Department Manager can make all the difference in enhancing customer service

After long I experienced very good customer service at Shopper's Stop a few months back and it is all due to their Dept. Manager Mr. Kalrha. I would be writing about the details about his exceptionally good customer service in the coming days which created the most favourable impression on me a few months back and ever since then I have been meaning to write about it.

The growth of a pleasant interaction between the customer and the store depends a lot upon how the customer and the store are willing to co-operate with each other along the way where sometimes the customer understands the store and other times the store. Sometimes the  customer has to give in to understanding the store's limitations and policies...And sometimes the store has to have a flexible approach towards customers. Most importantly a Manager has to be able to differentiate between a genuine and a false complaint.

His action that I would be talking about in the coming days definitely demonstrated his sensitivity to the customers. I appreciate his recognising the fact that the complaint was genuine and taking the appropriate action accordingly in all fairness. Honestly does pay and gets rewarded ! What is important is to make honest complaints and sooner or later someone sees that and helps you out.

Shoppers Stop's hidden charges in the masks of different names given to discount sales/ Lack of etiquette and clarity of their own products

Recently I went to exchange some clothes I had bought in their discount period and to my dismay I was charged about Rs.51 extra for the exchange of clothes from the same brand and same MRP . The cashier was rude and simply told me that he cannot do anything. So I decided to investigate and after wasting so much of time and going up and down the stairs to the Customer Services Office as well as demanding to talk to their senior, I got an answer though unsatisfactory.

The floor manager was quite pleasant, courteous and helpful. And I was informed by him that according to Company rules I will have to be charged more even though it does not make sense to any customer for paying more for the same items that too bought in discount period just a day before. He explained that according to the Company the stuff I had bought just a day before were actually from the so called Promotions Sale and the next day was the End of the Season sale where 5% tax is charged on MRP. Naturally I found that unfair and unreasonable as whatever said and done because both days were times of discount sales and I felt that there should have been more clarity regarding the same beforehand so that the customer was prepared for it. Instead there was no clear distinction between the two so called name tags given to the discount sales which would help the customers to differentiate between the two.

So I have decided to contact their head office regarding the same. If there was clarity and the customer was not intended to be misled by Shoppers Stop's hidden charges, then the cashier would have been able to tell me the same. Instead the staff at the cash counters were baffled too.

All should carefully examine and understand their bills and specially taxes charged which we tend to overlook sometimes. Everyone who does not know needs to be informed that usually such stores charge five percent extra tax during discounts time and they have different internal rules regarding different discounts they offer on different days which leaves no choice for the customers but to pay extra on the same products. It is very sad that a lot of restaurants too are getting away with charging us extra under the label of service tax which actually they are not supposed to be charging. But I never thought that big companies like Shoppers Stop would do the same in a different way though...

Like Lifestyle their staff's etiquettes and manners also need to be questioned. When I was getting an exchange slip made, their security person was continuously coughing on my face without covering his mouth and while bending to write the slip saliva fell from his mouth on the clothes I intended to exchange. Their staff really needs classes on manners and etiquettes.