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Too much customer service
Author: Bill Cusick
August 20, 2007
OK, maybe this is more about me than about a particular store or customer experience. See, I tend to have pretty bad luck in stores, restaurants, bars, etc. trying to catch the attention of a clerk, waiter or bartender. It must be my intimidating good looks.
Anyway, I need help. I’m having a hard time processing this experience so throw me a bone with your own analysis.
The place was a Sears store, the time mid-afternoon on a recent sunny Saturday. I was shopping alone (this doesn’t happen often). I was looking for an electric razor – it was going to change my world! No more blades! I might even shave every other day now, like some adults.
Like any item I’m searching for in a large retail space, the razor was hard for me to locate in my first quick pass through. Housewares? No. Electronics? No. Men’s? No. But on my second lap, there they were, in a large free-standing glass case: myriad options for the discerning gentleman. Three rotating “floating” heads, some with their own lather and after-shave shooters, 10,000 whirling RPM, all promising a baby-butt soft face.
I approached.
There was a gaggle of young polo-shirted Sears employees standing directly in front of the case, all listening half-heartedly to an earnest Sears manager. It was a floor meeting. “And you, Jason,” she was saying. “How do you feel when you have a poor experience with a customer?”
Jason shuffled in place for a minute, staring at his feet, before mumbling, “Bad, I guess.”
So they were talking about why you should care about customer service? Awesome! That’s a great sign. It’s just that they were talking about it right in front of the case I was trying to get to.
I slunk behind the group, to the back side of the case, where I could just make out some of the amazing razor features and benefits on several boxes: use it in the shower, easy clean-up, silky-smooth skin. I was ready to buy! I just needed an available employee to open the case and I’d be on my way. Yet, I was invisible.
“You have to create a positive experience every time,” the manager was saying, exhorting her troops on. She was on a roll; some seemed to be paying attention. I wandered a couple yards towards the nearest employee who was actually working, but she steadfastly avoided eye contact with me before moving away.
And still the manager preached, her captive audience staring over her head, towards a nearby clock, everywhere but at the customer (me) who had been hovering next to their group for the last ten minutes.
Finally – defeated – I wandered towards the exit to take my leave, ruefully rubbing the burgeoning stubble breaking out across my face.
I’m sure that, later on that sunny Saturday, there were Sears customers who were going to require a stick to beat back the attentive sales people.
I wouldn’t know, of course. I was long gone.
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