Bad customer service in shops is my biggest bugbear. This month, I've seen the following:
- Trying to pay at the tills, while the staff carry on their conversation together about their "crappy hangover."
- The reply "I dunno, ask one of the other staff" when I inquired about a shoe size.
- Absolute silence. At the tills. Not even a hello. Seriously awkward stuff.
- Store stalking. Following customers around the store probably does reduce shoplifting instances. Unfortunately it probably reduces sales too. I left after two minutes of feeling like a criminal.
Perhaps this is why more and more of us do most of our shopping online. We don't have to deal with grumpy staff, we can search for what we're looking for in the search bar, and try on clothes in the comfort of our own homes. The only downside is, you've still got to deal with customer service if something goes wrong.
In fairness, I've seen some great customer service too. Dorothy Perkins in general has great staff, and the serving staff in Giraffe are always really friendly and helpful. VeryGoodService has a great resource if you want to see more evidence of great customer assistants.
Have you had any awful customer service experiences? Or any fantastic experience?
