 |
From the Publisher: March 2006 |
|
Written by Sue Fredericks
|
The Way I See It
While standing in line at the grocery checkout last
week, I saw an example of a paradigm that needed to shift. I was in the
express line for people with less than eight items. Behind me was a
woman with a guilty look on her face because she had 12 items. I
surveyed the rest of the checkouts and saw that all of the available
ones had at least three people with full shopping carts in them. It was
a BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) moment.
Why would grocery stores want to punish the people who spent the most money by making them stand in line? The people who were just grabbing a few things, and spending considerably less money, were being rewarded with better, faster service. I had seen this in action on another visit to a different store, when a woman with approximately 12 items got in line behind me and my full cart. I suggested she go to the express lane, as there was no one in line there. She said no she would wait because she had done that on a previous visit and been told off by the cashier. Unbelievable.
I am certain that the owners/shareholders of the grocery chains never intended for the express lane to become a disservice to their customers, but when I look at it from my new perspective that’s exactly what has happened. This made me start to think about other practices we might take for granted in our businesses, and the need to constantly review them from a customer’s perspective.
How many procedures do we have in place because they make things easier and more efficient for us, but do nothing for the customer’s experience? Do our guarantees or refund policies provide us with more protection than they do our customers? What could we change that would increase our customer service?
It might be something as simple as having a dedicated person to answer the phone; someone who does not work the cash so you can be there in the moment for the most important part of the sale – the closing. Take some time to look around and see if you could make a few simple changes in your policies that would make your business a better place to shop.
On a totally unrelated matter, it’s official; we’ve been taken over by the Americans. No, I am not offering my comments on the election of the Progressive Conservative Party and their leader Steven Harper, or Bush Lite as the media refer to him. I am commenting on the Hudson Bay Co., being acquired by American businessman Jerry Zucker. As I mentioned in my column sometime ago, the retailer founded this country. The Hudson Bay Trading Company has been around for 335 years, which is a lot longer than we have been a nation.
Mr. Zucker’s spokesman and vice-president of strategy was quoted as saying that Canadians’ concerns over the pending American ownership are misplaced. The company has been a Canadian icon well into its fourth century, and we need to remember it was owned by the British until 30 years ago.
That’s small comfort as we remember the demise of HBC’s longtime competitor Eaton’s.
|
