What Happened to Customer Service?

I recently visited one of the locations of a pharmacy/quick stop retail chain. Without naming names, it is one of the largest pharmacy/retail chains in the United States, reasonably successful according to their public records and their name itself extols convenience and value. I do agree that they offer these benefits. In fact, I stopped there because it is near my home and the product I purchased is routinely less expensive in their locations than at their competitors.

Still, as I stood in a long line, I wondered how successful they would be if they truly valued customer service. This particular location was breaking many of the fundamental rules associated with successful retailing.

The Roots of Poor Customer Service

In particular, the store was staffed by only two people, an undertrained cashier and an overworked manager on duty. As I had entered the store only 30 minutes before closing time, the manager was busy with closing duties that involved the pharmacy in back and the cash registers up front. Though asked, he was unwilling to open another register himself to help the customers. So, some customers waited and some chose to leave.

That aside, the employees in this particular location were all very pleasant although somewhat inexperienced. So it seemed that the recruiting and hiring department was doing well while the training people and management were sadly deficient.

An Explanation?

The following day I approached the manager to discuss my experience and asked him about the vaunted customer service claimed by the company.  He explained to me that his immediate supervisor, the district manager, paid lip service to the value of customer service but that his actions implied otherwise.

For instance, the manager explained, no one ever got fired if a customer left the store due to long lines but managers were regularly terminated on the first offense if the monies weren’t counted on time or if the pharmacist was made to wait while closing his portion of the store.

In addition, the manager was expected to perform certain housekeeping duties, personally if there was no other coworker, while still maintaining managerial control of the store. To top everything else off, the manager told me that he could also be fired if he didn’t accomplish his tasks and have everyone off the clock by 30 minutes after closing.

An Impossible Situation

To say that this poor manager was demoralized was an understatement. This company is obviously not concerned with customer service, but the manager must act as if that is his propriety when his superiors are around. In addition, there is inadequate training, multiple “top” priorities and an obvious desire to find fault by upper management. It may not be particularly surprising to most retail shoppers but it does give one a whole new perspective on the reasons for the lack of customer service in many retail companies.

For more on ways that a company can run itself into the ground, read 7 Ways Companies Effectively Sabotage Themselves…