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November 12, 2006
It's Radio Shack. What Do You Expect.....???
Seth Godin's blog has a great story of bad customer service at Radio Shack. My first comment is in the headline for this post...
Radio Shack has a 30-day, Money-Back Guarantee (although it is cleverly worded to potentially exclude situations like the woman's in Seth's post...). It has a published Return Policy (again, cleverly worded...). It also has a reputation, well-earned, of not having the sharpest knives in the drawer working the stores. Why have cool-sounding consumer-friendly policies if they are to be adjudicated by less-than-well-trained clerks like those described in the post? And why have cool-sounding services like a "30-Day Money Back Guarantee" come with caveats if you are really serious about customer service?
Now, there are many great Radio Shack employees. And, it is unfortunate how these good employees have to be shackled by the efforts of the ones who are not so swift. Every time I walk into my local Radio Shack, I get the same feeling I get when I walk into my local Wal-Mart...a creepy, cheap, low-budget feeling that I am anxious to extract from as quickly as possible. It may not be fair, but it is the result of my experiences with multiple Radio Shack stores that have now spawned a defense mechanism every time I enter one of their stores. It is a solid lesson for retailers, dealers and franchisees in how important consistency is.
Training store personnel on the keys to customer service is one of the most immediate ways to change the perception of the once-proud Radio Shack brand. In the meantime, as Seth Godin suggests...."Why Bother?"
Posted by jcioban at November 12, 2006 12:37 PM
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