No they don’t smell that way, they are simply revolting due to the poor service they receive in many businesses, not all, just some.

They vote with their feet with only a small percentage actually complaining about the level of service received. These people walk out due to a range of annoying things that happen while shopping, both at a retail level and also at a business to business level.

Some of the things that people mention that annoys them are as follows.

Disinterested staff
- They appeared to not want to serve the customer or were chatting to a friend (worse still on the phone.)

Slow service
- A thing that appeared to be a simple task that becomes complex annoys people no end.
- Waiting in line (worse in a Govt dept.)

Poor presentation
- Of staff, a tardy appearance does little to instil confidence.
- Of the business, you never get a second chance at a first impression.

Needs not met
- Want a certain thing and get something else. How would you feel?

Poor communication

• The staff seem unable to understand your needs.
• The staff do little to build rapport and therefore your trust.
• The staff member asks you for help, you want assistance not help, after all you are not drowning.
• They talk past the sale, you wanted some details but they gave you too much!

Uncaring

• One business you deal with phones to follow up, the others could not care less. They sold you, now you are on you own.
• They take too long to answer the phone, sometimes they get it totally wrong and fail to answer all together!

All of these are areas for concern. If your business is having problems with customer complaints, then you should act quickly to do something about it. Sacking the responsible staff member these days is out of the question. Aim to work with them rather than against them.

Incredibly there are those who blame the service problem on the service leaders, they will comment that if these organisations did not create better service, then the rest would not have to keep up!

If you hang a sign or make the statement that ‘you care’ about your customers then make sure you do, my advice is that you avoid talking about it and just do it!

We should all demand effective service where ever we shop. We pay for the goods and we should get it in a way that we enjoy, if the business you are dealing with can not  live up to this then check out the competition.

Consider making shopping an enjoyable experience, how would you feel if the business you walked into cared, truly cared about you and the service they provided to you. This business would soon gain an enviable reputation that their competitors would die for.

How to do it?
How would you find out if your service is up to scratch? Research? A mystery shopper program (where you send in an independent evaluator.) or just guess that it is okay? What ever you do, make sure it is truly effective so that you can ensure that your team are doing their best.

Developing options
If you find a few ‘glitches’ in your system, carefully consider what you can do to alter the situation?
- Try taking your staff to breakfast and brainstorm some ideas.
- Discuss options at your next team meeting.
- Chat with the person concerned, and provide them with more options so they can improve their skills.

What else you can do is only limited to your imagination, the rest is up to you.

Stumble it!