| Wendy Gladstein August 27, 2009 |
| Recently I was in a Best Buy shopping for a gift for my daughter. Now, to put into perspective what I’m about to say, I have to confess a string of frustrations from various “shopping experiences” at these big box electronic stores.
So, with an admittedly helpful salesperson I was able to pick out a camera that would be compatible with our older at-home Mac. I was in a hurry (when am I not?) so when I got to the checkout I was a little frustrated to see that only one checkout (out of four) was active. The customer in front of me had some sort of issue that was taking waaaay too long, and I noticed another four (yes, four) Best Buy “associates” standing and talking only a few feet away from where I was waiting. Introvert that I am, I asked the check out clerk if perhaps someone else could open a register so I could check out quickly. I might have been a tad tense (my bad) but he looked at me, and then shouted, loudly (so the other associates could hear): “We Have a Code One Here!” Did he think I was an idiot? So of course I said: “Code One: Meaning IMPATIENT Customer????” The floor manager broke away from his huddle and came to me to explain that he had a “very serious situation” that he was trying to resolve so he couldn’t open another register, and went back to his group to continue his conversation. I could make a fairly long list of breached service standards just from this one Best Buy transaction. I left the store and thought: how long can they possibly stay in business when they treat customers this way? Will they go the way of Circuit City? Customer service and service quality are always hot topics when we get together with our clients, as well they should be. So when service at the point of sale doesn’t deliver – or worse – it offends – it doesn’t matter how good your advertising is. There’s nothing more harmful to a brand than poor delivery. I know I’ll be ordering from Amazon next time. |
