Customer Service Worsens in a Recession

In a recent “Complaint Box” in the New York Times, journalist David Sax writes a witty and sarcastic account of trying to get the attention of a sales associate.

“That’s why I came in here today,” he writes. “To trade money for goods and services. The way it works is: I ask questions about various products — in this case the clothes beautifully displayed around us — and you, in your role as service person, answer them, perhaps even leaving the spot behind the desk to physically touch the clothes and aid in my investigation and ultimate purchase of them.”

Sax does a great job of making the obvious, painfully funny — and true. He is like so many men, eager to learn how to look better and more than willing to pay for it. “I need guidance. Think of me as soft clay, ready to be molded in your image.”

When will retailers understand that perhaps every day, they lose a sale because of an incompetent or unwilling salesperson? Invest in your sales staff as if they were the very walls and floors of your store, the merchandise itself. Without top notch service, a store can simply not survive, even in the worst of times.

Read Patrick Sax’s entire piece

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