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E-mail StoryFrustrated with poor service?
You're not alone. Bad experiences drive shoppers from offending stores.
| Saturday, Apr 14 2007 8:50 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Apr 14 2007 10:13 PM
Does it matter to you if a restaurant doesn't get your order right?
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Dolly Martin receives help from Urner's salesman, Thomas Rodriguez in selecting a couch.
If the sales clerk at the department store is surly?
What about sloppy, mispriced merchandise?
"If I have bad service somewhere, I'm not going to go back," said Kasey Harrison who was annoyed last year when a restaurant refused to give a refund to her boss who found a hair in her takeout sandwich.
Most of us have similar reactions to poor service -- we take our money elsewhere.
With the Internet giving consumers ever more spending choices, customer service matters more than ever.
"If you don't have customer service, you're going to lose your business," said David H. Urner, the president of local, family-owned appliance, electronics and furniture superstore Urner's. "You only get one shot at them. If they are unhappy and you don't meet their expectations, they are not going to come back."
Those words ring true at the cash register, according to research.
"We find there is a very sizeable relationship between the satisfaction of the customer and future spending habits," said Claes Fornell, a professor of marketing and the director of the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan's Ross Business School.
Survey says ...
Nearly half of shoppers said they avoided certain stores after a bad experience, according to a survey released last year by a group within the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
And disgruntled shoppers talk.
They will tell an average of four people about poor customer service, according to the survey, which interviewed more than 1,000 shoppers.
The most common complaints were a lack of convenient parking and having to wait to pay or be served. Other complaints included having a difficult time finding items in a cluttered store and rude or unhelpful employees.
"You don't want to have to look for someone to help you," said Sue Gaskill of Bakersfield.
Gaskill gets especially frustrated when store employees are "waiting on you and there's a couple of them behind the cash register and they're talking to each other instead of ringing you up."
To the Net
Bad service is part of the reason Peggy Goss of Bakersfield has started shopping online more.
In one instance, she ordered blinds from a national home improvement store, got the wrong blinds delivered to the wrong place and when she tried to sort it out with a manager, she was told her order "will come when it comes."
She tried to call corporate headquarters, but never received a call back.
"Some stores don't care if a customer comes back," Goss said. "They think it's only one customer."
That's a big mistake, said Jeff Harris, who started a Web site in 1999 to let others know about a dispute he had with a major hotel chain, which he claimed quadrupled the price of a stay in Paris after he booked it.
"(Companies) need to realize it is not just one person. It is all the people they will interact with and all the people those people will interact with," said Harris, who started www.thesqueakywheel.com after his ordeal.
He charges $5 to post complaints then e-mails the company every time someone views the complaint about them and links the complaints to online search engines.
Not paying attention
Despite all the warnings, a recent poll of 309 executives at companies in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa found 81 percent did not know how much business customer complaints were costing them.
The same poll conducted by global research and consulting firm Strativity Group Inc. also found that only 34 percent of the executives believe their employees have the tools and authority necessary to solve customer's concerns.
"Companies that perform in a competitive environment will not do well without satisfying the customer," the University of Michigan's Fornell said.
Companies that excel in customer service tend to perform better in the stock market, he added.
Bad news travels fast
Customers are more apt to tell others about negative shopping experiences than positive ones, said Kathy Mance, the vice president of the NRF Foundation, the research and education arm of the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation trade group.
But positive experiences do help.
Jeanette Greynolds of Bakersfield purchased more than $1,000 worth of plywood at a local home improvement store. She came back two weeks later and found it was $200 cheaper.
When she asked about the price change she was given a $200 gift card.
"I will tell everybody what they did," she said.
That's the kind of response businesses are looking for.
"We treat our customers like guests," said Randy Lemons, the store manager of the Target on Rosedale Highway.
To make sure they have a good experience, Lemons keeps staffing up, trains employees to respond quickly and he attempts to resolve any complaints. Mini service surveys are even printed out with every five receipts.
Accentuate the positive
Service is crucial for small businesses.
"Word of mouth is very important," Urner said. "You can advertise all day long, but if everybody thinks your company doesn't give good customer service, you are throwing your money away."
Service can be the tipping point for success, agreed Donavan Ropp, a business professor at Cal State Bakersfield and the director of the school's family business institute.
And it's easier to serve existing customers than to constantly have to find new ones.
With greater communication and more choice, he said service makes the difference.
"It has always been important," Ropp said. "But now it is a requirement."
By the numbers
50 percent — Number of shoppers who reported negative shopping experiences*
31 percent — Number of shoppers who told friends about negative experiences*
49 percent — Number of shoppers in recent survey who view shopping as relaxing and enjoyable **
56 percent — Number of shoppers in 2000 survey who viewed shopping as relaxing and enjoyable **
70 percent — Number of companies in survey who said customer strategies are more important now than they used to be ***
SOURCES:
* Verde Group/Baker Retailing Initiative at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
** Yankelovich market research firm study
*** Strativity Group survey of company executives