Hello, I blog!
I share all my sporadic and toilet thoughts in here, because I am random like that.
How Courts lost a customer to IKEA
I walked into Courts yesterday to purchase a clothes rack. Courts is a large furniture and electronics outfit in Singapore, with branches around the island and a megastore in Tampines.
The wonders of being connected meant that I could look up their online catalog the night before to pick out what I wanted and verify stocks (to the point of even knowing that certain colours were already out of stock and will be restocked in February/March 2013). All I needed to do was to step into the store, look for the item, purchase it and out I go. Sounds simple enough.
It was a three-storey megastore, so I decided to ask the staff for directions. The staff on the second floor directed me to the ground floor “because that’s where all the accessories are”. Sounds fair, so I proceeded to the ground floor. After walking around in circles, I realized I was going nowhere and needed help again.
So I approached a boy in a black ‘Courts’ tee and relayed my question to him. After giving me a blank stare for several seconds, he admitted that he was “just a promoter” and that I had to approach a staff member in a blue tee. Those blue tees were pretty elusive to find, though. I nearly walked up to an ordinary shopper in a blue tee but common sense soon took over (he was carrying a shopping bag) to prevent potential embarrassment.
Circled the place again for nearly 5 minutes before I finally found two blue shirted staff members who were happily chatting with one another. I proceeded with my inquiry. One of them glanced at my phone (screenshot of the product), looked at me and went “no more!”
“No more?” I asked. “Seriously? Because I checked your website and it stated there is stock!”
“If you want, you go outside there and see!” He gesticulated wildly to the area outside the checkout counters. “If it’s not there then it’s sold out. No more!”
He immediately went back to chatting with his friend, totally oblivious to me gaping at him, my mouth wide open in disbelief.
This is what happens you hire staff (or salespeople) who don’t care about your business. The typical staff member will simply show up to do the bare minimum, leave on time and take their monthly paycheck. On the other hand, the engaged, dedicated staff member who believes that he plays a crucial role in the success of the company would do more.
In this case, a dedicated staff member will be able to recognize this interaction as an opportunity to retain a potential customer. He would have known that the product will be restocked in a couple of months. He would also be aware that I could have placed an advance order online and request for a self-collection at any outlet near my home. All this is not rocket science – I knew it simply by browsing their website. This information will have been relayed to me as alternatives, and the he’ll provide any necessary assistance.
This staff member on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in his bantering.
After finally confirming that the item was out of stock – seeing an empty rack with the item label – I decided to ‘test’ another staff member on their service knowledge in the hope that the guy spoke to earlier was just an anomaly. No dice either.
By then, I was completely annoyed with the lack of staff knowledge that I just decided to give up on the product altogether. Sure, it was lighter and more compact. Sure, the product was cheaper as well. But it’s no longer about the product. IKEA was just next door, and they retail products that are of equally good quality. And I haven’t had a bad experience with them yet.
So, I headed over.
The PORTIS hat and coat stand.
Now, I have myself an awesome new rack at home from IKEA. While Courts lost a customer for life.
In today’s age, the average consumer is presented with a wide range of equivalent options for a singular product, that they’ve become indifferent. Companies can no longer afford to compete based on products alone because there is a low barrier to entry for consumers to simply do a brand switcharoo anytime they want. The products are all the same anyway. It’s the experience you provide that makes you stand out.
What makes the consumer sit up and take notice is not the “average” shopping experience, but something out of the ordinary. When faced with an extraordinarily bad service, the consumer will take to bitching online (which is what I’m doing now) or spread the negative message through word of mouth. In the consumer’s mind, your company will be tied to that bad experience forever.
Conversely, when the experience is surprisingly great, word spreads equally fast. In a world where consumers are generally used to receiving bad service, it’s extremely refreshing. Even inspiring. As for me – I’d most probably be waxing lyrical about the company to anyone I meet. And yes, I will definitely return.
It is the positively memorable experiences you provide that make your customers stick to you.
It’s high time companies realized that. Especially consumer-facing ones.
Dear NSRCC Management
To whom it may concern,
I am writing in feedback to the behaviour of the overseer in charge of NSRCC Sea Sports Centre on the night of 23-24th January 2012.
My family has had a car parked in the premises of NSRCC Sea Sports Centre while patronizing NSRCC Resort on the evening of 23rd January 2012. Seeing that there’s a huge sign on the gate which read ‘open to the public’, as well acknowledging the carpark operates up to 12.30am, we made a plan to head home at approximately midnight.
When we returned to retrieve the car at 12.05am however, the gate to NSRCC Sea Sports Centre was locked. Attempts to contact anyone yielded no response (there was no direct contact on NSRCC’s website), and even the security guards on duty at the nearby NSRCC resort were unhelpful. Later on, a guy appeared from within NSRCC Sea Sports Centre (his exact designation is unknown – but he was the only person around at that time so we spoke to him) and we attempted to negotiate with him.
