The
bankruptcy and closing of Circuit City stores some years ago still sticks in my
mind for business analysts’ brutal assessment of the cause of its demise: poor
customer service. Commentators
contrasted customers’ consistently poor experience at Circuit City with the
more welcoming environment at competitors’ stores.
When
I read about a store or chain of stores closing, especially if they have an
outlet near me, I have a twinge of guilt that maybe I should have shopped there
more. But sometimes they just don’t sell
what I want (Forever 21, comes to mind), and maybe they just don’t deserve the
business because of their poor treatment of customers. But upon learning that Joann Fabrics is soon closing
all its 800+ stores, I had to think about that one. No, I’m not a crafter; but my wife is, and I
remember her excitement over shopping at a Joann store. She’d rummage through bolt after bolt of
fabric, asking my opinion of the design or material. A very tedious experience for me, as I'm sure she noticed, but I had
to admire the workers there because they seemed to love their job and be
crafters themselves because they invariably would ask what my wife was making,
share hints, and tell stories of their own similar projects. That’s high-end customer service.
So
where did Joann go wrong?
It
started, sadly but predictably, with debt.
In 2011 a Los Angeles-based private equity firm converted the chain in a
leveraged buyout, putting the company $1.6 billion in debt and obligating it to
pay exorbitant management fees.
Nevertheless, the company surged during the pandemic. But owners assumed the boom would continue,
and failed to adjust to competition—except in one notable way: they cut
staff. This caught up with them as
customers experienced wait times of 45 minutes or more to have their fabric
measured and cut. I’ve been with my wife
when she bought what she needed for a project.
It entailed having a clerk measure and cut from as many as half a dozen
bolts of fabric; Joann is a high-touch, service-intensive business.
And
perhaps that is the moral of the Joann story.
Business does not have time for customer service. Management evaluates a grocery clerk by how
fast she can check out a customer. The
call center operator’s efficiency is measured by how many calls he completes in
an hour. A doctor needs to meet
standards of patient turnover during her day while also meeting clinical standards of
care. Does management really think we
don’t notice this?
Customer
service is not (or shouldn’t be) a department, it’s everyone’s job at a
business. Can’t we take a few minutes to
be personable? Can’t we practice the
Golden Rule? Can’t we, as customers,
smile at the worker assisting us? Complain
as we might about large, impersonal corporations taking over the world, we
should practice virtue at our own level, both as employees and customers. And let’s shop where we are welcomed,
locally.
Until
next time,
Roger
“Treat
other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them—this is the
meaning of the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 Phillips
