Customer Service
 

Today when I went shopping in central London,
not one shop assistant said hello to me, or told me
about their current promotions and no-one tried to
get me to buy a stereo system that frankly I don't want.
It was wonderful!!
People constantly gripe about how poor customer service is in the UK.
But what's poor about it?
Personally I don't want to be hassled when I go into a shop, I don't
expect shop workers to grovel around me and fake being nice to
me. If I need help I'll ask for it.
The customer service culture in North America is just annoying. How irritating to be asked 20 times in the same shop if you need help!! :mad:
The number of times I've been asked if I'm enjoying my meal, and then me have to grunt like an idiot with my mouth full! Just leave me alone!!

How lovely to have a nice quiet pint in a British pub without the bartender hovering over you every 5 minutes offering refills and expecting a tip! :beer:
Cheers to British poor customer service! :beer:

Re: Customer Service
 

i think you may be turning into an englishman!! :scared:

Re: Customer Service
 

You have a point, but there is plenty of abysmal service in the UK. I dont want or need someone hovering, pandering to my every need, but I expect help available when I need it, and I expect courtesy and politeness.

Canada is unfortunatley becoming more like the UK in terms of not being able to find that in some stores, and often now I will walk out on a sale and find another place with more help available. Fortunately I havent seen nearly as much toadying here as in the US, where you need a machette to get through the greeters and other superfluous sales types in places. Give me a smile and a polite "Can I help you" over being ignored anyday of the week.

Re: Customer Service
 

Maybe deep down I AM an Englishman! :D

Re: Customer Service
 

If that were the case you would be trying to escape to Canada :D

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Ah you mean 'The Brick' experience, what a festering stink hole that place is...... full of toadying 100%-commission sweaty wallet-greasers :mad:

Rich.

Re: Customer Service
 

Same there as here then? Went in "fresh off the boat", never been back since! Great sales job there I recon, only it was on behalf of Leons!

Re: Customer Service
 

Last time I went in the brick I was accosted by a Scotish 'lady' who made the BIG mistake of telling me to make sure I didnt buy off 'one of them' (a non-british sales person) make sure I 'stuck to my own' (a british (ie her) sales person).

Needless to say we turned on our heels and went to look in leons

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Urk...... yes the grovelling, snivelling, and what not is sickening - visited once, never set foot back in the misery-shed since.
Boycotted, til they pay their poor demeaned wage-slaves (sorry I mean staff) properly in a fair structure and not just on commission only.

Rich.

Re: Customer Service
 

Yes, I expect people to be polite, but that's it.
In North America it goes too far. I don't want to be called 'Sir', I don't want to be approached by shop assistants asking how my day is, I don't want to be told about store promotions and I don't want to have to tip people for serving me when I didn't ask to be served.
I had a meal at a popular Canadian restaurant with initials ESM just before christmas and was asked 8 times if I needed anything, refills etc! It was so annoying to be constantly interrupted often with my mouth full.
I really don't want to be waited on hand and foot.
I hope this sort of culture never makes it's way across the Atlantic.

Re: Customer Service
 

Very little chance, not even a pale imitation of it.

Rich.

Re: Customer Service
 

hehe David, I'm proud of you...you are adjusting so like my US citizen husband did. Only yesterday I was in Neiman Marcus here in Houston in the clothes dept and no less than 5 assistants asked me how I was...now I was seriously concentrating on my shopping...lol and did not want to keep being interrupted so when the next lady.. yes the 6th lady asked me how I was doing... well I was ready for her and just told her like it was....I was polite but told her I had a headache and no I was not having a nice day and to please just leave me alone, lol she went off wishing me a nice day :rolleyes: ...I left the shop without buying and moved onto the next one to be greeted again and so it goes on...it pi**es me off..lol I have to say though excellent customer service on returns ...nearly as good as Marks and Sparks for changing things :D

Re: Customer Service
 

I think it works both ways. I remember a summer job at university when I worked at Dixons (the electrical store). They had something called the 1 minute warning (or 2 minute, I can't remember). In short, a customer had to be approached and offered help within that time.

I used to hate it, as both a employee and a customer. Over the years the management seem to have noticed how annoyed customers were getting as that rule doesn't seem to exist any more (at least not in my local store). I don't really shop there at all, but I was in the other day and the sales people seemed to be doing everything they could to avoid customers. Even when you made eye contact with the "I need help" look on your face, nothing seemed to happen. I had to go to the till like I wanted to pay for something, before I could get help.

Oh well :)

Later

Chris

Re: Customer Service
 

I think they have it right in the places I eat in (not that I eat out often). As a rule, you are asked if everything is okay when they bring all the food. Once part way through your meal, and once when they take your plates away. I think that is about right. If I want a refill, there are staff hovering around that you can wave over.

Chris

Re: Customer Service
 

Being asked within one or two minutes if you want help is really annoying. Dixons seems to have gone the opposite way now as you mention, ignoring customers is equally as annoying. It seems the UK has some good but many bad companies for customer services. Waitrose and Marks seem some of the betters ones.

