Another installment on willingness to recommend. It comes from another Wireless Logic manager in Wisconsin. By the way, sorry about the post season, tough loss. This is from Rebecca.
I am recently a new aunt, so of course going shopping for new baby clothes is something I was SERIOUSLY looking forward to. In Oshkosh, WI there is an outlet mall that has 3 different baby outlet stores!!! Now if you can imagine me excitement really intensified and I was looking even more forward to shopping my new niece…only 6 weeks old and had only met her once, so I was SUPER pumped about getting her some “I love my auntie” clothes!!!
Sooo…I go shopping at Gymboree, on a Sunday, but being that it was right before Christmas I assumed their holiday hours were a little bit longer. I get in the store and wasn’t greeted by ANY of their employees (2 in store). So I walk around the store…which I’ve never shopped in…and immediately became confused by the pricing on one of their tables. Again…the employees were still doing not a whole lot besides what it seemed to be talking to their friends that were in the store shopping. After a few laps around the store I actually noticed that I was already in the store 15 minutes past close. I finally walked up to the register and said “Is ANYONE going to acknowledge the fact that I’m in your store, past hours, and pacing from one table to the next?” So I was finally help…and then she was overly apologetic (which I find annoying). We get some stuff picked out and she rings me out…I was telling her that I was referred to this store because of their amazing referral program. She got my information, checked me out, and I was on my way.
I came back in the next day because I forgot to get something, was “somewhat” helped right away. I got what I needed and we proceeded to the register. She kindly asked me if I wanted to be a part of the referral program and I of course told her that I was signed up the previous day. She looked up my information to…not really my surprise…that I wasn’t actually signed up. Then I asked her this question (as she was in the store the previous day as well)…”Was the lady that helped me yesterday, or barely helped me, the manager of this store?” and she stated that she was. I then expressed my intense frustration and said I wanted the previous day’s purchases on my reward system…she said I’d have to return and re-buy in order to do that.
I OBVIOUSLY took the survey about both days, returned all my merchandise (shopped elsewhere), and told them I would no longer be shopping in their store and that word of mouth is everything and I will be talking! I got a response back about the survey roughly a week later (they asked for more information…which I provided promptly), but I have yet to get a response back from that yet…
Is this about attentiveness or the holidays or about the ability to input operational tasks like referral information? All of them, right? So let’s realize each.
One, attentiveness. It is one thing to be busy and it is another to be inattentive to customers, even when it is closing time. I know it is hard. Businesses need to be much better at this. As I always say, customers are not an interruption to your day…they are reason for it. But how to get an employee to understand this? It’s not that they don’t get it, they just have moments when they drop the ball. I can understand its closing time and your friends are in the store. You have to have trained it so much that even if this is happening, they just know to break away and say “hi”. It’s about repetition and making it that important. I will recommend you to others if you say “hi” no matter what…plain and simple. You don’t, I won’t.
The Holidays. Let’s be real, it is tough to maintain the ‘normal’ standards when you are driving at 200 mph. I realize saying that goes against everything I believe to be necessary about having standards. It’s just that I get it. People get tired and miss the opportunities. They know the right thing to do, but do not get it done with 100 percent accuracy. OK, shake your team up as much as you can during this time. Brainstorm what can happen in a busy time and then get them to figure out what to do. It is so much better to have an employee come up with the action plan than to have to tell them what to do. Let it be their revelation. They have a better chance of owning it.
Operational Accuracy. People make mistakes. They do, maybe even more so when it is the holidays. Again this goes back to training, repetition and what gets inspected gets done. How much importance was placed on the referral program? I would assume, a lot. I do not know of any company that does not look at this program with a huge amount of interest. So have the steps been trained and made an easy process?
In retrospect, Rebecca did the right thing as a customer…she gave her feedback. She shared her thoughts and whether or not the company decides to do something is up to them. The one thing I will say about larger organizations is that the bigger you get and wider your scale and distribution gets, it becomes very hard to maintain consistency. I understand they dropped the ball and I get why. Can you look at your organization and depend on the behavior you expect and the customer expects? I am OK if you fall flat during the holidays, just own it. Then I recommend.