Did you find everything you were looking for?
Category Customer Service
On a recent visit to the grocery store the person at the checkout register asked the question "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Just to be a bit of a butthead, I said no and said I was looking for something I know they don't carry. The response was the predictable "Gee I don't think we ever carry that." and quite a bit of confusion. It was pretty obvious that the vast majority of people would say "yes" even if it wasn't true. I got to thinking about this exchange. It seems to me, that more and more staff are being trained to give the appearance of customer service by asking this type of question as you are checking out of the store. However, it is very clear that beyond asking the question, very few organizations subsequently train their staff on how to respond when they actually get a response to the question. How simple and satisfying it would be for the clerk to have a card (or better yet a program right on the register) that would take my name and contact info that would generate a call from someone in the store management to find out what I wanted that they didn't carry. As it is, I know the store doesn't carry the item and I drive out of my way to buy it from another store every month or so. Since I'm already at the other store, I buy the groceries that I need for that week, and the other store looses out because they don't carry the one item I am looking for. Too often we implement procedures and methods that are designed to convince customers that we are uniquely interested in them but when you scratch the surface they are merely hollow. Customer service is about a lot more than just creating the right appearance.
On a recent visit to the grocery store the person at the checkout register asked the question "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Just to be a bit of a butthead, I said no and said I was looking for something I know they don't carry. The response was the predictable "Gee I don't think we ever carry that." and quite a bit of confusion. It was pretty obvious that the vast majority of people would say "yes" even if it wasn't true. I got to thinking about this exchange. It seems to me, that more and more staff are being trained to give the appearance of customer service by asking this type of question as you are checking out of the store. However, it is very clear that beyond asking the question, very few organizations subsequently train their staff on how to respond when they actually get a response to the question. How simple and satisfying it would be for the clerk to have a card (or better yet a program right on the register) that would take my name and contact info that would generate a call from someone in the store management to find out what I wanted that they didn't carry. As it is, I know the store doesn't carry the item and I drive out of my way to buy it from another store every month or so. Since I'm already at the other store, I buy the groceries that I need for that week, and the other store looses out because they don't carry the one item I am looking for. Too often we implement procedures and methods that are designed to convince customers that we are uniquely interested in them but when you scratch the surface they are merely hollow. Customer service is about a lot more than just creating the right appearance.