Shop till you drop

Consumer magazine Which? has announced the results of it's 'High Street survey' and it doesn't make good reading for many of the countries big names.



The survey considers everything that they feel the modern shopper might experience and what might influence their buying decision; price, product range, layout, customer service and staff knowledge.
Electrical retailer John Lewis has emerged top of the pile (although I have yet to see a John Lewis store in my life) whilst at the bottom is sportswear retailer JJB Sports.

I had the misfortune of visiting the said store only two weeks ago. My task was simple, some football socks and some shorts - how hard could that be? Very actually.
JJB Sports is actually quite unique in that despite it being a 'sports' shop, no sports equipment is to be found. Ask the 16-year old assistant for a cricket box or rugby shoulder pads and he'll think you've dropped down from Mars, ask him for the latest chav trends however and he'll happily oblige.

It's no surprise as well to find the three DSG stores in the lower regions. PC World, Currys and Currys.digital are all in the bottom seven of the survey, being much criticised for their staff.
That's one bone of contention with me though. I've said before, that most customers walk into a store (especially an electrical one) and expect to be able to speak to an expert on whatever subject they happen to throw up. Quite simply, it doesn't work like that.

Experts don't work on a Saturday afternoon for £5.50 an hour. They don't work in Dixons or PC World and generally speaking, they prefer not to work with the general public. The "pay peanuts - get monkeys" saying rings true when it comes to any industry, retail is no different.
I've experienced this first hand - it happens in the retailer I happen to be at (none of the above mentioned). Occasionally, you'll get one or two bright sparks. Probably someone who is going through a University course or has just left education and using the job as stop-gap before starting his career. Obviously, those people don't hang around for long.
It used to be that we'd hand all potential employees a test. If they passed the test then they got the job but that created more problems than it solved.
The only people who tended to pass were those with degree's, NVQ's or various other qualifications. After three months, those people would be long gone and whilst we used these tests on new applicants, our staff turnover almost tripled. As much as we wanted to keep those people, we just couldn't.

It'd be easier to say "well just pay staff more" or "train staff" but it's not as simple as that. In an ideal world, that would happen but in an ideal world, you wouldn't have shareholders, investors and directors hounding you to maintain profit and sales targets.
Staff training just doesn't happen. It's expensive, time consuming and in an industry where products turn over quickly, it's pointless. B&Q famously admitted as such and if you dug far enough, you'd find that other retailers are exactly the same.

That's one reason why Internet shopping has grown. When making your purchasing decision, you have a wealth of information, reviews and price comparison quite literally at your finger tips. In a shop, you're having to rely on a teenager reading a catalogue.

The survey has it's merits and Which? is a very well respected publication. But it's telling that only five out of the 50 stores in the survey scored more than 50% for customer service. That's just how the industry (on the whole) is I'm afraid.