Hi guys.  I am sure that you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day, well, most of you.  People were feeling jittery though as this year Valentine’s Day came a day after the dreaded Friday the thirteenth.  Someone was bound to have a bad day and I was one of them.  For those who enjoyed it to the fullest good for you.  My day started when I went to what is arguably Zimbabwe’s most popular department store to get a present.

I got to the store full of confidence looking to buy a wrist watch.  I consulted with the salesman and all seemed well and good, that was positive number 1.  I got to the cashier and was notified that my account was only good for $87. Eighty seven dollars?  I then asked the lady at the counter how this could be as I knew that from when the account was opened in 2011 my account had a limit of $400 which I could have raised because my salary had increased significantly since then.  My first problem was the way the agent broke the news to me, she did not even flinch and looked disinterested.  On a day like Valentine’s Day people have to be cheerful because love was in the air.  Another issue is when you are about to give a customer bad news there is a certain, acceptable way that you should do it not just break the news to them.  I was then referred, or rather sent, to the credit desk so that I could get more information.

At the credit desk there was an elderly man who I have to mention, was not looking smart.  That is problem number two, the appearance of the staff.  The visual image that you give your customer gives them an idea of how you operate and given the way that this gentleman was dressed I was not surprised with his conduct.  He treated me as a beggar and seemed happy that I was being punished for making some late payments a couple of times.  He informed me that my credit rating was now a Class D and my limit had been reduced to $200 and having spent some of the credit I was left with $87.  Again he did not take heed of the fact that it was Valentine’s Day and I could have been emotionally charged up at the prospect that I was going to look silly empty handed.  Problem number three was this, why did I not know that the store had a credit rating system that was based on one’s behaviour?  The store’s General Manager came to our company in 2011 and sold these accounts to us and from then we were never told that there is a Credit Rating System.  When you sell someone a product make sure you educate them fully on its use otherwise things like this will happen.

The elderly man told me that ‘he was respecting me’ as if respecting a customer was doing them a favour.  That was problem number four, the lack of a customer centric service culture.  I was getting agitated and he failed to handle the situation.  Instead of trying to make me calm down he told me I was causing a scene and that I had to get off the shop floor and go and see the Credit Manager.  Wow, I was causing a scene?  He literally pushed me across the floor into the elevator and passed me on to his subordinate who escorted me to the credit office.  That was problem number five, a lack of accountability.  You should see your issues through and not hand them over to the next person because it makes the customer feel like you do not care.

We got to the credit office and the subordinate was busy trying to calm me down.  He told me that he was sorry for the inconvenience and that a resolution to the problem would be found.  That was the second positive aspect of the experience after the dialogue that I had had with the salesman at the watch counter.  Problem number six though was when he highlighted the fact that some people in the store are just not good enough and that they put the name of the store to shame.  By that he was referring to his boss.  This showed a lack of unity in the workforce.  The fact that they were not united showed me that there were HR issues in the background and this made me even more agitated as I was suffering because someone was not doing their job fully.  You should always work as a team and appear as such in the face of the customer.

The Credit Manager went about telling me about the system that had put my credit rating in Class D.  She was not apologetic and seemed happy more like a policeman who had just caught a criminal.  That was problem number seven.  Employees of a company should act as advocates for the customer and not the ones who will actually be oppressing us.  I tried to explain my behaviour with regards to the late payments and she said that was a customer care problem and they had failed by not educating me on the Credit Rating System.  This again showed a lack of unity.  I told her that I was going to pay off the account and close it but she must have thought I was bluffing or she did not care at all because she mentioned the fact that they had a lot of customers.  This was problem number eight as she did not understand the concept of the Lifetime Value of a customer.  She viewed me in terms of the transaction that I was supposed to make and not my Lifetime Value.  She did not consider the fact that I am 27 and have not yet even reached my financial peak.  She did not consider the fact that she was going to lose my business for the rest of my life and that of my wife, children and potentially anyone who I was going to bad mouth them to.  That could end up as a pretty tidy sum.

She told me off and seemed to be satisfied with her efforts.  That was problem number nine, the fact that marketing and customer care are still being viewed as issues that reside on the shop floor.  If this was not the case I would have received better treatment.  I left the store, got into my car and went home.  I got some money and went back to the store telling myself that I was going to close that account.  I got to the shop and went to the elderly man.  I told him that I wanted to pay off the account.  He smiled as he thought that I had conceded defeat.  As soon as I paid the account off I told him to close the account.  He seemed surprised and tried to talk me out of it but I was not having that.  To show him that I was serious I left the card on his desk even after he refused to close the account.  That was problem number ten, failing to respect the customer’s wishes.  I am sure the effects of that kind of behaviour are clear.

I went back up to the credit office where I saw one of the employees.  I asked him to close my account and he told me that they do not close accounts.  As I was telling him that that was not possible the phone rang and he chose to pick it up and ignore me instead.  I was shocked and I marched into the Credit Manager’s office.  Correction, I have manners, I knocked at the door first of course.  I gave her the receipt and asked her to close the account.  All of a sudden her face lit up and said, you can now buy the watch!  Im thinking WOW, she must think that I am a beggar who after all that bad treatment would still be happy to do business with them!  That was problem number eleven, not understanding the motives and needs of each and every customer but treating all customers as the same person in this case as people who did not have money to pay cash and needed credit instead.  This, coupled with her statement earlier that they have many customers made sense as to how she had approached the issue.  I then explained to her that I used their credit facility because it was convenient and that paying later was better option because of the concept of the Time Value of Money, not because I was broke.

She almost begged me to keep the account and looked pretty depressed as she unwillingly closed the account.  I really hope she closed the account because if I get another message from that store we will have a problem.  I went back downstairs and collected the card and destroyed it in their faces.  The elderly man could not bear to look and he walked away.  I went back to the watch counter and asked the sales man to get me a slightly cheaper watch as I now had to pay cash.  They were now getting a smaller Share of Pocket as a result of their misconduct.  The salesman apologised again and packed the watch for me.  I paid cash in front of the elderly man and told them that it was my last transaction with them for life, and I am a man of my word.

I walked out of the store a happy man and went to present my gift.  The recipient of the gift had no idea of what had transpired.  Ladies and gentleman when you receive a gift please appreciate it because you do not know what might have been done for someone to try and put a smile on your face.  I hope we learn from my bad experience.  As a business you have to have all the angles covered because it only takes a spark to get the fire going.  This story will give you an idea of the strategic issues that were inherent in this store.  The truth is that the remedy is harder to come up with than one would like to think.  For the store to get it right a lot of issues would have to be dealt with in the background starting with the General Manager herself.  What you have seen here are the symptoms of the problem and not the actual problem.  An expert would be needed to remedy the situation as this is not a case where you would just walk into a store and ask your subordinates to smile at the customers.  If you notice that your employees are behaving like this call me J  .Which store do you think this is?  It is located in Harare.

RM