Kristi Smith believes customer service at retail stores stinks these days. The people who work at them, she opines, don’t seem inclined to give decent treatment to the consumers who are, essentially, paying their salaries. “Whether [at ] Wendy’s or a clothing store, a lot of sales associates just do not understand how important it is to greet customers when they enter the store, or just the importance of offering help,” says the Little Rock pharmaceutical sales representative. She recalls a recent trip to a shoestore chain outlet. “A young lady just smiled at me and didn’t offer any opinion, help,” or anything else, Smith laments. “I did settle on a pair, and when I went to check out, another young lady said absolutely nothing. I asked her, ‘Are you doing OK ?’ to which she just replied, ‘Yes. ’” For a while, Smith says, she was a customer-service associate at an Ann Taylor store. She remembers being trained to greet patrons.
“That’s not rocket science, but folks just don’t get the whole ‘ common courtesy’ thing anymore,” she says. “It just bugs me. It’s not only clothing stores, but anything.” Karl Hansen of Hensley feels the same frustration with utility companies. Ever since losing his home in the May 2 tornado, dealing with the utilities has been “a complete nightmare,” says Hansen, a retired welding specialist. “The competence of those who answer the phones is... questionable, to say the very least.” In this modern-day ritual of exchange of money for goods and services, where has customer service gone ?
Most of us can share good stories about the charismatic waiter who treated us like royalty or the clothingstore associate who not only was helpful, but honest about what didn’t look good on us.
But is it more the rule than the exception that the average, 21 st-century American consumer must navigate choppy seas of sullen and indifferent sales clerks, predatory repair technicians, restaurant servers who go AWOL and voice-mailelusive telephone customer-service people who, once reached, can’t / won’t help ?
And what about those most high-profile purveyors of bad service these days: Airlines ? There’s been no shortage of graphic television and printnews stories that show how frustrating air travel has become.
Even Larry Hastings, corporate sales manager for Little Rock-headquartered Dillard’s Inc., acknowledges that the quality and quantity of service in general — customer service in particular — has “eroded” in recent years. He also acknowledges that many companies in the department-store industry “are moving away from friendly, knowledgeable sales associates.” Online laments about customer service are numerous.
“If we’re in a service economy, where did the service go ?” asks author and former business consultant Rene A. Henry in an article at Authorsden. com. “Customer-service consultants say that a company has performed service when it exceeds the expectations of its customer. Many customers would be happy if just their expectations were met.” In his May 1 Web log entry at AllBusiness. com, an online media and e-commerce company, Kevin Stirtz tells of the ongoing, nonscientific survey his company, Stirtz Group, has been conducting to gather people’s opinions on the state of customer service. Stirtz shared the data gathered from January to April. Nearly a third of respondents, 31 percent, “believe customer service is slightly worse than 12 months ago,” while 7 percent say customer service is “much worse.” Asked to rate the quality of customer service on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, 40 percent gave it a 3.
SELF-SERVICE Why is customer service, like the beleaguered U. S. dollar, on the skids ? Liz Fulton, who coowns Town and Country Shop in Fayetteville, feels the decline is due to big-box stores. “Their style of business has become more of a self-service type of thing, so the customer is not given that information about a kind of product because there is no one there to share it with them,” she says.
Shannon Roberts, training coordinator for the Arkansas Small Business Development Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, believes the growing sophistication of customers has contributed to a bad-service perception.
“Customer knowledge has really increased, and their demands have increased as well,” Roberts says. “Entities that don’t already have customer service built into their culture [are ] having a hard time keeping up.
“ It’s a snowball effect.... The customer wants it right now, and they want it to be completely accurate, and they want it with a smile on their face when you deliver that.” Not that there isn’t a real problem.
“A huge barrier in customer service is attitude,” Roberts says. “We hear a lot about just overall attitude — the attitude of whomever is trying to help you.” Specifically, a lack of empathy shown by workers toward customers has proven problematic, she says.
