One of my mystery shoppers was visiting a reasonably-sized Garden Centre a while ago as a paying customer. They were looking to spend a fair chunk of their hard-earned cash on some nice, big decorative pots for their garden, a potential sale worth around £200.
During their visit they received what could only be described as a rotten service experience. The member of staff was gruff, unhelpful, had little or no product knowledge and was certainly not going to use any they had. My shopper came away from the garden centre having not made a purchase and vowing never to go back there again.
This Garden Centre has at least one "Internal Terrorist" who is either consciously or unconsciously, slowly but surely destroying the business. In fact, it has more than one, as you'll read next, because knowing that they desperately need our services, I have made a number of calls to the business on their public line:
- Each time it takes forever for the phone to ring.
- Each time the phone is answered by an out of breath person with a big sigh, giving only part of the name of the business. This strongly communicates a "you have interrupted me" message.
- I have never been given the name of the person who answers the phone.
- Each time I am asked "(Sigh) 'Oos calling?".
- Each time I am told "(Sigh) 'Old on", as the phone is transferred.
- Each time I wonder why the management of this business hasn't woken up to the fact that some members of it's team are slowly ruining their dreams and aspirations.
Don't let the Internal Terrorist destroy your business!
