To judge by the number of recent stories about rotten retail service, you would think we were in the midst of an epidemic of customer-uncentricity. A recent customer survey of retailer service by the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business provided a novel remedy: Just stop buying!

The survey of 1,300 US retail customers identified that retailer service snafus have already driven many customers to stop buying discretionary items. And as if that wasn't bad enough, customers don't expect the situation to get better any time soon and are willing to defect to better retailers if things don't.

The biggest problem area for retail customers, customer service, included rude treatment by staff, difficult returns processes, receiving too little attention and crude attempts at cross-selling. All of these are retail service basics. Or at least they should be.

The other problem area, little preferential treatment for loyal customers, included a lack of exclusive discounted prices, special offer mailings, preferential mailings and being remembered by sales staff. Up to 44% of high income customers perceive a real gap between the preferential treatment they expect and the treatment they regularly receive.

What do you think?

Is retailer service so rotten that you have stopped buying? Or is rotten service now part of the standard retailer experience?

Post a response and get the conversation going.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager