Customer Service
- Details
- Published: Monday, 10 December 2012 08:31
- Written by David DeCiero
Recently, I had an experience as a customer in the retail liquor industry that reiterated to me why I work in this field.This involved a couple of the aspects that I have written about before, including (need to add in links here, but the ones about customer service and helping a customer find what they are looking for as well as all the specialty stuff).The experience that I underwent is typical of how customers are treated at some stores.
The experience started with an article I had read about a specialty Italian liquor called Amaro.This is an extremely bitter drink that is typically homemade in Italy.However, there are some commercial brands available in the United States.So, I figured I would try to try one of the commercial brands before I tried to make it myself.I knew it would be a small hunt to find it, and it turned out I was correct.I knew that the local beer and wine stores would not have it, so I went right past them.I then went to an extremely well stocked grocery store.I could not find it on the shelf, so I asked the person working in that department. I got the expected response of, “You mean Amaretto?”I told the person no.He was clearly confused, but helped me look in the sections for it.After about 5 minutes, we gave up and he said they didn’t have it.I then called around to some larger liquor stores in New England.The employee’s helpfulness ranged from a straight no to actually trying to be helpful.I took note of how each employee treated me so that I could determine whether I would go back to that store the next time I was looking for something.The major thing that the places to which I would return had in common was that they really wanted to help me.This included offers to order the item or ship it to me.The fact was that no one locally had it, but that didn’t stop some companies from trying to find a way to help me.This included shipping if they did have eventually ended up buying it from a store that ordered it for me.However, I will also be visiting the places that had it.Even though they weren’t able to complete the transaction, they were extremely helpful and probably have other items for which I am looking.
In all, my experience was typical of most customers.If a place doesn’t have it or doesn’t know about it, that’s it.Employees typically do not go beyond their own shelves.This is unfortunate as the goal is to create repeat customers, and just because a person cannot buy one item from your store does not mean they won’t come back looking for something different.Employees should always try to get the job done for the customer as customers remember the helpfulness that was shown to them.