Is Customer Service Dead? Boy, it sure seems like it. Everywhere I go, it seems like the “Brick and Mortar” stores have completely lost the concept of customer service. I went into an eye-glass store yesterday to pick up contacts that Nancy had ordered for me, and they had maybe 4 people working and 3 customers. One idiot just stood there, making eye contact with me at least 10 times but never came up and asked to help me. The other, obviously the manager, decided that now would be a good time to show a new employee the phone system. This was in front of another customer standing in front of him!
I was half tempted to pick up my cell phone and call the store while standing in it to get some service, because I overheard the manager state that it was critical to answer the phone, if nothing else. Yeah, forget the customers standing at the counter waiting for 10 minutes for you to tear yourself away from that griping phone speach so gracefully laminated and glued to the wall next to the phone!
So finally another employee comes over and has the gall to ask if I’ve been helped yet! Yeah right, if I had been helped already, I wouldn’t be standing here watching tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there. Anyway, I told her I was here to pick up contacts I’d ordered. I told her my name, Patrick Stuart, even spelled it S-T-U-A-R-T. She went back to look and I know she looked under Stewart, she came back out and said, how do you spell your last name? S-T-U-A-R-T!!!! Oh, ok, let me go back and check again… GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Ok, she comes back with the contacts, finally. I mention that they are already paid (paid over the phone) and just to give them to me. She says, Oh you know which is the right and left? Damn, she actually thought! Oh well, no, please put your little sticker on the box and indicate Right or Left. Then she goes to get me a bag, for two boxes of contacts. I said I don’t need a bag. She finally says, sorry for the wait, and my final comment to her was, I am sorry I ever bought anything from this store.
So, the moral of the story for the kids is… Set clear expectations for shopping, sometimes it is best to order stuff online or over the phone, that way your expectations for customer service are so low to begin with, you can’t help but be satisfied! I guess its just me, when I see a human being in person, in a service role, they should have some sort of skills in helping others and getting business done. I guess they have other priorities, like answering the phone 🙂