Are The Days of Good Customer Service Gone?

What was your shopping experience like in 2011? We have just completed one of the busiest, if not, the busiest shopping season of the year – Christmas, and so I would like to find out how you rated your customer service experience. Did you get good quality customer service when you shopped in some of these “Big Box” store? The popular opinion that is expressed today, is that good customer service is very hard to find when you go shopping.

My experience with sales clerks in many of our stores, especially the “Big Box” ones, over the past few weeks has caused me to rate customer service in these stores quite low. At first my reaction was maybe it is my attitude that needs to be changed, but, by talking and sharing my experience with other shoppers it seems as if I am not alone when it comes to rating customer service low.

One of the common complaint is that many sales clerks are unfamiliar with the layout of the stores they work in.Consequently, when they are ask to help shoppers locate a particular product that they want to purchase, the sales clerks are unable to do so. For those employees who are able to help, it takes them a long time to give you the right kind of information that will make your shopping experience in that store worthwhile. May I also advise you not to seek any additional information about the product, because you will not likely receive that because gone are those days when sales clerks can provide shoppers with information about the usefulness and uniqueness of the products that they want to buy.

I have heard of stories about sales clerks who literally try not to maintain any sort of eye contact with approaching shoppers because they simply do not want to answer any questions that customers might want to ask them; fearing they do not know what to say . Rather, they pretend to be busy doing something, example fixing, or stocking items on a shelf. One shopper told me that she had to say loudly, “I wish someone could help me” in the ear shot of a sales clerk who was obviously trying to avoid her questioning look. Other people have mentioned to me how they have waited for almost ten minutes before they were given any kind of help about items they were trying to purchase.

One would have thought that having gone through so much trouble to find what one wants to purchase that, that was the end of ones shopping woes, but lo and behold, they had a rude awakening – long lines waiting at the check out counters ! Sometimes, it could take you as much as five or more minutes to cash your items. So, if shopping happens to be on a day when you are not wearing your most comfortable footwear, may the Lord help you ! Some stores have express cashiers to cash customers with under ten items, but those prove to be of no help in reducing your long waiting time, because those lines are just as long. Alas! You are now facing a cashier, and you are greeted with the usual well rehearsed line, “How are you today?” These words are usually repeated without any sort of eye contact with the shopper. One gets the impression that these overworked cashiers are too busy trying to make sure that they scanned all your goods; and they are not really interested in how you are feeling.

So, not only do we have to contend with sales clerk who are poorly trained, but there are also times when you have to be careful not to trip over unpacked goods that are carelessly left in shopping aisles,and are blocking the way of shoppers. It would seems that managers are no longer taking the time to make sure that customers are able to shop in comfort in their stores. One wonders if they are not concerned with customers getting hurt in their stores, and sueing them for bodily harm? I would think that this would be of paramount importance to any store owner, but this could be wishful thinking by me!

This leads me to ask the question, are the good days of good customer service gone, when sales clerk were polite, courteous, and well trained, and could provide timely and helpful service and advice when they are asked to do so? Let’s examine some of reasons why the answer to the above question could be yes:

1. Store managers have cut back on the number of people they hire to do the same amount of work, therefore employees are overworked. One person is asked to three peoples’ job, and, so in the case of sales clerks working in some of these “Big Box” stores, they are asked to promote, advertise the products, and stock the shelves, all at the same time.

2. Managers are not spending sufficient time to train their new employees.Instead, training of new workers are left to be done by more senior employees who themselves have not been properly trained in the first place. One of the problems with this kind of delegation of responsibility is, that these employees coupled with the fact of their poor training, have to continue to do their fair amount of regular work at the same time.

3. Low pay and lack of motivation. Some workers are so overworked and underpaid that they have no interest in the job that they are hired to do. As a result they are poorly motivated, and so, they are not driven to serve with joy. May I say that they are just there to collect their pay checks to pay their bills.

As consumers, is there anything we can do to restore good customer service ? Here are a few suggestions :

Firstly, refuse to shop at those stores where you were not treated like a valued customer. This might force managers to give their sales clerks better and more professional training.

Secondly, complain to managers about store floors that are not clean, and that are cluttered with piles of unpacked goods and garbage.

Thirdly, speak out about bad customer service when you receive it.

Lastly, make an effort to commend and appreciate good costumer service when you receive it. Allowing managers to know that it was a pleasure to shop in their stores might motivate them to continue to offer quality service to their shoppers.

As consumers we need to understand that we have a great deal of power than we care to admit. Power to influence and affect the profit margins of merchants. Dissatisfied customers will result in decline in loyal customers, decrease in loyal customers, will automatically lead to loss of business and sales. Loss in sales will result in lost of profits. So let’s take a stand to remind managers that customers indeed must be first!