Posts Tagged ‘customer service’

Have you ever tried to pick the fastest line at the grocery store only to find out that you picked the wrong line? I had this happen to me this weekend but it didn’t have to be that way.

Essentially, the delay in my line was because of a price problem with a bag of peaches. Happens all the time, right?

The story goes like this. the cashier calls the produce section to get the price which we found was $1.99. Yup, one twoonie. This took all of about five minutes. No big deal except the other lines is flying right now.

The problem occurred when the cashier tried to input the product. No go, can’t find the product listed at that price. Okay, so we need to override the price in the system. Ah, but we need a manger to do that! Another three or four minutes.

I understand that $2 is a chunk of change when multiplied by thousands but I truly believe that those who work for you will generally try to do good for the company. Given the right training and power they will make good decisions. So, Mangers, CEOs and big cigars please give your line people some power and the training to use it wisely. Your customers will be happier for it.

Your company has policies, I’m sure of it. Do you know what these policies mean to your customers?

Case in Point

Just the other day I was trying to pay for some house supplies. I go to the store, find the items I want and wait in line like everyone else. The only problem was I go to the registers only to find that the company does not accept credit cards. Well this might be a problem since I rarely carry cash these days. While I understand the economics of accepting credit cards, I also understand that turning down customers who are ready to pay is also not a great idea. For this particular company I tend to agree with their policy since the average purchase is under $10.

Your company needs to be more aware of their customers and how your policies can make or brake an experience. A suggestion by author Roy Osing is to create a dumb rules team. Their job is to find and stamp out dumb rules. I’m in favour of that.

There are more extreme examples of poor policies than the one above. Maybe you can think of a few?

Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers: