Tuesday is Mike and my date day, well morning really, we try and put all other things aside to just do something together, sometimes we catch a film, or dinner, or just go to the garden centre together without kids in tow, it's our little piece of sanctuary.
This week I thought it would be nice to have a look around the shops at all the Christmas stuff. Those who have read my other blogs will know I'm not a fan of shopping, well it's the other people really that are the problem :) that said I'm a huge fan of Christmas, as my birthday is on the 22nd December there's not much else to look forward to all year. When I was growing up mum would never let us have the Christmas tree up until after my birthday, so since I've had my own house I put it up as early as possible, just because I can :)
Anyway, off we headed to Bedford, we are also currently looking for Mike's new mobility car so he stopped off at a car dealer on the way. We have looked at about 6 already now and the difference in customer service is quite gobsmacking. I don't like to be harassed and if they jump on you the minute you set foot through the door that annoys me but when you've spent 10 or 15 minutes walking round a car, sitting in, opening the boot etc I expect some sort of a "would you like any help".
Obviously it depends who's working when you go in, we went to the Seat dealer twice and the first time the guy couldn't be bothered to get off his chair, maybe he felt the car sold itself? The next time we went in the guy was so over helpful and over selling the car he got on my nerves although he then went on to laugh at the prospect of getting a test drive in an automatic?! Mike can only drive an auto as he can't feel his left leg below the knee and we're not going to invest in a car for 3 years that we can't test drive, so that was a potential sale lost.
Some garages I think look at us and think we don't look like we can afford a new car so they don't bother coming to speak to us, more business lost.
BMW have by far been the best so far where customer service goes, very attentive without being pushy, follow up phone calls and lots of information on how it works on the mobility scheme, hence the only car we've test driven is the X1.
Don't get me wrong sometimes it's been a blessing that no one came to speak to us as we've taken one look and thought definitely not, so it saved us having to make polite enquires when we're not interested.
Anyway when we finally made it to the shops one of my must do shops was M&S, they do a Christmas range of oil diffusers and pot pourri that I've been buying for years. We browsed the gift section and found some lovely star wars bits which Lucas would love in his stocking, there were 2 stand alone shelves with star wars gifts on, one of which had a sign on that said 50% off star wars gifts. This was great and we picked out 2 things plus a little toy off the 3 for 2 shelf to go with my pot pourri bits. When we got to the till however the star wars bits went through at full price, I questioned this and took the lady on the till to show her the sign, she informed me it was only the toiletry gifts that were half price but she thought they should have gone through at 3 for 2 which they didn't either. I asked to speak to the manager as I really felt it was very misleading, it didn't say on the sign just toiletries and the shelves were sat together and what we'd picked were star wars gifts in the gift section after all. She was quite abrupt and told me again it was just the toiletries and they had separated the shelves to make that clear, (they were about 2 inches apart) she said they'd had previous complaints but didn't even apologise or say she'd get it changed, the toy from the 3 for 2 wasn't on 3 for 2 it turned out though she did offer to sell me 3 wind up robots for the price of 2, obviously I didn't want 3 wind up robots!
I really expected better from M&S, I think she should have honoured the half price, at the very least offered us some reduction but no, clearly our business was not that important and in the end we left all our items meaning they lost a £50 sale. I can't understand how companies can afford to lose anyone's business in the current retail climate and they don't seem to realise that poor customer service isn't a one visit loss, it puts you off returning to the store in future and of course you tell your friends and these days it's all shared on social media.
Perhaps I am more aware of it as I was trained in customer service for my job when I was 18, simple things like the customer is always right, smiling, being polite, answering the phone within 5 rings as the person in the queue can hear the phone ringing but the person on the phone can't see the queue and likely thinks you're ignoring them.
We had another varied experience in Beales where one lady went out of her way to check the café had the chicken dinner before I manoeuvred Mike through the shop and up in the lift but then the lady in the toy department glared at him when his wheelchair caught a box and it fell on the floor and then proceeded to follow us around as we clearly looked likely to shoplift something!
So many places we shop the staff are miserable as bloody sin, they don't even look at you! I find eye contact awkward but I manage to remind myself to do it when I'm at work and I smile. At a time when there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available, you'd think employers would choose more cheerful people for the job and the employees would be more grateful for their positions!
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