Put the customers back on their thrones

Mar 11 2003 By Bill Midgley, The Journal

In spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of whatever, but someone slightly older starts to concentrate on the garden.

So it was with limited enthusiasm that I set off last week to buy a new mower and gardening equipment from one of our leading DIY stores on Tyneside. Part of what I wanted was two shelves up, certainly above my head height, with a sign that customers should not climb on the shelves but seek assistance.

My request for assistance brought a reply that it was impossible to lift down these items when customers were in the store as it might be a danger to them. My incredulous reply obviously marked me down as a troublemaker in the eyes of the assistant, although I still received no explanation as to how the store can sell anything placed at such a height, if it is not lifted down for the customer.

It was obvious that this was the goods' normal display area.

Of course, none of my £500 was spent in the store and I might just make my existing equipment last the year.

In the same week I was surrounded by three workers from a local call centre, and spent three-and-a-half hours on a rail journey listening to their observations on the intelligence of their customers, i.e. those who call in and obviously make demands on them.

I am only too well aware from a working life spent in customer service that members of the public can be demanding, irritating, annoying, sometimes dishonest, and often angry. They are also, and more often than not, right. And they pay our salaries.

Perhaps it is all too easy to get angry at the individuals concerned but invariably it is the managers behind them who are to blame. Training in customer care and an appreciation of the value of the customer is something which still does not receive the attention it deserves.

Training budgets, I appreciate, are often hit at times of economic downturn but such a reduction might just be cut too far. Companies ignore customers - or abuse customers - at their peril.

A recent CBI survey indicates a marked down-turn in customer confidence and people spending less, perhaps as a result of war scares, because they fear rising unemployment and because they may have to save more for their pensions.

Whatever the reason, it means there will be greater competition for customers and an appreciation of the value of those customers would be a well worthwhile training exercise.