the other side of the counterâ. Seriously? She still hasnât even indicated if she is going to serve us at any point in the future and now weâre simply in the way. My daughter looked at me with big warning eyes that clearly said âstay cool Mum, donât make a scene, just move to the other sideâ. So we did, with me feeling quietly proud of my self-restraint at this point, limiting my reaction to a simple âseriouslyâ and a shake of the head, instead of the lecture this woman clearly deserved. Oh and just for the record, this was a middle aged lady, a woman with experience but clearly without manners.
Things didnât get better: a younger male employee then also came up to the counter. Did he acknowledge our presence? No; he didnât even glace in our direction. At this point I was wondering if we had become invisible. He started talking to the rude woman, about nothing important, just commenting on what a previous customer had asked for.
Reaching breaking point I engaged sarcastic mode and said âGee, looks like weâre invisible!â At which point the rude woman points to us and says âyou need to serve themâ. No apology, no actual engagement with us; just pointing and a reference to us in the third person. The oblivious younger man then turns to us and finally says âcan I help you?â Both look genuinely surprised when I reply âHallelujahâ, but even my daughter looks relieved.
So who is at fault here? The manager of this store thatâs who! This store clearly has a culture thatâs uncaring of its customers. Anyone observing their teamâs performance would have quickly identified several issues here. The fact that the team members behaved in this manner leads me to believe that they simply have never been told how to treat their customers. It may sound like basic stuff to you and me, basic manners we use every day without thinking, but for many people, itâs not second nature and they need to be told, and they need to be told more than once. The basics of customer service arenât rocket science, but they do have a huge impact on your customer retention, and let me tell you, Iâm not going back there again.
If your team ever deal with customers, on the phone, online or face to face, they need to be told how to do it. If they arenât told and they treat a customer like I was treated above, itâs not their fault, itâs yours and you shouldnât expect them to ever shop with you again.
– Kirrily