Customer service adventures at Justrite

For the first time, I ventured into Justrite Superstores along Idi Iroko Road last Friday. I was impressed by the rows of goods and array of products that a customer can choose from. Taking a basket around the shelves was an interesting process, and I actually got a chance to compare some of the prices in the storre with what we have in the common market outside. My extensive training and facilitating in Marketing and Sales as well as Customer Service Professional Training Programmes gives me a rather different perspective in assessing the stores. I am quite aware of the superstore model which enables a purchase of bulk products sometimes directly from manufacturers. This gives store owners a margin different from other retailers since they can eliminate the long chain of middle men that often comes in between the manufacturer and final consumer and reap all the profits.
Everything was going well while I was selecting the products I intended to purchase. I noted that most of the polite attendants were millenials, you can tell by certain trends potrayed: They say hello with little enthusiasm for what they are doing; they don’t mind being dsitracted on the job, the fiddling of the phone is apparent. There was a lady who was complaining about a member of staff to another attendant right on the shop floor. I paused to eavesdrop and found out that it was merely a personality clash which could be resolved so easily if the woman concerned had been a little more patient.
Justrite Radio Service was blaring as I moved from one colunn of products to another, the On Air Personalities rilled off a number of sales packages that customers could benefit from. Every thing was predicated on their “low prices and good conditions of shopping!” I looked around at the faces of fellow shoppers to see if the announcements had registered any resultss or effects on their shopping habits and found out that nothing was really changing because of the announcement. One of the On Air Personalities kept emphaisizing that Justrite was a Nigerian company fully owned and run by Nigerians. I asked myself if this was of any consequence. The kind of people who come to Justrite-lower income and middle income earners- would not care less who owns the store as long as they get the service they expect from it.
Companies of various kinds seek to manipulate their customers. Often times they like to fly the patriotic flag and try to make the people who patrionize them feel that “this company is your own; you had better not patronze foreign companies because they have the tendency to rip you off!” We all know that this trend of manipulation only works with a few people who are bitten by the spirit of nationalism and activism. If the foreign companies do it better, the cussotmers will patronize them. That, in effect, is the bottom line. In customer service, we like to encourage loyalty and repurchases. They are not the same. Loyalty refers to a deep set relationship which makes the customer go out of his way and sometimes suffer some level of loss to maintain a relationship. In effect, if you can establish loyalty among your customers, they will stick with you even when you mess up! In discussing loyalty in class, I love to use Arsenal Football Club of England as a good example. In recent times the football club has been blowing hot and cold. Even after the exit of Arsene Wenger, the club suffered a lot with Emry at the helm, but the supporters still stand by them. A gunner is usually a gunner for life. That is loyalty. I have a catch phrase: Sales are for today, customers are forever!
A repurchase on the other hand is not always based on loyalty. It is enthused by manipulation. Lower your prices. Adjust them just to beat the competition! Lets have a price war. Manouvers that are made to make the organization look the best in the sector do not last if they are not deep set and long lasting. None of the competitors ask the key question which could set them on the trail of having an array of loyal customers: “What is awful about our sector and how can we make it better?” Everyone is just after short term rewards. Profit on the short term fizzles out on the long run.
For me, the Justrite model is working well. But managers just have to teach floor attendants and cashiers to care more for the customer. Attendants stocking the shelves should not be at liberty to be discussing their quarrels with fellow employees on the floor of the store! That should be reserved for strategy meetings.
Justrite on Idi-Iroko road ruined my shopping experience when it was time to pay. I approached the tills at payment point and three of the five or six service people present there were busy attending to customers. I approached a lady who was actually standing and possibly preparing to leave her till. She asked me to queue at the next place. Without hesitation, I moved to the til she indicated where there were about three people on a queue with one being attended to. The lady who looked as if she was about to leave her till spotted the familiar face of customer approaching for payment. Everything changed.Before she could help herself, she called the customer to her till and begun to process her payment. I felt a bit uncomfortable. If she could attend to her friend she could attend to me too! So I stared at her, fixed her with strong gaze until she realized what she had just done. Then she called me back.
“Sir, do come over, sorry for sending you away” She called. I was tempted to ignore her. But I reminded myself that I was the one who glared at her trying to send a telepathic message to her which registered and made her call me back in the first place. So I obliged her. She applogized at least twice while summing up the cost of my purchase and I left the main store to continue my adventure in the pastery section of the store a little cynincal.
It takes a lot to discourage me. I suppose I will still go back to Justrite once more and see if what I experienced is the rule rather than an exception.