I was shopping in Tesco’s Northbrook Street store today when I saw a blind man and his dog enter (no, this is not leading to a joke) and make his way to the customer service department (fag area). He stood there patiently waiting to be served but the shop assistants totally ignored him (even though several glanced in his direction). When it was my turn to be served I said “Excuse me but I think this gentleman would like to be served”. The lady shop assistant turned to him and said, “Can help you?” “yes,” he replied, ”I would like to be taken to the sandwich section please.” She thought about it for a few seconds and then said, “What sort of sandwiches would you like?” He said, “Erm, I’ll know when somebody takes me and I can see what you’ve got on offer” (I presume the “see” was a figure of speech… just in case somebody humorously points out a fly in the ointment of that man’s statement). She then went to the speaker phone and called for assistance.
In the mean time I got served, went out and about 5 minutes later I went past the shop again and saw him still standing their patiently.
My point is that this man was given such appalling service. Aren’t staff trained to be alert and noticed people either in stress or in need of help? This is not the first time I’ve seen people waiting at the service desk while other customers have been served first.
As I started the Tesco’s theme I might as well go on; I was talking to a member of staff awhile back who told me that they need more staff there, because the staff they’ve got struggle as it is. They close down checkouts when there are queues because people want to go home or have their break. They won’t get more staff in because they are more geared to profits than customer satisfaction. As a regular customer to that branch I must concur with her assessment of that particular branch (at least I concur looking in from the outside).
I hope that my little rant has done some good for mankind and Tesco’s shoppers and that when I go back into the shop tomorrow I will notice an improvement… then again....