Right - I'd like to know what exactly this even means.
In a bygone age, normal people went into shops and exchanged money for goods, and occasionally asked questions about where they would find it to helpful people who mostly went around making sure nobody was causing havoc and putting things on shelves.
But today, everything has to be 100% consumer-friendly. It is not enough to be there to answer peoples' questions any more, you must greet every customer on the shop floor within 2 minutes of them walking off the escalators. Furthermore, you must pressure them into a sale at every opportunity. And then we get to the ultimate enemies - the mystery shoppers.
For some bizarre reason, we now have to impress these anonymous shoppers who walk in and rate the "experience" - how quickly you're greeted, how the sale is built up, and how the sale is closed. Kind of like bitching behind your back to your colleagues, their comments are then sent and the dirt is dished with you having little memory of the "customer".
I just don't see why everything has to be an "experience" now. Why we can't just do our jobs and sell things for money? No -that would be too much. Everything has to be served to you on a plastic plate with someone spooning it in now doesn't it?
Gosh, it makes my blood boil.
And no, I haven't had a mystery shopper in today, it's just a frustration I've been thinking of!
"Shopping Experience"
I agree, James. It can be quite off-putting to be pounced on the moment you enter a store. In my experience mobile phone shops are the worst offenders. Even if you respond with “I’m just looking, thanks”, they tend to shadow you around the store at a distance of three paces. Now, it could be that I have some striking resemblance to the typical shoplifter, if there is such a thing, but I don’t see the point of making a fast exit from their store clutching one of their non-functioning display models.
However, it’s equally frustrating when you do want the staff to enhance your ‘shopping experience’ and there isn’t one to be found. I had this problem in PC World when buying a new PC last year. I eventually cornered one of the ‘purple-shirted’ ones, and they told me to take a number from the desk: the current delay was 20 minutes for ‘assistance’. I decided to make my purchase without their help.
M&S seem to have the best idea: their staff don’t pester customers when they enter, but they magically appear from the other side of the clothes rack just at the moment you need them.
I suppose whichever approach store assistants take, they’re never going to please everyone all the time!
However, it’s equally frustrating when you do want the staff to enhance your ‘shopping experience’ and there isn’t one to be found. I had this problem in PC World when buying a new PC last year. I eventually cornered one of the ‘purple-shirted’ ones, and they told me to take a number from the desk: the current delay was 20 minutes for ‘assistance’. I decided to make my purchase without their help.
M&S seem to have the best idea: their staff don’t pester customers when they enter, but they magically appear from the other side of the clothes rack just at the moment you need them.
I suppose whichever approach store assistants take, they’re never going to please everyone all the time!
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Gavin Scott
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There wouldn't be any need for all this "experience" training and procedures if some serving staff realised they are there to serve.
I had a mixed "experience" today when I called Orange. I've been awaiting an 8GB memory card for my new phone - a month or so since I singed up for a new contract.
The first member of staff I spoke to was fantastic. He took the time to listen to me, empathised with my sense of disappointment and even apologised on behalf of the company.
But then he put me through to a shockingly awful female who would only identify herself as "Helen", who didn't seem to give a rat's ass about what I was saying. She spoke over me several times, even when I said, "with respect, could you let me finish explaining?". Then she told me that her system said I was only due a 4GB card and there was "nothing [she] could do".
I tried to explain I had the paperwork confirming the deal in front of me but TWICE she put me on hold when I was in the middle of a sentence. It didn't seem to matter how I explained it - she didn't want to know.
When I told her that the offer of an 8GB card was one of the reasons I chose to sign up, as it made the handset similar in capacity to the iPhone 8GB I was considering, she abruptly told me that I wouldn't have got an iPhone for the same money. I told her that I knew that - and that the lower rental for Orange was a loyalty reward for having stayed with them for years. At that point she spoke over me and said, "If you don't like it you should have sent the handset back within 28 days". I told her its been more than 28 days since I signed up and still haven't received the memory card - so how would I know to cancel the deal? She put me on hold again while I was saying it.
The best I could manage to achieve in the call was the promise of a "24 hour call back" from her manager.
I've got money to spend. I am the customer. I'm the one who pays her. I pay her mortgage, or rent or laminated floors or whatever else she has.
