The pathetic quality of service and training was evident recently when I walked into a Shopper’s Stop outlet to buy a couple of items. Entering on the men’s wear level, I asked the nearest store employee whether they had linen trousers. The person pointed me to some vague corner of the store. There I had to look for another employee who said he didnt know, but I could try the formal trousers section, sending me back the way I came from. There I had to wait a bit for a third employee to show up, and when I asked the question, the answer was that no, SS doesnt stock linen trousers.
Next, I went to the ground floor, to buy a pair of sunglasses. The counter which has four sides, was busy on two sides with two customers already being attended to . I walked round to another side and found two employees talking to each other. Interrupting their no doubt interesting conversation I asked if they would care to show me a particular brand of sunglasses. Without saying a word, they disappeared round the corner. One appeared soon enough, walking off towards some other counter ! The other then reappeared and asked me to come round to other side where one of the two customers had by now finished his transaction and the counter person there was freed up to talk to me.
I chose the sunglasses I wanted inside of 60 seconds. However, waiting for the bill to be written out there took more than 5 minutes. Next I went to the billing counter where while my purchase was being billed, I asked for the store manager to tell him about the customer service levels in his store. Not surprisingly, he was not in the store. His next in command was also not available then. I left my name and number to be called. No call was ever made.
Is it too much to ask for all employees in the men’s wear section to know what kinds of items they stock without sending customers traipsing around the floor? Why do some employees behave as though they are in some 1970s government office where asking them to help you is like asking for a mountain to be moved? In which department store in the world would it take longer for am item to be billed than for it to be chosen, when the entire store was almost empty? Why have managers if they are never available to resolve customer service issues ?
Luckily I never bought SS shares. Else I would have gone and sold all of them And shorted some more.