Low employee morale can also be a big contributor to bad customer service, Roberts continues. “There’s also just a lack of training. Employers are not properly training their employees to have good customer service.” And company leaders often fail at it themselves.
Yet another possible cause for the lack of good customer service: the lack of expectation of it, experts say. The younger generation, as they become heavier travelers and purchasers, are too used to accessing goods and services online.
Just having their existence acknowledged in a store would be good enough customer service for many consumers. Philly Rains, a retired advertising / marketing sales executive in Harrison, recalls a recent multistop shopping trip she made with her granddaughter, 13-year-old Abygail Williams of Marion.
“The best customer-service experiences were those where we were greeted as soon as we entered, asked if there was anything we were looking for specifically... and then left... alone,” she says.
The consequences of bad customer service are obvious: Businesses lose money.
When a customer is dissatisfied, business officials sometimes shrug it off and say, “‘ That’s just one customer. ’ But the ripple effect is enormous,” Roberts says. “When you have one unhappy customer, that customer is going to tell anywhere from 12 to 15 people, and each of those people [is ] going to tell about five more people. Before you know it, you’ve reached 70 people who have been made aware of that negative experience.... It costs five to six times more to get a new customer than to hold on to an old customer who is loyal to you.” SERVICE FIRST At least two Arkansas corporations have taken steps to ensure that they are known for good customer service. Headquartered in Bentonville in Northwest Arkansas, Arvest Banking Group operates under the mission statement “People helping people find financial solutions for life.” Ron Witherspoon, executive vice president and sales manager for Arvest Bank in central Arkansas, exhorts Arvest employees to spend every day focusing on the first three words of that mission statement. Potential Arvest employees go through extensive testing and interviews. During new-employee orientation, Witherspoon says, “I tell them it seems to me like there’s a bank on every corner in central Arkansas and... they’re all very good at what they do, or they wouldn’t be in business. “ Not only do we have a lot of competitors, we have all of the same products.... So the question I pose of them is, if it’s not [these things ] that sets us apart, what does set us apart ?” The answer: customer service. Arvest hires are taught not to be focused so much on their computer screens, but to also be focused on the front door. They’re taught to greet visitors to the bank, make eye contact, smile and offer assistance, as well as learn the names of regular customers. And just to make sure associates are on the ball, the bank also has a mysteryshopper program to evaluate customer service. When a mistake is made, it’s not only remedied, but shared with other employees so that they will know what not to do, Witherspoon says.
Hastings says Dillard’s has developed a new clientele program to build customer relationships and loyalty. “All of the pieces of customer service need to blend together to give the impression to the customer that we are a company that cares about every detail... from our welcome, to how well we identify your needs and wants, and finding just the perfect items to help you feel good when you leave our store,” he says. “When there is a problem we want to show empathy, concern, and find a mutually good solution.” In their quest for good customer service, some consumers avoid chain stores and look to independent establishments.
Stephen Coger, a University of Arkansas at Fayetteville student working and studying in India, says he goes to locallyowned stores in the state “90 percent of the time that I go out.” He believes that’s why his customer-service experiences in Northwest Arkansas have always been good. “I keep it local; I know the people I'm buying from. The workers therefore are my friends and so are quite friendly.” Being not only friendly, but honest, is important to independent retailer Fulton, who sells women’s clothing and accessories with the help of two fulltime associates and, depending on the season, about five parttimers.
“When a customer enters our store, it is the same as if they were entering our home,” Fulton says. “We want them to feel that kind of comfort.” Coffee, soft drinks and water are served, and chairs are supplied for men who have accompanied their significant others on their shopping trips. “We greet everyone... and see if there is something in particular we can help them find.” Associates point out sales, specials, new arrivals — “and then we just try to be available,” Fulton says.
No matter how advanced technology is, there’s always room for good, human-dispensed customer service, say those in the know.
“We would look to the golden rule of treating others as they would like to be treated for both the customer and our associates,” Hastings says.
Roberts concurs. “I think everybody has got to find that balance in customer service.”
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