Customer Service (Or Lack Thereof)
I’m pretty upset right now, so bear with me. This is all pretty fresh.
Today, as I was driving to Safeway to return a product, I had a conversation with my daughter about customer service. Better stated, the lack of customer service that seems so prevalent today.
Rather than sitting bored in the car, my daughter was going to wait for me in a small shopping mall that has two coffee shops; one is locally owned, the other a chain (Starbucks). I would normally defer to a ‘mom and pop’ 99 times out of a 100, but made an exception in this case. Why? Because every time I go there, I feel like I am bothering the employees when I order. And by that, I mean interrupting a conversation with coworkers, reading/writing a text, or on a personal phone call.
After I explained to my daughter, Jackie, why I prefer she go to Starbucks rather than the locally owned coffee shop, she told me the following story…
Jackie went to Hollister earlier in the week, and could not enter the store because three employees were having a conversation in front of the only entrance. Out of curiosity, she decided to see how long it would take before one of them realized there was someone trying to enter the shop. A minute or two later, Jackie spoke up, asking if she could go inside. They all laughed, and cleared the doorway to let her in. And then continued their conversation.
At this point, I should probably tell you why this story bothers me so much. You see, when I was in college, I worked as a sales associate for Joseph Magnin – a (now-defunct) clothing store with a price point similar to Bloomingdale’s. When there were no customers in the store, we were instructed to fold clothes, straighten racks, dust, check inventory, put clothing in size order, and the list goes on and on. Now, I would be lying if I said we never talked, but it did not happen on the sales floor in front of customers.
In other words, we were not paid to socialize.
My job – if I remember correctly after all these decades – was to assist the customer, first and foremost. Yes, I agree that times have changed, and that to save money, many employers hire less staff to cover more store, but that is NOT what I am talking about here. I totally ‘get’ what it feels like to be pulled in many directions at once, and I am more than patient and understanding at those times. What I am ranting about today is customer service – or should I say, lack thereof – when there is no one else in a particular department, or even the entire store.
So, I drop my daughter off at Starbuck’s and go to Safeway. When I arrive, no one is in customer service. A bagger sees me standing there, and knocks on a door behind the counter. I am told it will be just a minute. No big deal.
A minute or two later, a woman comes out from the back office, apologizing for my wait. I tell her there is no need to apologize. Again, no big deal.
Just as I open my mouth to explain the reason I came in to the store, the phone rings. She answers the phone, and then proceeds to have a full-blown conversation. Time goes by. I get fidgety. Suddenly noticing my impatience, she puts her hand over the receiver and whispers, “This will only take another minute. It’s important.”
I overhear the conversation. It is about a problem with the store’s Redbox machine. After a few more minutes, I try to get her attention. She puts her hand over the receiver, again, and whispers, again, “This will only take a minute.”
I understand fixing the Redbox problem is part of her job. I ‘get’ that. And it is entirely possible the person on the phone was hard to reach and she was afraid of putting him/her on hold in case they couldn’t wait for my transaction to be completed and hung up. What I don’t get is why a person on the phone takes precedence over a person in the store. A person who was there before the call came in.
This is a longstanding pet peeve. If I were in that situation – and I was many times when I worked retail – I would have called the person on the phone back at a later time, and waited on the customer standing in front of me.
Yes, of course, there are exceptions. But a store is not an emergency room, so why should customers be triaged in order of importance? Whose importance?
Now, here come my burning questions:
- Do you think the woman at Safeway should have helped me because I was there first? Do the needs of the many (Redbox video renters) outweigh the needs of the few (standing at the customer service counter)?
- Does it annoy you when you go in to a store and ask for help, the sales associate is already busy? And by busy, I mean texting/ Facebooking/talking on their cell phone, not with another customer or work-related duty.
- If you encountered this situation, would you say something, stand there and fume, or leave?
Today, I left.
Anyone want a box of mostly crushed Oreo cookies?
Cathy Kobre is the editor of Mamapedia. She lives with her twin daughters in Carmel, California.
