I had a couple of recent experiences with retailers, one was good and one bad…..well really awful. I will explain the problems, the good experiences, explain how they happen and why. At a time when retailers are struggling to survive, you will see why some are a success and why others fail. The sad part is they don’t really know why they fail. This week I will tell you about the bad experience and next week about the good experience and why they are successful.
If you want to protect your business and make or keep it successful then read this. It’s a useful article for managers and staff to understand why the customer is important and for businesses to understand that staff and customers are important to their survival.
My story begins when I decided to buy a quality printer from a high street conglomerate who specializes in PC’s and white goods and have operations throughout the UK & Ireland. I went to their local store as there was a sale on. There was a queue due to the ongoing Covid epidemic.
I stood in the queue for 40 minutes and eventually got to the front door where I was met by a gruff aggressive staff member with crossed arms. He said “What do you want?” I said “I’m looking for a printer” he responded with “We have no printer anywhere in the store” So I said no problem I will just have a browse around as there is a sale on. No you won’t he replied, no browsing allowed!
Wow what an attitude and I wasn’t the only person getting this attitude, which is shocking for a major retailer. Yes, we are all concerned about Covid, but to practically push a customer out of the store, who wants to spend money, is a first for me. So later that day I went online and asked to be advised when the printer stock will be in and the system said I will be notified.
The system worked! I received the confirmation of my preference being in stock on Monday, the e-mail arrived Sunday night so first thing Monday I was back in the queue and yet again the guy on the door (a different person) challenged all customers asking what they wanted before allowing them in. A young couple in front of me said they wanted to see what was on sale and they were refused – no browsing that’s the rule. So, they left and said they would go to a competitor where they would be allowed to browse.
I went back as they now had printers. I had to be personally be escorted by a staff member and I was told I could only look at printers, yes really! I told the guy I had an email confirming stock of a particular printer. He said no, they were out of stock of the particular printer I was interested in. He said they came in last Wednesday and all sold on that day. I asked why I received an email saying it was in stock. He said he didn’t know but that stock only comes in on Wednesday so I asked how about the next Wednesday, should I come then? He said no I don’t think we will get any printers next Wednesday. That was my experience with this retailer – will I buy from them? No, I certainly won’t.
My first concern is what type of manager runs an operation like this? At a time when retailers are struggling against online sales and yet this retailer had such unpleasant staff on the front door. He or she must condone this attitude. As a customer it got my back up and I’m sure many other customers felt the same. The result is that staff at this retailer created upset and angry customers who their colleagues would then have to deal with. I bet the staff think what awful customers we get in this store. Well, you create your customers attitude by the attitude you take towards them.
I will be interested to see how long they last; staff will lose their jobs along with the managers and they will all wonder what went wrong. I looked up the comments of that particular store on Google and they get a poor score. Most reviews say rude unhelpful staff – I wonder if their management follow up on this. Sadly, it seems unlikely as the reviews have been negative for a number of months.
I had a look at Glassdoor ratings of this retailer as a place to work and they get a poor rating in all areas. This suggests this organization doesn’t value their staff and that’s another reason why the staff don’t value customers. Financially they have struggled over the past few years but had a good 2018 when they went back to profitability. I will be interested to see how they do this year.
So, what can you learn from this?
- Keep an eye on all public reviews about your business
Reviews confirm the experience your customer are having good and bad. They highlight your good staff and it will also highlight problem areas that may need your attention.
- Motivation is critical to business success
How often do you meet personally with your staff? You should try to do so weekly. Ask them what the problems are, ask them for suggestions on how to improve any potential issues. Share feedback with them. If it’s good then mention staff names, if it’s bad don’t mention names but discuss why that incident occurred and how it can impact the reputation of the branch and everyone who works there.
- Reward the good staff
Recognizing your best people means they will stay with you and they will become an example to other staff. The majority of staff seek attention and recognizing them is the most powerful way. It’s not about the money it’s about being appreciated.
- Develop your staff and management
Most frontline staff only learn about the organization and it values but what about the psychology of dealing with people? What about developing managers to effectively manage staff? When I asked the staff in my experience about if they had a been involved in training they said yes we attended the staff induction programme when we joined but that was it.
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Next week I will share another experience but more professional and customer focused and successful.