The Customer Comes First

Where has the genuine friendly C-Store service gone?

A number of people have remarked to me lately that they have been observing that the previous friendly helpful service that used to be the hallmark of the convenience channel is disappearing.

What do you mean, I asked. They described some of their visits to C-Stores where they went either for fuel and/or top up grocery or demand product items - typically - cigarettes, bread, milk and papers.

Top of the list was the lack of friendliness or conversation of any sort. I was surprised at the number of times it was stated that they were given no greeting. Second on the list was the lack of assistance when queues were forming at busy times. Most of the people I was talking to mentioned that they knew it was busy, but didn't receive any acknowledgement and were rushed through when they did get to the counter.

A few said that they couldn't understand why the other staff working in the store didn't come over to try and assist. Even if there wasn't a second point of sale available - the customers I spoke to seemed to think that the other staff could have at least smiled at them and apologised for the delays.

In general their comments revolved around the lack of friendliness and acknowledgement that they were "customers"; and even more worrying from a retailer's point of view, at least 25 % of the people I spoke to mentioned that the product they went to get was out of stock at the time of their visit.

Being out of stock of the product that was the prime reason for the shopper's visit to the C-Store is a retailing sin. Consider the following scenario:

"As dad is leaving work he receives a phone message telling him to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home. So that the kids can have their lunches made for tomorrow morning. As he gets in the car, he looks down at the fuel gauge which is close to empty and decides to stop once to get fuel and the bread.

When he arrives at the service station C-Store, he fills up first and then enters the store to pick up the bread - only to find that they are out of stock of normal white bread. They only have some strange combination of honeyseed and almond bread left. He knows the kids won't eat that.

Now, he is not happy, as he has to make another stop on the way home to pick up bread.

How much worse can the situation get.

What if the Customer Service Attendant behind the counter doesn't say hello and offer friendly service? - maybe because it's the end of their shift , they are tired and the queue always seems to have 5 or 6 people in it. They just take the money for the fuel and move onto the next customer."

In this situation - the customer's service expectations have not been met. Their trip to the C-Store to pick up the product that was the "real" reason for their visit has been wasted and he received poor service as well.

It is a known statistic that 90% of customers will enter a store and go straight to the location of the demand item they want to purchase. Once they have the demand item, they are likely to notice other complementary product items or some of the impulse products as they walk to the counter to pay.

If their demand item e.g. the bread is Out of Stock (OOS) then they probably won't buy any extra items at all. Not only did the store lose the sale of the bread, it lost opportunity sales as well - and educated the customer not to come to them in the afternoon for bread -we don't stock it.

C-Store operators spend a lot of time and effort in training their staff to operate the consoles and cash registers efficiently, how to balance shifts, perform shift duties, operate safely, etc. How much "sincere" time is spent coaching staff in how and why to continually offer service to all customers who visit the store? Everyone has service standards that they inform staff of. How many operators follow up and provide on-going feedback and coaching to keep the service levels offered to their customers at the highest possible level.

This commitment by C-Store operators of constant observation, feedback and coaching of staff needs to be very strong. Service is usually the first casualty, when the C-Store operator forgets to do these things and only concentrates on paperwork and other operational issues everyday.

Instructing staff in service standards and how they can help prevent Out of Stock situations is obviously completed in most Induction Training Programs for new staff members. However, on-going coaching, positive reinforcement and corrective feedback is as just as important to ensure that all customers always receive the highest possible level of service and that all their expectations are met.

The most important Point of Difference for C-Store operators against the industry's competition is "offering great friendly service all the time."





 

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