But he was adamant that he will not open the gate because it is “company policy”, that the carpark is only for the use of “customers only” and that we parked our car there at our own risk (well, this is true). Subsequently, he pointed at us directly and said “we wait for customers to leave before we close the gate (sic). You not within the area, so you not our customer (sic). So we close the gate. You want, you come back tomorrow.”
His tone to us certainly wasn’t polite, and we pointed out to him that closing the gate before 12.05am was not in line with the operation timings stated on the sign either – which was up to 12.30am.
He then pointed out a smaller sign further in from the gate which stated that the carpark was for the use of “customers only”, and even opening the gate to let my uncle walk in to take a look at it, with stern instructions that he’s not allowed to retrieve the car. (This smaller “customers only” sign was very much in contrast to the easily misunderstandable “open to the public” sign plastered on the gate.)
Further negotiations only resulted in him quoting “company policy” and “if you want, you come tomorrow and speak to my boss” repeatedly. And it cumulated in him requesting for us to pay him $50 to open the gate and retrieve the car, which we refused to pay. This is because (1) we don’t know who the money is going to – him? or the management? (2) there was no sign anywhere stating a fine of $50 to open the gate after operating hours (which technically, 12.05am is still WITHIN operating hours since the carpark only closes at 12.30am) and (3) it’s a matter of principle, isn’t it?
Let’s review the current situation, shall we?
It’s dead in the night, and our family needed to head back. We’re way out in a deserted area – next to the airport runway, by the beach – where hardly anyone passes. Far away from the reach of any form of public transport – be it buses, trains or taxis.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t have the key to open the gate. If he didn’t, we would have understood perfectly. But, he did. He even let my uncle in briefly to ‘review the “customers only” sign within the carpark but chased him out quickly after that.
Granted, we utilized the carpark of NSRCC Sea Sports Centre to patronize the NSRCC resort next door, and this guy wants to enforce this “company policy” so strictly largely to save his own ass from further trouble. Fine. But must a policy be enforced to the point where it endangers the very safety and well-being of the people affected?
In our case, we were lucky in the sense that we were accompanied by some other family members who had cars, and they could send the affected members to somewhere more accessible. However, what if it was a situation whereby it was just the affected people alone, unaccompanied? Who is going to account for them?
I await your response on this matter.
Best regards,
Brenda Nicole Tan
———-
P/S: Apparently, no feedback email address exists for this place and I had to go through a traditional ol’ contact form.
What a bad end to our Chinese New Year celebrations.
You’re never too young to make a difference
In 1999, my favourite bus service (back at my old home) was converted from a purely non-air conditioned service to a partial one (meaning that some buses would be air-conditioned and others, won’t.)
I liked the feeling of natural air blowing at my hair as I rode the bus back from school back then, so I voiced my displeasure. I wrote a letter to SBSTransit (known as just SBS back then) expressing my distaste for how air-conditioned buses will pamper Singaporeans in general and cause more environmental pollution.
It was written on pink Hello Kitty paper, and I dropped it off at the information booth at the bus interchange while on my way back from school.
I didn’t expect a reply. But less than two weeks later, I received a postcard from SBSTransit, thanking me for my feedback and that they’d look into it.
Unfortunately, the postcard was intercepted by my then-family maid who passed it on to my mother, remarking that I’ve become a meddlesome creature who was making trouble for big agencies. Both then interrogated me about what I had written in the original letter and lambasted me for it.
I was since then, barred from writing letters to ‘big government companies’ because I was merely being a busybody and they won’t listen to a small fry like me. I was immensely annoyed, but didn’t say anything.
Less than two years later (when I was 14), a new neighbour moved in – whose window directly faced my home’s dining room where I studied every afternoon. The neighbour proved to be a disturbing one. His/her son would without fail, blast his infernal techno music at full volume every afternoon. Either that, or he would practise his guitar playing with the window wide open.
And I was trying to study.
Bearing in mind I was no longer allowed to write to ‘big government agencies’, I wrote directly to the neighbour – basically telling him/her that his/her son had to shut the hell up for the comfort of the other residents in their vicinity and for the general peace and quiet of the neighbourhood.
There was the sound of loud yelling from that neighbour’s house one afternoon. Apparently that of the neighbour screaming at the son for the daily afternoon din. Subsequently, every afternoon was filled with the song of silence, with the son’s window clamped shut.
A few days later, mum pointed out the sudden silence, bemused. “Eh, our neighbour is no longer making noise ah?”
So I pointed out that it was because I wrote to them.
She went white.
Just imagine her response after that. (Hint: It borders on the line of hysterical.)
This story doesn’t have a moral. This memory just suddenly came back to me once fine day and I wanted to share this because you know, just because “you are a small fry” doesn’t mean that you can’t make a difference in today’s society.
Society generally frowns upon people who speak up more than they should. But if everyone keeps silent at everything, there wouldn’t be change. Be daring to speak up, no matter how young you are.
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