Customer Service in Clothing Stores
Read more articles on Life's Nuances and Let Me Share With You.July 29, 2008
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
July 29, 2008
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
648 Views
Am I the only one who gets steamed at poor quality of customer service in department stores?
There is a wide spectrum of tolerance-from those who accept poor service and still tip-to those who are ridiculously demanding. I fall past midrange, since I’m not irrational, but see no reason why those who deal with the public can’t at least try to be helpful. If someone makes a mistake but respectfully apologizes and treats me well, I’m much more impressed than accurate service given begrudgingly.
My first job was in customer service, and I had to provide service “above and beyond”; years later, as a supervisor, I could not believe the lack of customer consideration from employees. Even with good pay and excellent benefits, customer satisfaction results declined so much, many employees lost their jobs-all due to people who should not been in customer service in the first place.
Another annoyance is when employees aren’t empowered enough to make decisions, and management must be called in. That happens to me a lot. Last year, when I tried to return a coat, I was told my receipt wasn’t appropriate; apparently the one I was given when my first one became stuck in the machine didn’t have the right data. I requested a manager, who verified that the receipt was perfectly valid. It seems to me this shouldn’t be a major problem, but it tied up 3 different employees for about 15 minutes. In this case, the employees were pleasant and professional and followed procedure, but they weren’t given enough authority to override normal guidelines. Unfortunately, everyone suffers when this happens: customers take their business elsewhere, and eventually the business loses money.
When I about 17, I bought a two piece nightgown and robe set from a major department store with cash, but decided to return it. Looking much younger than my years, the saleslady must have thought I was trying to pull something shady. She noticed a small mark on the item, and accused me of wearing and ruining it. I pointed out the tags and assured her I most definitely had not worn it, and after some grousing, she finally returned my money. I was so furious that I wrote to the store management (even when very young, I had a strong sense of what was not acceptable treatment.) I never received an acknowledgement, but I never shopped there again either; they literally lost a paying customer for life. Was it worth it? Maybe, maybe not-they eventually went out of business about 8 years ago.
On those old black and white television shows, and in many movies, women tended to frequent small, privately owned, boutique type clothing stores. If it was a relatively small town, the shopkeeper even knew their preferences. Has anyone ever actually seen this sort of happenstance in real life? The closest I’ve come is witnessing my mother try to have the same sales clerk ring her up when we shopped at one particular store, because she made friendly small talk, but it wasn’t the same.
So, the question of today is, does the quality of customer service make a difference on your clothes shopping habits? Do you go to places with the newest fashion or the nicest employees? Is price your defining point, or is being treated well more important to you?
There are many other moral factors in purchasing decisions, such as “clothes with a conscience” and not supporting underpaid foreign workers-here is yet another qualification concerning how we spend our fashion dollars. (Now, there is always online shopping, but to be quite honest, I don’t trust anything fitting or looking like it does in the ads.) Even those interactions may have some degree of employee contact-usually when things go wrong.
I have never been able to figure out why companies do not invest in the best quality of customer service they can afford, since the representatives are the life line of the business. It all comes back to their basic concept of paying as little as possible, and wanting as much as possible. Sooner or later, quality-or lack thereof-catches up. Here’s a hope that those who put forth 110% start receiving adequate compensation for their efforts, and we start receiving the service we deserve!
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