Three Strikes

Being a customer service professional, I’m constantly studying service experiences. Analyzing each experience to determine its good and bad points and using that information in my own profession to improve the level of service I provide or that of my team members through training. I feel I’m fair and actually more tolerant than most customers because I understand the challenges customer service professionals face every day. That said, I recently had not one, but three, less than stellar customer experiences all within an hour and all at different merchants. It’s as if it was orchestrated as some sort of training field trip…I was not impressed! Let’s start with a little history.

I’ve been planning a fall hunting trip to Colorado for the past year. This will be my first trip out west so I had much to learn and a lot of gear to purchase. I spent countless hours online researching the topic to learn what I need to bring and what products are recommended. I visited my local sporting goods stores and talked to the sales professionals to get their opinions and to physically examine many of the products I had been reading about. Research complete, it was time to purchase. On this particular day, I was going out during my lunch hour to purchase a pistol to carry as defense against bear and other willy creatures since I would be hunting with a bow and arrow. I have no other reason for owning a pistol so I had decided on a brand that was dependable; received high reviews from current users and was moderately priced.

I chose to make my purchase at Merchant #1 because of my experience working with the sales professional during my research phase. During that visit, he was extremely helpful, knowledgeable and walked me through the pros and cons of the product; carefully showing me how it compared to other brands. On this day, I noticed “my sales person” wasn’t working and instead two other gentlemen stood ready to help. I shared my story and told them what I wanted to purchase. They retrieved the item from their case but to my dismay, upon handing it me, they said I was making a mistake purchasing this product and proceeded to present alternatives, all more expensive I might add; at one point going so far as to remove the product I originally wanted to purchase and putting it back into the display case. Disgusted and in disbelief, there was no way I was going to give these two sales people my business so I moved on to merchant #2.

Merchant #2 is well known in our community for their excellence in customer service. Their products are often more expensive, but I have done a great deal of business with them in the past based solely on their level of service. On this day however, it was not the case. Upon walking up to the display case, I noticed what appeared to be the department manager reprimanding a sales person a short distance away. I patiently waited in front of the display case hoping they would notice me and continue their discussion later. Seeing me, they did end their discussion but neither of them offered assistance. Each went their separate way, the sales person, visibly upset stopped and appeared to be doing busy work at a nearby counter. I waited a few more minutes hoping another sales person would help but after waiting what I felt was a reasonable amount of time and receiving no assistance, I proceeded to Merchant #3.

Merchant #3 is usually a last resort for me. They offer great products and are competitively priced, but their service is consistently poor. This day was no different. I walked to the display case but didn’t see the product I was looking for. I located the department sales person and asked him if they had moved the item. He grudgingly walked over to the display case, peered inside where the item was to have been and said “we’re out,” turned and walked away, back to what he was doing. He didn’t offer any options as far as ordering the product for me, providing status of new product arrival or anything. Simply walked away! Completely frustrated and dumbfounded at this point, I returned to my office where I shared my experience with coworkers and pondered what had just happened.

BASIC, customer service skills and all three merchants had failed miserably. So what can we learn from this?

Merchant #1: First and foremost, give the customer what they want! It’s perfectly alright and expected as professionals to provide options; sharing your experience and knowledge to assist your customer in making the right decision. What you can’t do is assume your customer hasn’t already done their homework. The internet makes it much easier for your customers to research products and services prior to coming to you. It’s not unusual for a customer whose done their research to know more about a product than the sales person. Let’s hope this isn’t the case in your business, but it has to be expected that when a customer asks for a specific product, they are doing so for a reason…respect their decision. In this case, it cost Merchant # 1 a sale not only of the pistol, but future business as well.

Merchant #2: There is a time and a place for corrective action. I don’t know what the nature of the discussion between the manager and the sales person was, but it didn’t appear to be a discussion that should have occurred in front of a customer. Second, if you’re “in a bad place” as this sales person apparently was after the discussion, remove yourself from the work environment, even for a short time to recompose. In this particular case, the manager should have acknowledged my presence at the counter and offered to assist or directed another sales person to assist. The reprimanded sales person should have taken a break to recompose instead of staying on the sales floor brooding over what had just happened.

Merchant #3: Solve the customer’s problem! My interpretation of what this sales person was telling me by simply saying they were out and walking away was: “I don’t care about your problem or you as a customer.” At that point, having just had poor experiences at the other two merchants, had this sales person taken the time to offer to special order the item for me and maybe even offer to have the item shipped overnight, I may have been inclined to make my purchase from him. Instead, I left the store disgusted and determined to buy the product elsewhere. 

As I stated earlier, these are all very basic customer service skills and may have been avoided with simple customer service training. I wasn’t posing any of the sales people with a challenging situation and yet all of them let me down as a customer. Take some time to experience your own business through your customer’s eyes and develop a customer service training plan to insure you’re providing a positive, consistent customer experience.

In case you’re wondering. I went back to Merchant #2 after work the same day, walked up to the counter; was greeted by a friendly sales person and was able to make my purchase without issue!