Do You Have a Sales Prevention Unit?
Posted: Friday, October 02, 2009
by Debra Neville
J.D. Associates
Customer Service is the Name of the Game
Now that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke has told us that we are likely out of the Great Recession, where are all the customers? Didn't they get the word? Will they ever come back? What's wrong? The consumer has been severely traumatized by economic chaos and saving rather than spending is the new reality. This doesn't mean that consumers are not spending anything. It does mean that when they part with their dollars, they are much more price-conscious and thoughtful than they were before the disaster of the past year or two. How do retailers cope and prosper in this new economy to ensure that when the customer is ready to buy, their store will be at the top of the list? Quality merchandise at a fair price and selection will always be a major factor in the consumers' mind, but paying attention to the details of the "customer experience" can carry equal weight. The story that I am about to tell is unfortunately true in every detail. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
PROBLEM: We went to the store on a weekday afternoon and had to ask a sales associate, who was busy filling out paperwork, for assistance when we were the only customers in the department. Although courteous, it was clear that his paperwork was more important than we were.
SOLUTION: Without being overly aggressive, the sales associate should have immediately acknowledged our presence and offered to assist us if necessary.
PROBLEM: I asked the sales associate if we could take a sample book home so she could see how the carpet would look under her light. I was told I would have to leave a $35.00 deposit at the "customer service" desk. When I went to the checkout at customer service, there were two clerks and one other customer. My clerk was constantly distracted by what the other clerk was doing and my simple transaction ended up taking 10 minutes.
SOLUTION: Never keep a customer waiting. My transaction could have taken less than a minute and then the clerk would have had all the time in the world to bother with other things. The customer in front of you should always be given your full and undivided attention.
PROBLEM: When we left the store with a sample book, we told the sales associate we would make a choice in a couple of days. When the choice was made, she called the store and was informed that she would personally have to return to the store to sign all of the paperwork. Since she lives 20+ miles from the store and since she is 84, she asked if I could handle the paperwork for her. The sales associate insisted that she needed to be physically present in the store and complete the required paperwork herself.
SOLUTION: When we first went to the store, the sales associate never told her she would have to be present to fill out the required paperwork. In the interest of customer service, either I should have been allowed to complete the paperwork or someone from the store should have driven the 20 miles to accommodate a senior citizen who was ready and willing to pay full price for the merchandise.
PROBLEM: Rather than getting into an argument about store policies, I brought my mother back to the store to fill out the paperwork. The sales associate, still courteous, went over to the computer and started to have that deer-in-the-headlights look until he finally called another sales associate to help him. Since the other sales associate also had no idea what he was doing, they called a third sales associate and spent 40 minutes of our time trying to figure out the computer, finally determining that the computer was not working and IT (the tech department) was unavailable.
SOLUTION: What did we do before we had computers? We had a sales pad and pencils. Son of a gun! It took the sales associates 40 minutes before they pulled out a hard copy of the sales agreement and then another 20 minutes to fill it out. Computers should never take precedence over customer service. We should always have a back-up disaster plan and worry about technology after the customer has left our store. Training was clearly lacking in this situation.
PROBLEM: Approximately a week after the paperwork was signed, a contractor came to measure the area. After the experience we had been having with the store, I decided to be present. Although very polite, the contractor talked incessantly about his life and his other "real" full-time job.
SOLUTION : While courtesy and friendliness is extremely important to enhance the customer experience and make that customer feel they are important, verbal diarrhea is inappropriate and an infringement on someone else's time. Taming the tongue should be part of personnel training.
PROBLEM: After the measurements were complete, the store called and said it would be 3-4 weeks before the special-order carpet would arrive at the store from the mill. Since my mother waited 38 years to replace the old carpet, a few more weeks wouldn't hurt. The store called in 3 weeks and an installation date was scheduled. A crew of 3 workers proceeded to tear up and remove the old carpet down to the plywood. They went out to the van for the new carpet and came back into the house only to tell my mother that they did not have a sufficient amount of the new carpet and would have to reorder from the mill which would probably take another 3-4 weeks.
SOLUTION: If the original contractor who did the measuring had spent more time concentrating on his work and less time talking, he might have been able to provide a more accurate assessment. Additionally, the installers might have wanted to recheck the measurements before ripping out the old carpet and leaving an elderly woman plywood to walk on for 3 weeks.
PROBLEM: Finally the big day was here. The installers appeared with the correct carpet and installed it perfectly. When I phoned my mother to ask her how she liked the carpet, not realizing that plush carpet has sheen when walked on, she said she hated it because it was full of "powder" and no amount of vacuuming would get it out. She also said they did not hook up her television properly, and she could not watch it.
SOLUTION: Well, you can't expect the installers to make the sheen disappear. When I explained that the sheen was not powder but a desirable feature, she understood. All the installers would have had to do was to ask her how she liked the look of the carpet, and she would have told them about the "powder. " Customer satisfaction is critical and more than often, ignored. Since I could not get to her house for a couple of days, she went without her den TV. We all know what a day without "Regis and Kelley" can be to an 84-year-old living alone.
On several occasions I called the store to complain about the horrible chain of events for what seemed like a relatively simple sale. Although I was always treated with courtesy, all they could do was to apologize and move on to the next disaster. Although most of the faux pas throughout this 2-month- long transaction were individually minor but put them all together, and we have taken a vow to never shop that store again.
In these post recession times, price, quality, and selection are very important, but "over-the-top" customer service is critical and costs nothing but training. My mother paid top dollar for the carpet, and she deserved much better than she received.
One last note Before the "powder" issue was explained, my mother went to the store and purchased a dozen new vacuum cleaner bags. They didn't work either.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Capman is President and co-owner of J.D. Associates, one of the largest distributors of retail POS software in North America. With Retail Pro , Microsoft RMS and QuickBooks Point of Sale in the company portfolio, J.D. Associates offers retail POS software solutions for specialty retailers. He can be reached at don.capman@jdapos.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Great article.As for the computers, well, working in the health care world, one where everything is computerized, if you go the "old school" paper route, you are not covered under any plan, and could get fired- regardless of how bad the system crashed!
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