Week 11!

Customer Service - NTUC FAIRPRICE

Qns: Outline 5 pitfalls of inadequate or poor customer service given by the retailers.

1)Inconsistency in service rendered, the service at the checkout counter is inconsistent. Sometimes the cashier personnel will say “Thank You” after the transaction but on other occasion they did not say “Thank You”. Although it could be due to the high human traffic but some customer may feel that they are less valued by the company compared too the others.

2)Blockageof passage way, sometime the staff will do stock replenishment during the operating hours. So there will be a lot of loading and unloading movement in the sales floor. Often we realize that they would have trolley and boxes of stocks blocking the passage way in between the two shelves. This cause inconvenience to us as customers and also to our safety.

3)No extended service and initiative, in our trip this week we acted as a mystery shopper and test out the staff ability to understand our needs. We observed that although we as a customer are encountering some doubts, the staff nearby having known that will not take the initiative to help. What we tested out is that we acted as a customer buying ice cream and we are unsure of the ongoing promotion. The staff who is nearby do some stocking overheard us and looked at us but she did not help us to understand the promotion.

4)Store layout and setting, we find that the passage way along the checkout counter is too narrow to accommodate movement from the customers. As the customer checkout, they are carrying bags of stuffs making it very difficult for the other customers to go out. We did not see any efforts from the retailer to improve on this area.

5)Slow response, at the checkout counter whenever there are any problems regardless if it is major or minor the whole counter would not be able to function. For example, if a product can’t be scanned the staff at the counter will ask other staff to get any product for scanning and she will just wait for that to happen. Instead she should have cancelled that transaction first and allow other customers to do their transaction.