All that effort getting me to come into your store - then you wouldn't take my money!

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › All that effort getting me to come into your store - then you wouldn't take my money!

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Geektastic

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#923414 29-Oct-2013 10:13

Stan: From a retailers perspective sometimes it is impossible to predict the amount of customers that will come though the door at any given time then on top of that what if you have a few staff sick? Sure you could employ more staff to cover this but you as a consumer will have to pay more to cover this.
The problem is most people want bottom dollar pricing, top notch service, high stock levels of product and increasingly a higher living wage. It's not possible.

I'm very happy to pay for top notch service. Indeed I prefer to pay for it. In terms of food retail (and indeed most other retail), however, there is no national chain that offers that model in NZ.

It is not impossible to predict - you just don't do thin provisioning with your staff. If I walk into (say) Whole Foods in the USA or Waitrose in the UK, I won't find a shortage of staff unless there are exigent circumstances like a flu epidemic and even then they would try very hard to overcome it.

networkn

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#923428 29-Oct-2013 10:31

Geektastic:
Stan: From a retailers perspective sometimes it is impossible to predict the amount of customers that will come though the door at any given time then on top of that what if you have a few staff sick? Sure you could employ more staff to cover this but you as a consumer will have to pay more to cover this.
The problem is most people want bottom dollar pricing, top notch service, high stock levels of product and increasingly a higher living wage. It's not possible.

I'm very happy to pay for top notch service. Indeed I prefer to pay for it. In terms of food retail (and indeed most other retail), however, there is no national chain that offers that model in NZ.

You would be in the extreme minority. Most people in NZ want everything so cheap and bugger the consequences. It's cause meet effect in most regards.

How many times have you seen people on GZ talking about going to a retailer, looking at a product and then buying it from the cheapest online retailer. It's a real mindset problem these days.

BTR

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#923442 29-Oct-2013 10:51

Sounds like my local countdown. Only having 2 checkouts open at 7.00pm when all the late comers are buying something for dinner or on a Saturday at 4.00pm when you are trying to buy some meat for a BBQ and a box or beer and you have to wait behind 20 people while 3 "supervisors" sit behind the service desk pretending to be busy and trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Self checkouts for store that have them are amazing apart from they won't accept one card vouchers.

Re Briscoes never had a problem with queues.

networkn

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#923449 29-Oct-2013 10:59

BTR: Sounds like my local countdown. Only having 2 checkouts open at 7.00pm when all the late comers are buying something for dinner or on a Saturday at 4.00pm when you are trying to buy some meat for a BBQ and a box or beer and you have to wait behind 20 people while 3 "supervisors" sit behind the service desk pretending to be busy and trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Self checkouts for store that have them are amazing apart from they won't accept one card vouchers.

Re Briscoes never had a problem with queues.

I have found this occasionally with New World in Mt Roskill. I made a complaint on their website and the regional and store managers called me and explained what they would do to fix it. It wasn't instantly perfect but it's pretty good now. In your situation I would go to the supervisors and politely but firmly let them know the wait was unacceptable.

I had a similar situation arriving in Brisbane on the 23rd of Dec last year. There was a 3 hour queue to get out, and 2 "checkouts". I had a tired pregnant wife, a very tired 2 year old and it was about 26c in the main hall. I went and politely requested the situation be immediately resolved and they opened another 3 checkouts, and we got through right away. It was like
it hadn't occurred to them. Initially they weren't keen, but I was insistent.

Most of the people had just sat around with tired hungry kids and said nothing. Astounding.

MaxLV

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#923672 29-Oct-2013 17:01

networkn:
BTR: Sounds like my local countdown. Only having 2 checkouts open at 7.00pm when all the late comers are buying something for dinner or on a Saturday at 4.00pm when you are trying to buy some meat for a BBQ and a box or beer and you have to wait behind 20 people while 3 "supervisors" sit behind the service desk pretending to be busy and trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Self checkouts for store that have them are amazing apart from they won't accept one card vouchers.

Re Briscoes never had a problem with queues.

I have found this occasionally with New World in Mt Roskill. I made a complaint on their website and the regional and store managers called me and explained what they would do to fix it. It wasn't instantly perfect but it's pretty good now. In your situation I would go to the supervisors and politely but firmly let them know the wait was unacceptable.

I had a similar situation arriving in Brisbane on the 23rd of Dec last year. There was a 3 hour queue to get out, and 2 "checkouts". I had a tired pregnant wife, a very tired 2 year old and it was about 26c in the main hall. I went and politely requested the situation be immediately resolved and they opened another 3 checkouts, and we got through right away. It was like
it hadn't occurred to them. Initially they weren't keen, but I was insistent.

Most of the people had just sat around with tired hungry kids and said nothing. Astounding.

That's not uncommon. Most people dont complain about bad or non existant service. they just grin sheepishly and put up with it.

Went to rebel sport (wellington store) on Sunday to buy a pedometer advertised on their website (coz the Doc says I need to exercise and lose some weight)

Walked in, three shop assistants behind the counter, one serving the only other customer at the counter. Wait 5 minutes while they 'chat' to each other. another customer walks up and waits behind me. Then ask if I can get served. The shop assistant said she had to serve the customer behind me because she had been 'waiting in the 'queue'. There was no queue, no signs saying queue here, or any other customers waiting to be served.

