The Scenario
Picture this, your son is turning 7 and is football crazy. He’s requested an England football kit (goodness knows why) with his name and favourite number printed on it. Not a problem, anything to see the smile on his little face. I do a fair amount of research online and find 3 companies who would do it, but they all look a little dodgy to be completely honest and I’m not convinced I want to spend my hard earned dough with them.
So I decide on a trip to Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, a fantastic spot for a bit of shopping and not a million miles away. I find a Sports Direct store there and my luck’s in – they do the kit I’m after and do all the printing too – I can also see a sample to check the quality, which is fantastic. It’s also £5 cheaper than on line too – turn up for the books!
The only downside is that I have to wait 2 hours for the printing to dry – acceptable and no moans here. But, I’m called back to the office and decide to call the shop and get it delivered – simple right?
Wrong! Later that afternoon I make the call and get a rather fed up sounding shop assistant who tells me she is too busy to talk to me. Fair enough… I’ll call back in 30 mins and here’s how the conversation went.
Ring Ring, Ring Ring
“ello, Sports Direct?”
“Hi, I purchased and paid for a football kit earlier but unfortunately had to leave Portsmouth so was wondering whether you’d be kind enough to put it in the post for me please?”
“Nah, we don’t do that service”
“Why is that then?”
“Company policy”
“OK… so where does that leave me?”
“You’ll have to come back and collect”
“Even if I pay you an extra £5 for postage”
“Yep”.
“Hmmm… I don’t get it, but seeing as I’m British I’ll just keep my mouth shut and not moan any more, I’ll collect in a week”.
A week passes and I make a special journey back down to Portsmouth which is a 2 hour round trip and about £20 worth of fuel.
I get to the shop, same lady is looking even more flustered this time and grunts at me. She snatches the receipt and shuffles off into some room out the back. She appears 5 minutes later with a bag with the kit in.
Yay – mission successful. She passes me the bag without even a glance let alone a smile and immediately grunts at another customer.
The real sting in this tale is what is written on the bag – “24 hour delivery”
Now you don’t need to be a marketing guru to see the issue here. So many retailers have moaned to me about online competition killing them – it’s time to take a long hard look at your best asset, CUSTOMER SERVICE and going that extra mile, for if you don’t then you won’t survive.
Invest in training your staff and an infrastructure that can go way and beyond the call of duty for your customer. Make shopping a pleasure again!
Rant over!!!
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