I heard Neil Mitchell on 3AW this morning talking about poor customer service. The examples Neil gave were from big businesses so I emailed him saying small businesses are champions when it comes to good customer service. He read the email on air and noted that I own a newsagency. He also mentioned the good service he gets from his local newsagent. Well done whoever that is!
It is feedback like this which can help strengthen customer perception about newsagencies and newsagents. We should not be afraid to step up to the plate on talkback radio and elsewhere in the media and remind people of our commitment to exceptional customer service.
Good personal customer service is a point of diffrence we can own.
Kudos to Neil Mitchell for shaming those who provide poor customer service.
I had a lady this morning rush in while I was taking my newspaper bundles and demand a paper. I said we aren’t open yet and the papers are still tied up, this was at 5:55 ( we open at 6:00am). I said I won’t be long.
She then abused me and walked away to a group of 12 customers waiting for the supermarket nextdoor to open, telling them that she’ll now refuse to buy the paper from us now because I have bad customer service in my shop. I see this as defamation. She couldn’t wait two minutes but could wait four minutes for the supermarket to open.
Is it bad customer service to do what I did?
i don’t think so. if a customer chooses to be rude and/or abusive, then that’s a customer that you don’t need.
Michael, you said the lady “rushed in” so I assume the door was open. If the door is open I suggest you are open for business. Unfortunately she seems to be the type to spread that gave you bad service and therein lies the problem, not that you actually gave bad service by asking her to wait just a moment. Your service is always only as good as the customer perceives it to be, not what we as retailers perceive it to be.
Graeme, I had the lights off, door just closed enough to fit myself and the bundles through (only one entrance in my store) and CLOSED sign displayed.
I think you’re right, it’s the way the customer sees it. The customer isn’t always right though.
unfortunately there is a small part of the community that thinks that buying a newspaper has to be done in record time and god forbid should they have to wait in line or for you to open, these are the people who always only have the right money and never buy anything else, I just love the way they shove right past other customers and throw their money down on the counter
I’m glad to see I am not the only person with customers like this.All of the above comments also happen at my shop.Admittedly its only by 0.1% of the customers. They other 99.9% are fantastic.
sometimes i quite like those people who have the exact money and are straight to the point.
sure it’s nice to hear someone’s life story once in a while, but they’re also the people who pay for a pepr with a $50, or on credit…
Would it have hurt just to give her a paper?
Mary, we weren’t open and the papers were in bundles. The time it takes to open the bundle was the same time she had to wait anyway.
She was a version of what Scott described above