The shop assistant didn't appreciated what I told her about her poor customer service, but I got served straight away, and so did the customer standing behind me.

jpoc

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#924362 30-Oct-2013 18:34

Today, the nice man at pb tech did his very best to persuade me not to buy the item that I gone gone to purchase and then when I insisted, he tried to make sure that I would never go back.

"This is expensive, more than two hundred dollar. If you are not registered customer, you have no guarantee."

I doubt that he can waive my consumer rights quite so easily but I guess that he would not have tried if it did not work most of the time.

sbiddle

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#924379 30-Oct-2013 19:10

Despite hating many things about US society including tipping, the one thing I love is the customer service in any retail facing job. Walk into a store and people want to help you (because there is typically commission for staff in lots of stores), go to a bar or restaurant and you'll (typically) get great service because they want your tip.

One thing I've loved over there that I notice Warehouse Stationery starting here is staff asking "did you find everything you came here for today". Research shows people are more likely to give feedback when prompted where it can be put right.

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jpoc

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#924410 30-Oct-2013 20:44

sbiddle: Despite hating many things about US society including tipping, the one thing I love is the customer service in any retail facing job. Walk into a store and people want to help you (because there is typically commission for staff in lots of stores), go to a bar or restaurant and you'll (typically) get great service because they want your tip.

One thing I've loved over there that I notice Warehouse Stationery starting here is staff asking "did you find everything you came here for today". Research shows people are more likely to give feedback when prompted where it can be put right.

Personally, I hate every aspect of the experience of shopping in a store where the staff are on commission.

1)

In the menswear department of an upmarket store in Munich. I am browsing the selection of full length, fur lined Bulgari leather overcoats. Serious money and a commission payment that would have funded a week in Tunisia for the sellrat. Was there any chance that I would be left alone to browse and consider my purchase? No way. So I walked out and yes the sellrat lost his commission and Hertie lost the sale.

2)

A luggage store just on the other side of Karlsplatz from Hertie. The rucksacks are basically in a disorderly heap at the far end of the store. The model-thin oh-so-chic staff are in a huddle at the other end discussing makeup tips or whatever and I am left to sift through the heap to find what I am looking for. After a long rummage, which I am sure would have broken those exquisitely manicured nails, I find what I want and head to the checkout. The sellrats descend on me. The first one snatches the rucksack and marches off to the checkouts to make sure that she claims her commission. Don't you wish that you could earn a twenty dollar commission for chatting to your friends and then snatching a customer's purchase from his hands?

Brussels is just the same, if not worse as the more aggressive sellrats there will actually hit you if you tell them to leave you alone. (Seriously)

France is much better as long as you can stand the fact that the sales team are all drunk after lunchtime.

sbiddle

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#924419 30-Oct-2013 21:17

It's a fine line between. Bad service in NZ is unfortunately a far too typical occurrence.

I was at Lone Star in Wellington on Friday and had the starter turn up before our drinks. First they lost the order, after another delay they then came back to say they had now run out of the bottled beer we had ordered, and then another delay before the drinks arrived. The table service was very average and really makes you wonder what some of the staff would feel like if they were out for a meal and given the same level of service.

In terms of retail one of the best experiences I've ever had was buying a new watch at the Tag Heuer store in Sydney last year. Sure I was buying a luxury item and expected the service to be good, but it was fantastic. I just wish shopping everywhere was as good.

Kim587

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#924476 30-Oct-2013 23:41

Pity about the Lone Star, I normally find them outstanding.
My personal pet hate is when the person at a cafe brings your hot drink and spills half of it over the saucer, and then just says "sorry I'll just get you a napkin!"
Closer to home I've always had good experiences at Noel Leeming, there's pretty much no comparison between the, and DSE.

jeffnz

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#924516 31-Oct-2013 07:31

We remember the bad things that happen to us but take the good as being what we are entitled to or normal.

Frankly I'm sick of the inferences that NZ service is bad, put up some relevant information not just your opinion based on 'some' bad experiences.

Like most on here I have also traveled and see little or no difference, trying to compare commissioned staffs service against non is just silly and shows that you aren't really getting genuine service at all.

One would hope that the few here that dislike NZ retailers aren't hypocrites and give exceptional customer service to their clients, both internal and external, from my experience they don't they just have a higher sense of entitlement than others.

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Jas777

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#924548 31-Oct-2013 08:20

IPOC

How can you compare Ireland and UK with NZ and Australia? The distance between NZ and Australia would make Ireland and Russia a better comaprison.

nzkiwiman

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#924864 31-Oct-2013 16:18

sbiddle: Despite hating many things about US society including tipping, the one thing I love is the customer service in any retail facing job. Walk into a store and people want to help you (because there is typically commission for staff in lots of stores), go to a bar or restaurant and you'll (typically) get great service because they want your tip.

One thing I've loved over there that I notice Warehouse Stationery starting here is staff asking "did you find everything you came here for today". Research shows people are more likely to give feedback when prompted where it can be put right.

Having just come back from San Francisco I was surprised the first time I heard "did you find everything you came here for today"
A few times I said no (which was true), but then explained that I was looking for exclusive items that were released months before I got to the country and I knew I would probably not find

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