the better retailing blog
How to lose customers
by Stefan Appleby on 15 December, 2009
I recently succumbed to an illness that laid me up for a couple of days. Despite my attempts to slightly overdramatise and claim otherwise, it didn’t turn into swine flu, but merely stayed at the annoying ‘common cold’ stage.
Luckily for my paymasters this mostly happened over a weekend, meaning that I was fit and raring to go for the working week. What luck…
What being ill did give me, however, was the chance to be nursed by my very own Florence Nightingale. Obviously too ill to move, I picked up my mobile phone and called my partner to instruct her to get to the local shop and get me supplies, before I faded away.
Off she went to the nearest convenience store, returning within with supplies including chicken soup, baked beans, Lemsip and some Lucozade. So far, so boring.
However, when she opened her bag we discovered that the cans of beans were rusted around the bottom and unusable, and the lid of the can of chicken soup had opened slightly, spilling its contents into the bag.
I’ve heard time and again from smaller independent retailers how it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole barrel, and this retailer has now seen to it that neither myself or my partner will be visiting for anything more than the morning paper, as we can’t trust the goods we’re going to get.
We could have taken the goods back and maybe the retailer would have apologised and replaced them, but neither of us wanted to brave the cold weather again. It just goes to show how hard the ‘good’ small independent stores have it, coping with the brush that the general public tar them all with when one doesn’t live up to expectation. And it also shows that you really must keep on top of everything, all the time – because losing customers is a lot easier to do than you might think.
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Comments (2)
Stefan,
I hope the cold has gone. It’s a shame that you didn’t go back, but you still could. Most of these errors are inexcusable, but the retailer may well be none the wiser.
You may not get a response that you want, but you certainly won’t if you don’t try.
However, the key point is one you have made yourself. If this retailer continues to perform poorly he invites all his hard-working, diligent and innovative peers to be tarred with his brush.
For their sake, get down there, invite the retailer to improve, and maybe it will do everyone in the sector a tiny favour.
Just a thought…
It’s a good point Pat, I was just caught up in the moment I think.
I shall try and drop in again and try and point out to him that the goods he has on sale might not be of the highest quality.
Hopefully it will inspire him to improve what he has on offer – to everybody’s benefit!