I was appalled with the horrendous attitude this girl gave me, and it soured even the good experience I had with her colleague.
Why shouldn't my "experience" be a good one? I could spend my money somewhere else - so its down to them to look after me.
She's exactly the type who should be on a training course learning the value of looking after customers - not treating them as an annoyance who can be put on hold or disconnected at her whim.
Knowing that they record all calls to the retention department (including the one where I was offered the original deal), I'm pretty sure that my case will be resolved - but I'll damn well be making a complaint about this snotty bitch.
With so many out of work at the moment, she perhaps should realise what side her bread is buttered.
It seems to me that staff training to "enhance the customer experience" is more important than ever.
I had a mixed "experience" today when I called Orange. I've been awaiting an 8GB memory card for my new phone - a month or so since I singed up for a new contract.
The first member of staff I spoke to was fantastic. He took the time to listen to me, empathised with my sense of disappointment and even apologised on behalf of the company.
But then he put me through to a shockingly awful female who would only identify herself as "Helen", who didn't seem to give a rat's ass about what I was saying. She spoke over me several times, even when I said, "with respect, could you let me finish explaining?". Then she told me that her system said I was only due a 4GB card and there was "nothing [she] could do".
I tried to explain I had the paperwork confirming the deal in front of me but TWICE she put me on hold when I was in the middle of a sentence. It didn't seem to matter how I explained it - she didn't want to know.
When I told her that the offer of an 8GB card was one of the reasons I chose to sign up, as it made the handset similar in capacity to the iPhone 8GB I was considering, she abruptly told me that I wouldn't have got an iPhone for the same money. I told her that I knew that - and that the lower rental for Orange was a loyalty reward for having stayed with them for years. At that point she spoke over me and said, "If you don't like it you should have sent the handset back within 28 days". I told her its been more than 28 days since I signed up and still haven't received the memory card - so how would I know to cancel the deal? She put me on hold again while I was saying it.
The best I could manage to achieve in the call was the promise of a "24 hour call back" from her manager.
I've got money to spend. I am the customer. I'm the one who pays her. I pay her mortgage, or rent or laminated floors or whatever else she has.
I was appalled with the horrendous attitude this girl gave me, and it soured even the good experience I had with her colleague.
Why shouldn't my "experience" be a good one? I could spend my money somewhere else - so its down to them to look after me.
She's exactly the type who should be on a training course learning the value of looking after customers - not treating them as an annoyance who can be put on hold or disconnected at her whim.
Knowing that they record all calls to the retention department (including the one where I was offered the original deal), I'm pretty sure that my case will be resolved - but I'll damn well be making a complaint about this snotty bitch.
With so many out of work at the moment, she perhaps should realise what side her bread is buttered.
It seems to me that staff training to "enhance the customer experience" is more important than ever.
I agree that it's more important for businesses to look after us consumers than ever before - tightening of belts, credit crunch blah etc
I work for a photography company, and we employ mystery shoppers who do the rounds once a month and at any time in that month, and they scare the bejesus out of me. Not because I'm afraid I'm not doing my job properly, but because the surveys or whatever they fill in are so rigid and there's no room to say "well they didn't do this, but they did do that." And who knows whether the mystery shoppers have any idea about how they should be scoring people.
As for the shop floor shadowing that some companies seem to be obsessed with nowadays, I don't like it at all. I like to go into a shop and browse at my leisure. It's nice to have a staff presence in around the aisles in case I do need help, but I don't want to be pestered and followed. This sort of behaviour usually makes me leave the shop.
I work for a photography company, and we employ mystery shoppers who do the rounds once a month and at any time in that month, and they scare the bejesus out of me. Not because I'm afraid I'm not doing my job properly, but because the surveys or whatever they fill in are so rigid and there's no room to say "well they didn't do this, but they did do that." And who knows whether the mystery shoppers have any idea about how they should be scoring people.
As for the shop floor shadowing that some companies seem to be obsessed with nowadays, I don't like it at all. I like to go into a shop and browse at my leisure. It's nice to have a staff presence in around the aisles in case I do need help, but I don't want to be pestered and followed. This sort of behaviour usually makes me leave the shop.