I get it, sometimes you just want to walk into a shop, have a nose around and just see if something catches your eye. Maybe you haven’t got the money to make the purchase straight away, or you don’t need any help or maybe your other half has just sent you an angry voice message because you’ve left the toilet seat up and the last thing you need is a sales assistant engaging in a conversation. Although, at the same time to be ignored when walking into a store with your hard earned cash ready to spend, and you aren’t even greeted with a polite ‘hello’ is in my eyes, unacceptable.
Over most days during November and December of last year, I worked on the shop floor in our Metquarter flagship. Myself and the rest of the team did our best to engage with everyone who walked through the door, explain the concept behind MARAI, advise on fits, understand their requirements for any purchases and direct accordingly. 90% of the time this was greeted pleasantly and feedback was exceptional, and with experience you learn that remaining 10%, for whatever reason, don’t won’t this interaction so you have to just stand back and smile.
For us, this level of customer care is essential, it’s part of the brand, finding staff who are engaged with the brand, embrace our core values and deliver them day after day is non negotiable. Sometimes we may fall short and so we encourage feedback and look at how we improve for the future.
We do it our way, and we do it in this way because we feel it is important, as there is a lot of talking at the moment about consumers coming back into the high street and away from online, I do wholeheartedly believe that this is a good thing, though sadly from my experience, I have seen very poor to non-existent customer service. Now, credit where its due, End clothing are great at this. I have been into their Manchester and London stores on many an occasion and every time found friendly, helpful staff who are happy and confident to engage.
As always please feel free to comment or disagree, as it is always good to hear other opinions.
