Large Supermarket - Centurion
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A Large Retailer - Centurion

The reason why the name is not mentioned is because no correspondence or complaint of any form was made to this company.  This is a very large and reputable supermarket chain in South Africa.  The lesson remains the same, even if anonymous.

On 1998-01-08 at 18:00 my wife and I were checking our groceries through the till whilst a packer (yes, we are lucky enough to have packers in South Africa) was packing the groceries into the bags.  There was one item that did not have a barcode on it.  The cashier pushed her "manager button" for someone to go get another item off the shelf with a barcode on it.  We waited, and waited, and waited, ...... but no manager came.

Eventually, with the buzzer still screaming, my wife shot off herself to go get another item off the shelf.  By the time she had got back, there was still no sign of the manager.  Anyway we finished checking out and off we went.

On the way out my wife quite correctly said:  "I wonder why the bag packer did not go off and get the price as she was just standing there after all the bags had already been packed?".  Now that got me thinking again.  Surely if your bit is done, it would be courteous and efficient to offer to quickly run up the aisle instead of letting the customer do it!  I am sure the customers behind me who were also waiting, would have thought so.

Retailers, and all other businesses, should always remember that one unhappy customer invariably spreads their bad experience to about 7 or 8 other people.  Sometimes it happens that these people also had similar experiences and the story spreads.  They say it is cheaper to keep a regular customer, than have to recruit new customers.

NOTE: Feb 1999 Since the above was written I had exemplary service on one occasion where a supervisor really used initiative to solve a problem. A weighing scale in tbe meat department had broken and I was told they could not weigh the meat and price it for me. My suggestion that they weigh and price it manually also did not help as it "could not be done". A supervisor saved the day by doing the weighing manually, and then accompanying me to the checkout and making sure the process flowed smoothly there. I wrote a letter of commendation to their national head office for the supervisor.

I also recommended to this retailer's national quality representative, that they display clearly their policy for bar code scanning, returns of goods, etc (none of which was displayed in this particular store). The signs were up a week later and service has been much improved as the clients now act as watchdogs. They know what level of service to expect now.