As a customer on a daily basis there are countless interactions with businesses and brands that add to my perception of you and your business. Most of the time these are to a level that simply meets a demand- I want something, you have it, I buy it and leave….nothing special or unique, you just fulfilled a need. On other occasions an impression is made. This impression may blow me away, or it may completely shock me and will subconsciously add your business to my personal ‘Do Not EVER Return’ list….I am sure you all have this locked away in you somewhere. On the counter side, if you blow me away, I will be a loyal and raving fan and keep coming back, and more importantly recommend you to others, something no marketing spend can replicate. But more of the good in the next post. Let’s start with the negative and finish positive.
So, if you NEVER wish to see me again simply follow my 5 examples (and there are more than 5 I know) of how to P@#@ me off as a customer.
1. Provide NO Service
I get it that it is getting hard for some sectors to get staff, but if you are providing a service, unfortunately you need to provide service! Nothing annoys me more than going into a premise to buy (and I am a buyer with intent, if I go to your shop I usually know what I want) and I cannot find anyone to serve me or to ask and queries I may have. This unfortunately is becoming way too common in a lot of places, especially the big name retailers who are making massive cutbacks to justify their top heavy executive pay packets. No one wins here. The customer gets annoyed and leaves, causing a domino effect in downturn in spending and then more cost cutting…maybe providing some service will increase revenue??
2. Be on your phone
This is on that annoys me as a customer, when the customers in front of me are so important that they have to be on their phone while ordering as it is simply rude, but it is even worse when the person who is there to provide service is too busy sending an SMS or updating their Facebook or talking to serve me. Do this while I come to buy and I will put my goods back and leave. End of story.
3. Have rude staff
Maybe this is a flow on from not having adequate staff, but having staff who are poorly trained or simply rude (see point 2) to serve me is a behaviour full of danger for the business. I don’t know everything about what I want to buy, so I do have questions some times, and if I am made to feel like an idiot by some staff member, sorry but you will lose me.
4. Don’t have what you sell!
Come on, this is a no brainer I would have thought, but we have all experienced it. Go to the chicken joint to buy dinner and guess what, they have no chicken!! A hotel with no rooms (yea I get limited demand etc but still annoying), Slim Dusty’s ‘Pub with no beer’, now that would be a sin, and luckily I haven’t experienced that, but I think you get my message. This too comes back to training and process. How do you manage your stock or ordering, or more importantly what do you train your staff to do in response to this situation as this can save the day if handling properly.
5. I can’t find you online or physically
How can I buy from you if I can’t find you? Today we all research and look up businesses online to save time, but if you don’t have a web presence or tell me how to find you, or contact you then it makes it very hard for me to give you money. Worse still and I experienced this in Surfers Paradise last week with a large Australian phone company, I found them online, walked the streets to the shopping centre to buy a 4G wifi device only to walk, walk and walk some more then to ask at information where they were, to be told they had moved….update your information please…In today’s world if you aren’t online in some form, and if you are if you don’t have accurate information then it makes it very hard to buy from you.
I think that will do me, as I am starting to get frustrated and want to name names for each example but I won’t.
What are your pet peevs of service as I am sure there are many…
Stay tuned for my 5 reasons why I will give you my money…
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[…] my last post I shared 5 Reasons Why I Won’t Buy From You, but let’s look at the good stuff and share how to get my money as a customer. It really […]
depends on how its done. if what you have in mind is the wrong one for you, there are ways of helping you make a better decision..
Agree Peter, nothing worse than trying to be sold something you don’t want!
All good points. Another one to mention is if I have a particular item in mind, and have a brand that I prefer, DONT try and talk me into something else…