I’m fascinated by how easy it would be to improve customer service in retail by tweaking just a few things. I can’t be the only one who sees this stuff!
1) retail employee takes his “smoke break” about 3′ outside the front door – so you get to walk through that as you enter the store. Really great….as you walk inside the restaurant.
2) 2 employees badmouth their employer and/or co-workers within earshot of customers. This is always, always a NO-NO.
3) Employee carries on conversation with another employee – or their cell phone – while you’re at the cash register.
4) Employee finds it difficult to speak to you while eating that burger & 40-oz. drink. It’s so fun to see the food in their mouth as they try to talk.
5) When you ask where to find an item, they point “over there” – instead of TAKING you there.
6) Employee looks like they haven’t bathed in several days – or know what shampoo is for.
7) Six people (you too) wait in line while they take 5 more minutes to do a “price check.” Usually less than a dollar is in question.
8) Employee (man or woman) dresses in a manner that gives you nightmares & ugly flashbacks for years.
9) The employee uses their sleeve to wipe their runny nose – especially cool in a restaurant. Yes, I’ve seen this many times.
10) When you ask for help in the store, they say they can’t help you now because “they’re on their break.”
The next time you go to your REI store, as one example, I doubt you’ll have any of these experiences. By the way, at a 10-15 minute visit today to my local ACE Hardware store, I was asked by 4 different employees “How can I help you, sir?”. That’s why I’d rather be there than at Home Depot, hands down.
Oh so, so true, even here in England. In fact my wife and I almost make a game of it when we go somewhere.
a great book on service is Joseph Michelli’s the New Gold standard about the Ritz carlton
If only more people new what the word service means.
(I’ll include my usual email signature as its relevant)
To your success, in service
Simon Smith
Thanks for your input! I’ve heard mostly good things about customer service in England, for the most part. The range of customer service in the USA is very wide – but certainly in most cases it’s sub-par, at best. Great service (I’m sure for you too) always surprises! Bless You – Wayne
And I will get the Ritz Carlton book too – thanks!!!
no worries, my pleasure.
yes we get good service too, it’s better than most. I alwys like the old “customer is always wrong” and “that’s not how we do it here” games lol!
Have you come across seth godin’s site ‘everythingisbroken.com’ (i think that’s that address, you can find it via his squidoo lens- lots of great pics and stories of things that just don’t work when you add humans!!
I haven’t looked at any of Seth Godin’s stuff in a while – but I WILL check out the website.