Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Future Shop Looks Out for Its Customers

I don’t shop much. I like to say that there is only one shopping day left until Christmas because I’ll only shop one day. But my wife and I wandered into Future Shop recently, and I'm pleased to say that they saved me from an impulse purchase.

As we entered, a young employee was hurrying by, but he took the time to pause and say “Hi guys! Welcome.” Despite the fact that I still find it sounds strange to hear a woman included among “guys,” the friendly gesture improved my already good mood.

I then made an impulse decision to buy a piece of electronics whose price is about $100. Stepping quickly to find a cash, I found none had any cashiers. No problem, though, because there were a couple of desks on the other side with employees behind them.

The first desk was the “customer service desk” where one customer with multiple receipts laid out was waiting for an employee seated on a chair facing the other way. The prospects didn’t look good. The second had a young guy tapping away at what looked like a cash register and talking on a phone. He politely directed me back to the customer service desk.

With some residual good feelings about our greeting I proceeded to wait for a while with my new treasure and credit card in hand. It didn’t take too long for impatience to set in as neither the employee facing the other way nor the customer in front of me moved for a couple of minutes.

I timed out and left.

So, I offer my thanks to Future Shop for saving me from myself. I now have the chance to sleep on my decision to buy this item. If I decide to buy it anyway, though, I’ll probably go to a store a little quicker to take my money.

11 comments:

  1. Reminds me of a time I went to Future Shop about 5 years ago, decided not to make a purchase. As I was leaving a woman in front of me set off the alarms at the entry/exit. The alarm was not stopped so I walked through and left the store. A young man came running out of the store yelling at me to stop and accusing me of shoplifting, when I was clearly not holding or carrying anything. I explained to him the circumstances and he returned to the store, however I wasn't terribly eager to come back after that.

    Canadian retailers could use a good lesson in customer service etiquette in more ways than one.

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    1. @Anonymous: That's certainly not a good experience. I don't go to stores often enough to know how widespread this type of problem is, but experiences must be different at different retailers.

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  2. This has also happened to me a couple of times at FS. Once I went to the "customer service" desk for price protection. Although I had the flyer with the exact model at a lower price, they still phoned Staples to see if it was in stock. If it was not in stock no price protection. All this only took over half an hour to save $15. They looked out for me too. :)

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  3. There is no consistency in service right across the country. It's a whole lot of different personalities and you're lucky if you encounter one that is of high quality.

    Blame this on the Walmart effect :)....do you want a buggy??

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  4. I like the title of this entry. I imagine the employees warning each other: "Look out! A customer! Run!"

    Nowadays I buy most of my discretionary items online. Anytime I have to talk to someone, it opens up room for error or frustration. I do agree that thinking a purchase over is a good way to let emotional desire cool, leading to more rational purchases.

    I'm finding nowadays I have more buying power than desires to buy. It's an odd, vaguely empty feeling. I've been pursuing money so long, but there's so much that it can't buy, and the things it can buy may or may not improve my life. With so many material goods it's tough to know if it will be life-enhancing or life-detracting.

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    1. @Gene: That's a funny interpretation of the title I didn't think of. Buying online probably makes sense if I go ahead with the purchase.

      I'm with you on not having much desire for stuff. In fact, I spend a lot of time rooting out stuff I already have but don't need. But I still enjoy the money I spend on playing sports and traveling to see friends and family.

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  5. This doesn't sound promising for their holiday sales quotas.

    When I was in a store recently near opening they were having a pep rally for all the staff near the front of the store. (no, it wasn't Walmart.) Luckily for their quota, as soon as I arrived at the sales desk one of them hurried over to say hello and check out my purchase. I'd shop there again. I wouldn't if they had just ignored me.

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  6. You know this exact same thing happened to me a while ago, without the "Welcome Guys", but it happened on-line, with the timeout and everything!

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    1. @Alan: At least it's fairly painless to try again later when you try to make an online purchase.

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  7. I always dread going to Future Shop. These days if I can't find what I want elsewhere online, I'll reserve the item in-store first. But trying to get help on the floor...almost impossible. Amazing how they still manage to get away with such poor customer service.

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    1. @Anonymous: I've heard this from a few people now. I haven't gone to Future Shop often enough to have noticed this myself.

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