One of the better ideas for customer services which I enjoyed in Canada is bringing over the bill at the end of the meal and leaving it to you as to when you want to pay and leave. In the UK it seems like once they have brought out all your food you cannot find a member of staff for your bill. It sometimes gets to the point where I feel like walking out without paying because they don't seem to want your money anyway.

Re: Customer Service
 

Oh yes one of my pet hates when I eat out in the UK.

Reminds me of something else. Am I correct in thinking that in canada you can not get served at a bar UNLESS you are actually siiting there? I.E. if you are seated at a table you have to order your drinks with a 'server' who brings them to you?

Re: Customer Service
 

Oh my God Iain, I am agreeing with you again :o

The thing is, when you actually need help to find things or have a problem the Sales Assistants seem to be either busy or will just ignore you over here.
Shop Assistants are not trained at all well in their jobs and that is why courtesy and politeness have disappeared from the British Shop. Just as an example years ago when you gave a £5 note to pay, the shop assistant would count back your change so that you knew it was correct, now all they do is get a fistful of money and shove it into your hand and its upto you to start looking at it to see if it is right, how good is that ?
Also when you pick things up to buy in a clothes store, you go to the till and the majority of the time they won't even say hello, good day or hi, a grunt or grabbing the clothes off you maybe all you receive.
Customer serviece maybe a little over the top in the USA but is certainly "under the top" in the UK, I would hope there is a happy medium as a model somewhere in the world, is Canada like the USA, UK or somewhere in between ?

Re: Customer Service
 

My biggest pet hate is when you are looking at two similar products. You look at them, compare them, compare what is on the feature list next to the price, but still can't make up your mind.

You then think "I know, a sales person will be able to help me".

So you eventually manage to call one over, and ask them what the difference is. They grunt, look at the feature lists, and just say "well this one has.....<insert feature list for product A>, and this one has....<insert feature list for probuct B>".

I feel like shouting "I can read you <expleatives deleted>. I want MORE information. That's where you are supposed to come in! <expleatives deleted>"

:mad:

Chris

Re: Customer Service
 

Well, I like customer service over here in general, I think there is more to it than just what happens in shops... As mentioned by someone else, I got an exceptionally toady (and somehow smarmy) guy in the Brick who made me decide to pay more else where if I have to. On the other had the following comes to mind...

1. We bought my 4 year old daughter some trainers whilst in Quebec, the first time she wore them (in Halifax NS) she complained that they hurt her feet - we took her into a children's shoe shop to have her feet measured to check. The assistant found the Quebec pair too small and replaced them immediately saying that they carried the same make/model and it wouldn't be hard to slip them in with a batch of returns.

2. My son (18-months) disgraced himself in a Halifax restaurant by shouting and throwing his food all over the place, the one thing he didn't do was eat anything... When the build arrived along with the "Was everything ok today?", we said we were happy apart from the embarassment of non-eating child. When I went to pay, his meal had been removed from the bill, when I asked why the reply was "He hasn't eaten anything, we are not charging him."

3. I'm about to move house - I called my cable suppliers to tell them I'd need to cancel my services and ask what kind of notice period I needed to give - "Just call us on the day you move out." was the response - try doing that with someone like NTL in the UK (who are still trying to charge us occasionally four months after we left) or Sky TV both of whom require a months notice - why? To take an extra month money from the consumer, I know it's in the contract, but there is no reason to do this, it takes a few key taps to kill services like this.

I think 1 and 2 are beyond what is required, 3 is just obvious but unavailable in the UK...

I don't find many sales staff too pushy here (Could be that I take my iPod shopping :) ) and obviously they don't really care "How I am..." when they ask, but they at least give the impression they give a sh*t about something and they smile!

I prefer it here.

Re: Customer Service
 

Yeah. Looks like the classic limey nit picking and whingeing over trivia. Did you register a complaint with the store?

Just remember what George Carlin said - "Don't sweat the petty stuff ... and don't pet the sweaty stuff"

Re: Customer Service
 

Given the immigration numbers from the UK are at record levels, maybe it's a good thing some want to replace us! :D

Re: Customer Service
 

First of all, as regards No 1, most staff would not even contemplate that in an English shop as they aren't given any responsibility and have to stick to rigid rules made by their employers or they think they do !

