Do you prefer to shop on-line or in a store? While the factors affecting your choice may vary (depending on store location, access, time, convenience, etc.), the outcome is still the same — a satisfactory shopping experience
So who’s more likely to be satisfied with their customer service experience — on-line or in-store shoppers? According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation’s NRF Foundation and American Express (reported in a recent Marketing Management magazine article), it’s on-line consumers.
Interesting? Yes. Surprising? Not really … especially given my recent in-store experience.
Who Are They Kidding?
I went to return a purchase I had made earlier in the week. Since I was a fairly new customer at the store’s location, I approached a sales clerk at one of the registers located in the front of the store. (If I lament about the old days when sales registers and sales staff were located throughout the store, I’d be giving away my age.)
Me: Where can I return this?
Clerk: You have to go back to customer service.
Me: Thank you. (Feigning politeness while thinking I’m the customer and I don’t “have to” do anything. If you were trained properly, you would have told me: “Some one can help you in Customer Service” while pointing the way.)
So I walked back the length of the store to where Customer Service was located … under a sign proclaiming “Customer Convenience Center.” (Yeah, right … if it were “convenient,” it would have been located in the front of the store!)
Maybe next time, I’ll shop on-line.