One of the interesting things about the current recession, sorry depression, is the focus back on basics across all businesses. Retail is no different so we have seen this manifest in what has become the year of austerity in advertising campaigns like ‘feed the family for a fiver’. Another basic home truth is that customer service is getting better as retailers are forced to compete. Staff are asking better questions being more attentive and probably doing what they should have been doing anyway.
Forgive me if you have seen this via other blogs since it has been circulated widely however one example of how poor service can backfire very quickly came to our attention late last year. It is worth sharing one since it is funny and second because it demonstrates the power of the social networks in consumer opinion (another interest of Highstreeters). This was ironically poor service from one of the better practitioners of service – Virgin. The moral here is give bad service and you could be slated everywhere very quickly. Retailers need a quick response system as well as a multi channel strategy to give a consistent view.
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