The Running Commentary

Toys R Us on how not to service your customer!

So it has been awhile since my last post, some 6 weeks to be exact.  Nope I have not lost my desire to blog, I have just been in a space that has not allowed me to do so with the freedom that I used to.  One of my goals for 2012, is to try and post twice a month, as it provides me with a great space to clear my head, voice my frustrations and sprout about good things that I see around me.

This post is once again me on my hobby horse of customer service and more particularly the lack of it that is so prevalent in our country. My family went to Canal Walk in Cape Town, to spend our vouchers we received as Christmas presents. We adopted a divide and conquer approach so that we could cover more ground.

Over lunch I was struck by my daughter and son commenting about how shocking the service was at Toy’s R Us.  Apparently when they arrived pretty much the entire staff were on a lunch break.  The cashiers even requested help over the intercom and nobody came.  They were so upset that they simply told everyone that wanted to hear that the rest of the staff were on lunch.

A little earlier in the same store, my son, selected a R 300.00 Lego set.  The box was damaged so my wife enquired of the assistant if she could check the contents, (Lego you see are quite clever in that they mark the bags so a simple check of the manual will tell you if all is well) This was clearly too much for him and his response was “well you can bring it back”, what the heck! Surely the correct answer is, no problem, let me help you!

If my 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son can pick up that the service is bad, then Toy R Us you have a problem.  You should be making these kids feel like it is the best place to shop! We adults should fear walking past, in case our kids want to go inside and spend more money.  The upshot is that my kids received a valuable lesson on how not to do it.

Let me end on a high note though and mention that “The Cape Runner” who supply running shoes, and are based in Plumstead. My wife and I purchased running shoes for one another this year. The service we received there was simply out of this world.  The assistant took time to ensure that we chose the correct shoes for our gate and even went as far as having my wife run outside so that he could observe her stride.  Really well done and highly recommended.

assistantbusinesscustomer serviceMarketingpassionSaleShop AssistantsSouth AfricastaffThe Cape RunnerToys R Us

Mike • December 28, 2011


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