Why bad customer service can sink your business
I went shopping for a dress (actually my wife did, but I had to tag along) as you do. What I saw was funny if it wasn’t so sad: four retail businesses that are struggling and rapidly heading for the scrap heap.
The headlines will blame the ‘recession’, but these businesses did it all to themselves without the assistance of the global ‘crisis’ and they will deserve to fail.
They all had three (3) things in common. The three A’s of failure.
Sin #1: Acknowledgement
Despite all the lip-service about how important the customer is, every one of these businesses failed at the first hurdle. They failed to acknowledge the customer appropriately. Ah, well. Must be a Gen Y thing. Chin up and on with the shopping.
Sin #2: Approach
My beloved started shopping and sent out buying signals that would make the stock exchange floor sound like a graveyard. Not once was she approached. (I kid you not.) They kept themselves busy with ‘other things’. This is enough to cure even the most determined shopper. But we had a party to go to and she gritted her teeth and kept going.
Sin #3: Attitude
If a girl’s gonna party, she’s gonna party, right? So off to the dressing rooms she went. As she emerged from the dressing room the sales assistants all responded in the same way. The actual words were slightly different, but in each case there was a presumption of a ‘non-sale’. Their attitude was that the sale was not going to happen.
The classic response du jour was: ‘No good?’ (How much was said with those two words – she was a real poet.)
Hard to believe, isn’t it? After spending all the money on opening the store, marketing it, running it, and the staff members first words to a customer is ‘no good’!
At that point even the bravest shopper will wonder if they are indeed doing the right thing and we abandoned ship. No more time left, so we went to the party, and she wore an ‘old’ dress – that is, a dress that had been worn once before.
The moral of the story?
All of the work you do as a business owner: CRM or Social Media, Market Research, Quality Assurance – everything you do to find customers and build relationships with them – counts for nought if the people at the coalface cannot get the basics right. (At this point, feel free to nod your head in agreement.)
The person walking into your business is… wait for it … a person! Not a ‘customer’ not a consumer, not a slice of market share; just a person who should be acknowledged as a person.
But if you think this is a sorry saga about customer service, just hold your horses. The (pending) failure of these businesses cannot be attributed to poor customer service.
Despite what your favourite marketing consultant might tell you, poor customer service is not the cause of poor performance. All of these ‘sins’ I listed above are merely the symptoms.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alessandra
http://www.craigslisttool.info
Thanks for popping in Alessandra
I can top it. I went to a store (Macy\’s) to purchase a pillow and went to the young man who had helped me find what I wanted and left to help another customer. I found what I wanted and went back to him, waited 5 minutes for him to acknowledge me and he than told me he couldn\’t help me because he was helping this lady now. So many times I go into a store ready to buy and end up walking out because the lines are too long, the sales staff are rude, or the attitude of the help is terrible. This applies to all types of businesses, not just retail. You are right on.
Dennis this is a fantastic article. Funny, but as you say, also sad. My girlfriend works in retail and when I’m out shopping for dresses like yourself I cringe when these three things happen.
I know the conversion rate between lookers and buyers must be quite low and that sales staff have a ’6th sense’ about when someone is actually going to buy or when they are a waste of time but that is sales! 1 out of 100 is still better than 0 out 100.
Is it difficult for a small independent brand overseen by a dedicated owner who has put everything into it to make the leap up to having multiple stores overseen by a board and CEO? M Webster Holdings must be asking themselves what went wrong.
Sales is one of the last jobs to go in difficult times, without sales your product remains on the shelf and no one’s salary gets paid. But if you have a lousy sales team they should be the first to go!
Yep it all comes down to management and especially training.
sure you can keep costs down by hiring kids to represent your Brand.
but if you don’t train them, incentivise them, and manage them you can do some serious damage.
don’t forget how hard it can be to deal with the public though!
people can be rude and disgusting at times, so retail workers need all the support they can get. with the right support, they will sell better, cope better and represent the organisation more professionally.
Patrick
Thanks & very true. the difference between ‘on the business’ and ‘in the business’, perhaps? (A topic for another time!)
Bazza
Agree!
But the sweetest revenge (on poor customers) is to relieve them of their cash, right?
As a small retail store owner this scares me into thinking, am I doing this. I make an effort to greet every customer that walks through the door, and I also try to make sure that they feel comfortable in asking for assistance, should the need it.
This article will have me being a little more careful, even on the dullest of days.
The main thing is the first thing = AWARENESS – and you already have it
(Nice website you have Paul. )
I’ve been in retail for over 10 years, hence why i was so shocked to receive such poor service in a westfield store in burwood, The shop assistant in the jewelers insisted a put down a layby when i was merely looking in their shop window, took my deposit and then afterward told me if i were to cancel it would incur a charge (a percentage of the total value rather than the deposit) ! Realising this I wanted to cancel, the girl (who’s english was limited) then told me that the cancellation fee was in place – literally a nano-second after taking my deposit! Incredible!! Its deception and lies such as the service i received that will result in this jewelers poor reputation. The mind boggles at the hide of some retailers.