As a consumer, I enjoy
shopping as it gives me the opportunity to see what's new or possibly indulge
in a childhood favourite. There are some
things that I don't like about shopping, one of which includes bad customer service.
Unfortunately, I had to endure a bad customer experience on a most recent trip
to Mark's Work Wearhouse. It's not that
their customer service was bad but the fact that it was inconsistent made it worse.
I had gone with my parents to the store
for a safety shoe purchase. The store is
only about 5 minutes away so I thought this was going to be easy and
non-frustrating trip but unfortunately, it became the opposite.
First off, it was hard to find
a sales associate in the store to ask for help and when you did, they'd briefly
help you before moving on to another customer, without asking or knowing if all
your questions were taken care of.
Second, when we inquired if there was a particular shoe size available,
it again was difficult to get an associates attention. However when we did, they
simply told us that the size was not available and then moved on to help
another customer right away, not even asking if we needed anything else. When we tried to ask more questions, they told
us that they were with a customer and would help us right after. Uh, I thought
you were helping us first. (Trust me, there was probably only 3 other customers
in the store at that time so it's not like they were swamped). I also know that the store can do a fast find
on the product and see if it's available at other locations but the associate
helping us didn't seem interested to do that for us. Just based on their
behaviour, I found the associates to be lazy, uninterested and unmotivated; all
of which are not good qualities to have when trying to provide service to a
customer. At this point, we realized we
weren't going to get any decent help so we decided to drive 30 minutes away to another location to
see if we could find the product.
At the other location (in
Vaughan), you walk in and the sales associates look happy as they are doing
their job. In the shoe section, there is
one associate answering a customer's questions and providing suggestions to
which products they should purchase. When
we went into the shoe section, we were able to find what we were looking for
with no problem but I was pleasantly surprised when an associate walked up to
us and asked if there was anything he could do to help us and if we were able
to find everything we were looking for. He
also said that if there was anything we needed, we could just ask him. Now this is customer service.
The company has been around since
1977, with a commitment to providing comfort, quality, style and innovation in
all its products. According to the Its website,
its three core values are: respect for people, product integrity and continuous
improvement. Unfortunately, my experience at one of their stores does not live
up to their core value of respect for people.
The sale associates at the first location did not have much respect for
customers, whether it was not properly answering their questions or just
abandoning them half-way, unlike the second location where the associates were
willing to help you until you were satisfied.
Unfortunately, it's very
disappointing and, to a point, unacceptable that a customer has to drive
further away from their closest location just to receive better customer
service. However, it's not just at Mark's does this happen but at other stores
in the area as well. Now, I'm not sure
if it's just the "culture" at that particular location that makes it
feel like the employees are lazy or if it's because they don't have the right
training. Whatever the reason is, it
does not make sense to have customer service be inconsistent across two
locations, especially with tough and competitive apparel market. Inconsistent customer service will drive
customers away from the store and the brand, leaving the door open for a
competitor to capture the customer's attention.
In a tough competitive market, it is important for a company to have its
training and service be consistent across locations, in order to provide the
best possible service to the consumer base, while also making small local adaptation.
When it comes to returning to
Mark's again, I think I'll give that location another try in a few months.
Let's hope they live up to their core value of continuous improvement and
improve their customer service at that location.
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