I don’t get out of the house by myself all that often. As a work at home mom, I have a very structured day which includes working with the kids are napping or otherwise occupied for at least 15 minutes at a time.
Last night happened to be one of those rare occasions that I was out all by myself. I had a dinner meeting and needed to run a few errands before and after that meeting. The whole night was a disaster.
First, I stopped by Sally’s Beauty Supply store to get a new flat iron (by other one konked out earlier this week). Walking in the store, I should have known it wouldn’t have been a good experience.
The store was hotter than hell. I know that’s a very colorful description but seriously, the sun was blaring directly into the store. The glare was so bad I couldn’t read the packages on the boxes. I actually had to go to the back of the store to read the different features and benefits to pick the best flat iron. When I finally picked one out, I went to go stand in line.
The store is tiny and 5 people in line was a mob. There was one cashier and the other person left for lunch. There was someone with a return and someone who had been over charged for their purchase. The wait in line, with the sun beating down on us was bad.
We were sweating. People were getting irritated. It wasn’t a pretty site in a “beauty” store. People were leaving – they just put down their purchases and left. Unfortunately I didn’t have that luxury because I needed the flat iron.
When I finally got to the cashier to ring up my purchase, she was rushing to get the line down. Understandable, but when I asked what the warranty was, she didn’t know for sure. But, she mentioned I could have purchased a one year warranty — after she completed the transaction.
I’ve been a large appliance manager and part of the sale process is to offer the extended warranty option before the transaction is finished. Long story short I wanted the extended warranty so she had to void the purchase, I had to sign the void and then she had to re-ring the purchase.
Ugh!
I was running late for my dinner meeting after the Sally’s fiasco and I got to the restaurant just in time. We had chosen Red Lobster because it was quiet and we could talk and have dinner at the same time. In general Red Lobster is a “nice” restaurant and one of the pricier options compared to fast food. However, I was looking forward to a good meal that I could eat in peace.
We had bad service from our waiter. He didn’t pay attention, he had no personality, he didn’t smile and he acted like we were a nuisance.
Ugh, he ruined our meal and my rare night out!
News flash…
In this tough economy, people are very careful about how they spend their money.
- If you don’t provide good service, people will leave.
- If you make it hard for customers to buy from you, they won’t.
- If you don’t show customers you care and are thankful for them shopping with you, they will find someone else who will.
Regardless of what kind of business you have, whether you work for a company, started your own business from scratch or you are a direct sales consultant, customers are the key to your success. The customer experience is so important to your business – especially repeat business.
The worst part about my bad customer service experiences? I called the managers today to let them know and they weren’t interested. They were only half apologetic because they knew it was the “right” thing to do.
Unacceptable.