Regarding No 2, that is a really amazing thing that happened in that Restaurant but that's what customer service is all about, one thing they have made sure is 1) You will never forget it and 2) It is likely that you will go back again because they did that particular thing 3) You will tell all your friends how good and friendy they are

And your 3rd point is another example of how the British company has become so greedy, they will try and make it most difficult to get out of paying for a service and just think ho wmuch cash they are making because people forget to give ample notice before moving house, etc and are paying for 2 services, one at the old and one at the new house. BT recently dumped me with a cancellation fee for a number I had installed at a rented property just because I had it for less than 1 year, and for that fee they have had to do nothing, not even do anythng to the line. :mad:

And what about the Very Greedy Credit Card Companies or Banks who now charge you £25 if you pay late on your credit card on top of their whopping interest rates. I had a balance of £37 in December (with MBNA) and was a few days late paying due to forgetting over the Jolly Season of Christmas and they slapped my balance upto £62 in one go even though I did pay something off just after the statement date. Or even the banks that slap you in the face with £25 for going overdrawn by 1p (Barclays for one); AND they will do that for every cheque or transaction that takes it further O/D e.g. If you have 3 x £5 cheques drawn then tehycharge you not £25 but 3x£25=£75, how many people knew that ? Is that extremely greedy or what ?

Re: Customer Service
 

This is pretty much my experience too.

Re: Customer Service
 

I think what Ziggy is describing above is proper good old fashioned service and helpfulness....with a scattering of friendliness thrown in.....these days we get so entwined into thinking that service = sales and vice versa.

Sales people think we will be duped into being won over by their 'helpfulness' as they encourage us to lighten our wallets.

Too many corporate pressures on margins, returns, refunds, contracts, warranties etc. Not enough thinking of the customer, which is actually the source off all business. Interesting concept put simply:

Executive A thinks the business is run solely to generate profit.
Executive B thinks that when the business is run effectively, profit is a by-product of successful and positive customer contact.
"A" is the in majority, but in principle of economics and trade "B" has the correct philosophy and is of more value to the business.
"A" is isolated and looks from the business outwards at the world (the busines market) but "B" looks at the customer (the market) inwards and figures out how to make it all work. Typically "A" will sit at the head of the business oir in the 'hierarchy' and be isolated and aloof whereas "B" may have the same status but be fully integrated into the business, suppliers, customers, marketing etc. "B" is what we used to call a hands on manager. "B" is always more popular amongst their staff, and should have more influence over customer service as they see the customer perspective more clearly.

Rich.

Re: Customer Service
 

They don't do that because it would take too much time. Can you imagine how much other customers would complain?
I prefer to be 'ignored' in shops. That way I can actually look and think about what I'm buying. In Canada there's no chance of that. As soon as you enter the store 10 people decend on you like vultures, you can't even get a word in edgeways sometimes.

Re: Customer Service
 

More Bullshit. Where on earth did you shop! Even when the assistant asks if they can help I have never, ever, had one persist after saying, "no thanks, just looking"

Oh well. Ignore list

Re: Customer Service
 

The big futureshop's are terrible they never leave you alone. They have way too many staff doing nothing

Gap used to be the same but I think they must have listened to feedback from customers and they leave you alone now. Although baby Gap hasn't changed that policy.

Went to Hard Rock Cafe once in Niagara Falls had to tell them to stop coming as they just wouldn't leave us alone.

Re: Customer Service
 

Iain,

Fancy Joining my new Anti-David Party? ;)

Re: Customer Service
 

There are some total idiots on this forum.
Why don't you grow up and stop acting like a complete f**king a**hole?

Re: Customer Service
 

Why reply to my message then?
Idiot.

Re: Customer Service
 

David you must stop talking to yourself.

Re: Customer Service
 

Not worth the effort. Ignore list is working just fine. Mods will do what they do eventually. Hes just pissed off as he has no good reason why an Engineer in "Bucks"" would be posting between 3pm and 2AM UK time (10am-9pm EST coincidentally). and then says hes working from home in a different thread:confused:

If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, smells like a duck, and behaves like a duck, in my experience there is a fairly good chance that it is a duck. Same goes for trolls, but what do I know, Im just an idiot. Think thats reportable to the mods come to think of it, but ****ing asshole is better:)

Re: Customer Service
 

David see the thread at the top regarding flaming other members (under moderator)

(you have a week off from the forum while you read it )



Ray1968

Re: Customer Service
 

One store that I avoid at all costs is Radio Shack. They want your name, address, phone number, inside leg and first born just to buy a battery in there!!

I cannot believe that SO many people happily oblige!

Re: Customer Service
 

For some stuff theres not a lot of other choice. To be fair they have never sent me any junk mail or cold called me, and you can always just give them a made up name...or better still give them the name of a neighbour you dont like ;)

Re: Customer Service
 

I often get asked for phone number/post code in shops, I just put on my best British accent and say "Sorry, I'm new here, I don't know it yet".

Re: Customer Service
 

:D LOL good one - I'll remember that, and I have just the candidate ;)

What bothers me though is most people have no idea just how valuable that information is! They may not send you junk, but you can sure as heck bet they're selling it on to someone else. Information is huge business in Canada.

I usually just say "No - you don't need that", or "How much are you going to pay me for it?" I get some really funny looks.....lol

Re: Customer Service
 

I'm usually to harried by trying to make an informed purchase and controlling my kids at the same time to think of something like that! Genius! I look forward to using it asap :D