Last week I bought a bass guitar from a store – For those interested it was a Squier 60s Classic Vibe Precision in Seafoam Green with block inlays on the fretboard – I saw it on display and fell in love with it because it’s a very, very cool bass!
Purists can be a bit sniffy about Squier (It’s Fender’s budget sub-brand) but I’ve found the Indonesian-built stuff surprisingly good (punchy pick-ups and a nice, slim neck profile for playability). Plus, I live part-time in the desert so I don’t want an expensive instrument as it will get ruined by the climate and my constant to-ing and fro-ing). However, despite being a ‘budget’ instrument it still cost 2,000 AED (approx. £400). Now, the bit above is important because it details my buying motives.
When I tried it, the action on the bass was way too high (action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard) so I paid in full and left it with the technician in the shop to set it up and we agreed I would collect it the next day.
Now the bad news – He called the next day to tell me that the bass was beyond repair (despite being brand new) as the neck had warped. This prompts several questions; firstly, why display unprepared and unchecked stock? Secondly, what measures are in place to store and display delicate instruments at an appropriate temperature and humidity? Thirdly, what process is in place to liquidate over-age stock in the inventory (for a neck to warp it must have been in stock a long time despite it being new).
Despite this bad news I agreed to go back and look at selecting another instrument. It went from bad to worse. The ‘salesperson’ made no attempt to uncover my buying motives (detailed earlier). He also made an assumption that I wouldn’t be willing to spend any more money (I was) therefore eliminating his opportunity to upsell me on another product.
The outcome was I opted for a refund (although interestingly that will take 10 working days!!) and I made an affirmation that I would never visit that particular store (wherever the branches happen to be) ever again.
Any of us who have spent time in retail will have heard the mantra ‘Retail Is Detail’. This episode illustrates in very clear detail a lack of stock management process, staff training (in both sales and customer experience) and a total lack of understanding of how customer retention and advocacy works.
I’d like to think that this particular example is the exception but sadly it’s not. An investment in process and customer experience training would pay an almost immediate (and ongoing) dividend to this and many other businesses so why is training often dismissed as ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘business critical’?