Well folks, it appears we survived last month’s shop-till-you-drop mass purchasing ritual driven by Yuletide commitments and the theory that spending our hard-earned cash in close proximity to where we live boosts the hometown economy. Who could argue against that sacred credo?
In reality, let’s remember that patronage is not an obligation. It has to be earned. Businesses need to provide a level of service that will keep customers coming back and avoid turning them off. Good old-fashioned courtesies, like greeting clients when they arrive at a sales counter, go a long way toward securing repeat business. Boorish staff behaviour, including engaging in cellphone conversations while interacting with a walk-in customer or filling out paperwork and making limited eye contact with a newly arrived shopper, has the opposite effect. Sales clerks who are inadequately informed about products on display and are less than willing to dig up the requested information also fail the customer satisfaction litmus test.
But one of the biggest annoyances is lengthy checkout lineups at the couple of tills that are open while numerous adjacent cash registers are unstaffed. The blatant message is the shopping public’s lost time and the inconvenience of waiting in line are not important. And when it comes to the big-box store shopping experience, service can be a hit-or-miss affair. During some periods, usually when you’re in a hurry, locating an “associate” is next to impossible. At other times, floor staff are so over-helpful you’d think they were pesky relatives.
That being said, most people are fairly patient and willing to put up with minor hassles if they really need a certain product, and despite some trivial complaints, service here in town has improved considerably over the past 10 years. And let’s not forget, the service environment is a two-way street. Contrary to the frequently repeated adage, the customer is not always right; some shoppers can be ill-mannered and abusive.
In any event, most service affronts pale in comparison to what happened recently at a number of down-on-their-luck coffee shops south of the border. After the underperforming locations were ordered shuttered by head office, news outlets reported that employees were given no prior notice before they were terminated. And, to compound the insult, in some locations, patrons were given the bum’s rush just as they sat down for lunch.
It would be hard to imagine being booted out of one of our local donut emporiums while tucking into a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich or washing down a honey cruller with a double-double.
Count your blessings, Squamish.
