Thursday, July 12, 2007

On Track

Run: 3 Miles
Time: 28:21
Pace: 9:27

Work today was very busy for me. Over the last month I've been giving a presentation on how we can better serve our customers. For those of you who don't know I work for a medium to large grocery store chain here in the southeast. Just recently they did an industry wide survey and we scored at the bottom in the customer service category. That was not surprising to anyone and something that has needed attention for quite some time.

What really bothers me is the corporate leadership seems to think that throwing money at each one of our stores is one way of solving the problem. I have a news flash for them...you can build the biggest baddest grocery store on the planet but if you don't take care of your customers it will be a big bad empty store sucking money! I don't understand why some retail service oriented company's "over think" customer service! What's so hard about treating people nice, making sure they find the product their looking for, being genuine about their shopping experience, and having a servants heart? It shouldn't even be an issue in the grocery store business.

Why do I bring this up?

This evening my wife went to go play tennis with a good friend of hers and on the way home she stopped at one of our "brand new" stores to pick up a few things. We have a sale on Pepsi products so she proceeded down to the soda aisle and found that they were out of the 12 pack cans of diet Pepsi. She then proceeded to ask one of the workers if they had any in the back by chance. Just so were clear my wife asked him for 4 12 pack cases of cans. He comes back 5 minutes later with 4 two liter bottles. Problem number one...he didn't listen! She then explains it to him and he says let me go check. Well, 10 minutes later my wife is still standing there waiting for him to come back. She has now had enough and goes to pay for the items she has and when she gets to the front of the store there is the guy bagging some one's groceries. What in the world???

Sorry, I just had to vent. I really am genuinely concerned about our leadership and I wonder if they truly understand the scope of the problem. It amazes me that people have been trying to make them aware of the problem but they only validate it when an official survey comes out that says yeah your at the bottom just one point above Wally world! That's sad! I will be making a phone call to the store manager so at least he or she is aware of my wife's experience!

Ok, I feel better now...sorry! My run tonight was good. The plan was a tempo run and I feel I gave it 100%. Still very humid but I didn't start my run until about 9:30 tonight. My sassy four year old has been throwing fits and fighting us at bedtime and is the reason my run started late. Good news, it would have been very easy to bail on the run but I laced them up and busted my tail to get it done. The heat and humidity has me really sucking down the water this week. I think yesterday I hit the 2 gallon mark on water. Today was about a gallon and a half. No problems here getting the fluids! I drink no less then a gallon a day even on days off. Tomorrow is my makeup strength training from today and then I will take Saturday off. Well, a day off from running or lifting but a day getting the yard work done. I suspect I will be down another pound or two by morning so the weight is still on the downward trend. Sunday will be my long run of 6 miles.

Finally, Friday is here and the weekend approaches! Make it a great Friday morning! - Jason

11 comments:

keith said...

Customer service is a dying art in this country, to be sure. Whether you're a Wal-Mart or a Mom & Pop, businesses have got to realize that they won't get repeat business if their people can't treat a customer with respect and listen to their needs.

Wes said...

Being in the restaurant business, I understand all about service. That kind of experience raises the hackles on the back of my neck. Nice run, dude! I'm desperately trying to keep up with you :-) Keep'em coming!!

Gotta Run..... said...

Don't get me started on my thoughts of customer service. Unreal somethimes!!

Looks like you are off and running with your marathon training. One foot in front of the other.... nicely stated.

Keep on moving!! :)

Neese said...

sad but true, that kind of service seems to be the norm these days.

Chief Wahoo said...

Nice job on the run!

You know what really burns me - everyone says the US economy is becoming a service economy - but the challenges you speeak about are all too common. My question - Don't you need good serivce to have a successful service economy?

Just my two cents...

David H. said...

Better late than never to get that workout in! As far as what you said about customer service, I think some of it has to go back to the customer as well. How many times do people check out at stores while they're on their cell phones? I guess, though, those are the ones who don't listen to their customers at their jobs.

Marcy said...

Amen brother!!! I hear you on the customer service. It's crazy!

Awesome on the run. That humidity is a killer :-(

Laurel said...

Yeah, I think it's pretty much universal that customer service is more of an old wives tale nowadays. Pretty pathetic.

However, nice pace on the run, and in the humidity too! Good job getting out there. It hard with the weather like this.

Mary Gee said...

I think poor customer service is just a small symptom of our larger cultural issues... we have a couple of generations of people who have been raised to think only of ME! ME! ME!

Good job on the run!

Darrell said...

Congrats on meeting that <200 goal, cool. Your customer service experience obviously touched a nerve.

At one of our local grocers they are almost too nice, its almost suffocating. I know where things are and I don't need help with one little bag, but at least they ask.

Scott McMurtrey said...

Ditto on everyone's customer service responses.

Nice run in that humidity!