After an exhausting day standing on your feet, picking up discarded clothes scattered across the floor by customers, the last thing you want to hear on TV when you get home is Mary Portas voicing her opinions on inadequate customer service. She’s like the traffic warden for retailers. Not only does she hang around like a bad fashion trend but she intervenes where she’s not wanted and at all the wrong times. With a mission to get high street stores smiling and serving like never before, she’s the sales assistant’s worst nightmare. Beware she might be coming to a shop near you soon.
Having worked my way through college in retail, I suppose I am a bit biased when it comes to the difficulties of customer service. My motto is that if you haven’t worked in retail before, you have no idea what it’s like. Overcrowded fitting rooms, awkward push- chairs shoved in all the wrong places, inpatient customers and stressed out managers are just a sample of the things staff have to deal with on a daily basis. Meanwhile Mary Portas seems to think sales assistants can simply stand by a door, smile and escort the customer around the shop but I’m telling you there’s a lot more to it than that.
After going undercover (with an unnecessary wig) in some of the biggest high street stores in the UK, it’s clear Mary received some appalling customer service. First place Scary Mary hit was Primark, or Pennys as it is known in Ireland. A cheap and cheerful bargain heaven for shoppers, a high standard of customer service is not really expected in Pennys. Caught under a mound of piled up clothes, Mary managed to find a sales assistant. Ignoring the mess and understaffed floor, Mary decided to interrupt the already pressurised sales assistant and asked him to find her a pair of harem pants. After some discussion between the sales assistants, Mary failed to find the pants, which were more than likely hiding somewhere underneath one of the heaps on the floor. When she proceeded to the checkout, the queues were the next thing to annoy. Well maybe if you hadn’t had half the sales team out on the floor looking for the pants there wouldn’t have been a queue.
New Look were unhelpful in the changing rooms (even though she was looking for a size in a sale item), Zara failed to inspire with their shoddy customer service and H&M had a queue of 24 people (call the manager now!). Mary said she is out to get the fat cats, the people sitting in head office, the men who let’s be honest see pound signs before they see greeting signs in shops. Funnily enough, what she failed to consider is that the staff she was targeting are probably being paid the minimum wage and working long hours in understaffed shops.
Sure it’s unbelievably frustrating when the sales assistants are nattering to each other at the back of the shop, especially if there is a queue. But Mary chose to carry out her research during sale time, a period known for large crowds and carnage on the shop floor. Give them a break Mary I’d like to see you try it.
Pilot, a relatively new high street store, was a shop in need of a huge transformation last night. The four girls working there were probably mortified watching their conversation on the undercover tape last night. “Shall I go serve her”, “She’ll live”, was the gist of it. When Mary asked did they have any aviator jackets, they told her to try New Look next door. For a small and quiet shop, this was inexcusable. Boutiques and smaller shops should be able to provide excellent customer service.
After a nice trip to Leon restaurant in London, to witness some real customer service the girls were ready to head back to Pilot and try out their new skills. Not content with just changing the staff’s attitude, Mary forced owner Chris to transform the fitting rooms into some sort of Burlesque-type lounge, decked out with celebrity cubicles and a twitter mirror.
When it comes down to your shopping experience, do you really want to be hounded the minute you walk into a shop? Do you need to see an insincere smile from a sales assistant as you enter? Would you like to be followed around at all times? I guess everyone is different but for me it’s more about the clothes than the service. You get what you pay for and Pennys is no Brown Thomas. Maybe Mary should go there the next time she shops.
Next week Mary checks out how sales commissions work.
Sarah Carty
