Am…musings

Store No. 1 – Finding the things I’m looking for … and then some. Seeing lots of associates. At five minutes to close, being nicely (and it seemed genuine) asked if I need help finding anything. At two minutes after close, finding myself shocked at the pleasantness of the associate at the register (she’s happily un-bagging the items she’d placed in a plastic bag before I noticed and gave her my reusable bags, and insisting on helping me even though I was trying to bag stuff myself because it was so late).

Store No. 2 – Searching and not locating much beyond the basics. Receiving no offers of help. Looking up to see the “open” light on at the register, making eye contact with the associate and … watching him walk away without even acknowledging me. Assuming he’s coming back, placing my items on the belt. Realizing that no … he’s chatting at the customer service desk even though he knows I’m here. Putting my items back in the cart and going to wait in a longer line.

I’m a Target girl. My experience tonight (store No. 1) resembles the positive experience I always have there. Occasionally, I throw K-Mart a bone, but my experience yesterday (store No. 2) is typical. I almost always find myself pissed at the K-Mart checkout … slow associates, opening a new lane and helping someone who just walked up rather than people have been waiting and now … being left hanging.

K-Mart clearly isn’t focusing enough on customer service in their training. I also think they aren’t hiring the right people … I can’t even imagine an associate at Target pulling the stunt I experienced yesterday. Maybe they have an inferiority complex. And after this tale of two stores … I’d say rightfully so.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 11:33 pm and is filed under customer service, rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.