WHY YOUR CUSTOMERS GO ELSEWHERE
It's Time to Look at Your Customer Service...and Disservice.
By Jennifer Jordan
These days, many similar businesses are in competition with each other to win the crusade for the customer. With the construction of each new restaurant, supermarket and department store, people are offered more and more options on where they can go. Many stores and restaurants carry or offer similar items and thus, there is little that can distinguish one venue from the next.
However, one thing that does offer distinction is the level of customer service and, more notably, the level of customer disservice.
When I first started this article, I asked several people I knew what kind of experiences they have had with poor customer service. While some of their experiences were extreme--with one instance where a photo lab cashier punched an irate customer--most relayed occurrences consistent with my own experience. I narrowed it down to four behaviors of customer disservice. When these behaviors are continually maintained, the ability to drive customers away is assured.
1. People Who Act as if Their Customers are Invisible--When I was in high school, my father sent my friend Jenny and me to a hardware store to fetch a plastic tube for the senior physics project he was building for us (to pass off as our own). Because this tube didn't come in the form of a top, nor was it filled with gloss for our lips, neither Jenny nor I knew where to look. Thus, we sought help at the customer service desk.
Standing in line behind a man with a plaid flannel shirt, blue jeans, and a prevalent butt crack, we waited for our turn. Once he was done asking where he could locate a better fitting tool belt, Jenny and I inched closer to the counter. Assuming that we would be helped next, as we were next in line, we began preparing a monologue that wouldn't scream, FIRST TIME IN A HARDWARE STORE.
But instead of being helped, we were passed over for a man standing behind us. We stood by patiently, thinking that it was a simple oversight, until we were passed over again and again. For fifteen minutes, we waited until virtually every man within a five-mile radius had been helped. Finally, after inquiring as to whether or not we did in fact exist, we were helped by a pair of rolling eyes. After this experience, I vowed to never return to this hardware store. Being that I have since been to other hardware stores at least twice, I am sure my business at this particular point is sorely, sorely missed.
Ignoring the customer is not limited to women in hardware stores. It can happen anywhere. Men are often ignored in clothing stores, kids are ignored in restaurants, and poorly-dressed people are ignored in jewelry stores. Anyone at anytime and anywhere has the potential to be ignored by an oblivious salesperson. In some cases, the oversight is overtly intentional and the salesperson isn't oblivious--just rude.
There is a pivotal scene in the movie "Pretty Woman" that attests to this. Julia Roberts, dressed in her prostitution-esque street clothes, is ignored by a snotty saleswoman at a posh Rodeo Drive store and asked to leave. After spending several dollars in other shops, and wearing clothes laden with wealth, her character returns to the store and asks the lady who previously ignored her if she worked on commission. After stating that she does, Julia's character bellows a strong, "Big mistake, big mistake...huge," and storms out, leaving the stunned cashier to dry her eyes on her Gucci dress.
If this scene taught us anything, other than the often-overlooked fact that sometimes hookers do finish first, it taught us that one never knows what a customer has to offer and thus, no one should be ignored.
2. People Who Are Too Pushy--On the other end of the spectrum is the merchant who is overzealous in getting sale. One thing people do not like is pressure, or the feeling that someone is standing over their shoulder with bated breath. While it is good for the vendor to be near and receptive, in case someone wants to try on clothes or needs help finding a plastic tube for her physics project, no one likes the idea of being stalked while they shop. I (and many others) avoid stores where people are pushy.
When people are shopping, they want to browse, take their time, and relax. They don't want to spend their time having to say "no thanks" to every salesperson they see, nor do they want to be made to feel guilty for not conceding to the "wonderful deals" many stores claim to have. It is a conundrum for the salesperson, as people want help nearby if they have a question, but they don't want to feel pressured to purchase things. Customers don't want to be bothered, they just want to do the bothering. For the purchaser, it is very much a "don't call us, we'll call you" relationship.
3. People Who Are Rude to Children--When I was ten, my two sister, my mom and I were dining at a local pizza join near my grandmother's house. Spending all of my allowance on games of skee ball, I was content to stay at the pizza joint until I won enough yellow tickets to purchase a Chinese yo-yo that would moonlight as a weapon when my siblings were annoying me. My sisters, having no appreciation for my skee ball talent, asked my mom if they could run next door to the drugstore to look around. Upon getting my mom's approval, they left.
After being in the drugstore just a few minutes, the cashier approached and told them to leave, reasoning that it looked as though they might shoplift. My sisters, both in tears, came back to the pizza joint and told my mom what had happened. This infuriated my mother and she promptly went next door, asked to speak to the manager, and told him that she had been a patron at his store for twenty years and would never come back...and she never did.
The only reason my sisters were singled out was because they were kids. They weren't filling their pockets with candy, they weren't about to grab a toy and make a run for it, they weren't even wearing panty hose over their heads.
I don't think my mother overreacted. Conversely, I think she simply reacted the way many parents would. A person's child is an extension of him or herself and a parent will rightfully put his or her kids before a salesperson, a manager, even a CEO of any store or venue. This fact often evades people who work in customer service as they have no qualms about acting annoyed or bothered by children acting like (gasp!) kids. A great way to lose the patronage of parents is to alienate children. And, a few customers of the future may also be lost in the process.
4. People Acting Like You Are Bothering Them for Asking Them to do Their Job--The "sigh" and the "eye roll" have little value in the customer service realm. Yet, it is surprising how many cashiers, and various salespeople, partake in this kind of behavior when simply asked to do their jobs.
Just recently, I was at a music store where a multi-tasking cashier showcasing both the "sigh" and "eye roll" helped me. I had gotten in line behind a woman who was purchasing a CD set of holiday music. The cashier, when it was my turn to check out, acted irritated and loudly said to the other saleswoman that she shouldn't have to help me because she was going on break. The aisle light that tells patrons which aisles are open was brightly lit above her counter and thus there was no indication of her break plans. Since my psychic powers were turned off for the day, I had no way of knowing that her register was closed and so I found her attitude to be unwarranted and rude.
These four types of behaviors can be paradoxical. There is irony in the customer service worker who acts bothered when asked to service customers, or who fails to maintain tact when doing so. It is similar to the fire fighter irritated by fire, the doctor irked by sick people, the cop annoyed by donuts.
Poor customer service has no place in business and can be remedied with one simple solution: If one doesn't want to deal with or doesn't like people, don't get a job in a restaurant or store. Instead, become a postal worker.
Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.verbaladvantage.com
An English major and professional writer, she spends her days correcting people's grammar and wondering why she's unpopular.
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