I went shopping for some new trainers this weekend and ended up purchasing two pairs of trainers in two different stores. Whilst I am happy with both of my purchases the experience of shopping in the two stores was entirely different. One of the stores has left me a positive experience and the other quite the opposite.
The first store I went to was JJB. The store was well laid out and it was relatively easy to locate the section containing the trainers. I selected two different pairs to try and after a short wait a sales assistant went to find the shoes in my size. Returning with both pairs of trainers he proceeded to unlace them for me before asking me what the trainers were to be used for. On hearing that I would be using them in the gym the sales assistant then recommended which pair was most appropriate. Based on his advice and after trying both pairs on, I selected one pair. After queuing for a short time I paid for the trainers and left the store, feeing satisfied with my purchase and very happy with the customer service I had received.
The second store I visited was Sports World. On entering the store I was immediately struck by the fact that they had tried to cram too many items into too small a space. It was not immediately apparent where to locate different items in the store. In fact it was hard to walk around in the store due to the fact that there was barely any room to move around between the different racks of clothes. Other customers were also commenting on how packed and uncomfortable the store was. After locating a pair of trainers I looked around for somewhere to try them on and finding nowhere I decided to take a chance and just buy them. Fighting my way to the till, I then queued for around 20 minutes before reaching the checkout. All of the sales assistants looked thoroughly fed up and demoralised. Although judging by the fact that the store was packed to bursting with stock and there was no air conditioning I could understand why. I was served by a sales assistant who was more interested in talking to his fellow workers about the football score than he was serving a customer. After purchasing the shoes and fighting my way out of the store I left with the intention of not shopping in this store again.
The moral of this story, good customer service will result in return business.