Business Week sent a couple of its own “secret shoppers” to some Wal-Mart stores to see how their new customer service initiative was faring, and found that the employees they spoke with not only didn’t care, but really wanted customers to know this. Said one employee, “If Wal-Mart doesn’t care for me, why should I care? There was this horrible smell in the store the last two days from some overnight spill. They did nothing about it. It got so bad that on the second day the fire department came by and we all had to wear masks.”
Despite that mysterious anecdote, all three stores Business Week sampled scored high on cleanliness. The big failure in all three, however, was customer service, which continues to nose-dive due to poor morale:
As the experience with the cashier in Uniondale illustrates, many of Wal-Mart’s workers feel outright hostility toward the company, and, by extension, they often treat customers with indifference or worse. That puts Wal-Mart in a box. Without reasonable service, the company is forced to compete almost solely on price. That in turn squeezes margins and makes it difficult to pay employees the better wages and benefits that could boost morale. It’s a vicious cycle that now appears to be working against Wal-Mart.
“Wal-Mart: A Snap Inspection” [Business Week]
(Photo: tom.arthur)
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@fall_farewell: Bad employers don’t DESERVE to have people like that.
Our local wal-mart is notorious for long check-out lanes. First they wait until at least 5 people are in every line (2 are open!) and then they call for help. That help then makes it’s way slowly to the front, usually not until the second call for help. Many times I want to leave my cart and walk out, but there is no where else to shop nearby for the items I am getting. The salespeople are also slow and unfriendly, and the type of help you get for minimum wage (sorry for the generalization, but true). I also work in retail (grocery) and where I work we call for help the SECOND one other customer is waiting! And we are friendly even when we have any number of personal issues going on–divorce issues, sick kids, family members in the hospital, accidents, financial trouble, etc. We do NOT let our customers know that we are not happy that day! We are trained that the customer IS our paycheck and we are there to do a service to them and help them get home to their families as quickly as possible. They DO appreciate it, as we get compliments every day! And it also helps us to have a better day when we “have” to be friendly! Customers do return to stores with friendly customer service. However, sometimes they also return to poor service stores when gas prices prevent them from going elsewhere.
What most people, specifically those who’ve never worked at Walmart for over a year, don’t understand is that customer service is largely representative of the customers themselves.
As was said on page 1, some associates look downright defeated by their jobs. This past week I had a customer insult me by saying that I look like I spent the night drinking. Shortly after her, I had another customer ask me if I liked my job when I replied negatively to it she blew up at me. And the final straw was a customer who asked me to forgo putting her items in bags, to put it in a plastic bin she bought. As soon as I rung up the bin she took it and put it in her cart, not allowing me to do as she asked, I proceeded to put the items in bags, which sent her over the edge.
For those of you who have experience in retail, you know what I’m talking about. For those of you who go into Walmart daily and see that the associates are always wrong just because you, the customer, are always “right”, you make me sick. It is inept and careless to assume that the world revolves around you just because you’re spending money. You want good service, you better damn well pay for it with humility, respect, and compassion.