Customer Service or Lack There Of

I desperately needed new wipers for my truck and had a few extra minutes the other day so I ran into a local auto store in Severna Park to grab them. What a terrible shopping experience I had! If one of our customers had that experience in the store I would be horrified.

 

Here is what happened.

 

I entered the store and easily found the wiper display. I started to look for the guide to finding the correct wipers for my truck. Typically the guides are located in the display and easy to use and find. Not the case here. I finally found a pile of guides in the corner of the gondola underneath all of the wipers. This is the first auto store that I’ve shopped that never had the guides mounted within the display, which surprised me. Ironically the merchandise planogram was also in the pile of guides. Obviously they weren’t using the planogram here.

 

I started to thumb through the guide to find the proper wipers. Meanwhile behind the counter stood two gentlemen who I later learned were the store Manager and the Assistant Manager. The store wasn’t busy and neither of them were helping a customer and it still hadn’t been acknowledge that I was in the store. To me that is customer service 101.

 

I finally found the right section of the guide and realized that it stopped the year before my truck, a 2004. I was shocked that they had such an outdated guidebook out, I looked around a little more and towards the counter for help with no response. So I headed to the counter for help.

 

“Guess I am not smart enough to figure this out” I stated with the book in my hand.

 

The two managers just kind of looked up at me. The Assistant Manager started to use the book to find it, when the Store Manager said kind of rudely “Just look it up in the computer”

 

He turned to the computer and started to ask me some questions about the truck, which I answered and then asked “Is it four wheel drive?” I had a kind of weird look on my face when the Store Manger rudely said to the Assistant Manager “ You don’t need that to find the wipers”

 

I felt kind of bad for the Assistant it surely appeared that these two didn’t have a very good working relationship. To me it is never good when employee relationships become evident to the stores customers.

 

I got my information and then headed back to the display to locate the wipers. Meanwhile the Managers went back to what ever they were doing. Neither of them followed me out to help me locate the item and possibly offer other solutions. With a little education I probably would have spent more money and bought better wipers. My time is very limited and I’d prefer to replace wipers as in frequently as possible but I needed help deciding which wipers would best fit my needs. Instead I grabbed the basic wipers paid for them and left. Needless to say I’ll never return to that store again.

 

It did however get me to thinking.

 

It really infuriates me when someone helps you in a store and then just points in the “right” direction and goes on about their business. To me I view all customers as “job security” and I want to make sure they get exactly what they want. If they can’t find what they are looking for I want to be there to help the find it or an acceptable substitute for their needs. As a retailer consumers are my livelihood without them, I don’t have a job.

 

With that said if I had been given better service I would have spent more and been much happier when I left the store. It would have been a win win situation for everyone.

 

I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable in an auto store I mean I was only looking for wipers. I know enough about cars, I can change my own oil I’ve changed wipers before fixed a flat etc. But I did because of the way I was treated and the service or lack of service I got. I began to wonder, do we make our customers feel like that?  I hope not. When someone comes and asks for something simple like a tube do we make them feel uncomfortable? Again I would hope not.

 

What this made me realize first hand is that it is easy for a consumer to feel uncomfortable in a situation that they would normally feel fine. I am going to refocus again on working with our team to make sure that EVERYONE feels comfortable in shopping at Crofton Bike Doctor and hopefully leaves with a little more information then when they came in the door.

 

We all grow and learn from our mistakes so if you have a poor experiences please let me know so that we can work to improve it.