Customer service

Many moons ago I used to work in the hospitality industry, I’ve got a degree in it and everything. I worked in coffee shops, bars and restaurants and it was always drilled into me that customer focus was top priority. Having had this grounding, I am very aware of the service I now receive no matter where I am. In some places my expectations are low so when I get a smile and a “how are you” at the checkout in the mighty Lidl I am delighted. I am also preparing myself for the speedy checkout process and getting ready for them to start hurling my shopping towards me to pack as quickly as physically possible.

No matter the shop, there should be good customer service and I do think this should apply to charity shops. I know the people there are volunteers and its brilliant they give their time for free and generally do a great job. But this doesn’t apply to all. Many of the charity shops we see are multi-million pound charities and surely they must do some customer service training for each of their shops? Happy customers will spend more money and the charities will make more for each of their causes- simples.

You may wonder where this is coming from. Well, yesterday I took my son on my weekly charity shop trip and had two experiences at either end of the spectrum. In the first shop we did have a bit of a mishap in that my son accidentally knocked a tin of magnets off the shelf (it was precariously perched or so I’m told). It was soon cleared up and I continued browsing. But after that small incident I began to feel really uncomfortable and unwelcome. It was such a shame as I saw a fab dress. I was about to try it on but the atmosphere and looks we got made me feel like we should leave. So off we jolly well flounced!

In the next shop, the lady working there couldn’t have been friendlier, she chatted to my son and also commented that Thursday wasn’t my usual day and that Wednesday mornings were!  I bought a lovely top for my holiday and felt that the world was right again. I then had to spend 10 minutes explaining to my son that we really didn’t need a massive Liverpool FC beanbag!