When the customer is not always right

Has service in shops deteriorated or is it customers who have lost the plot? Berna Cox shops around to find out.

We give out about them. We consider they have "attitude". We believe, sometimes, that we are being treated with disdain. We are the customers and we're supposed to be "always right".

They are the shop assistants who are the target for a lot of consumer flak these days. Has customer service slipped to the apathetic level of the "couldn't be bothered" brigade or has consumer expectation become arrogant, demanding and prima donna-ish?

A bit of both, it seems, according to Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland. A lot of stores, he says, have a very high turnover of young staff so a high level of customer service is not sustained. On the other hand, consumers have become extremely demanding because, he says, they know they're paying more than ever before and they want value for money.

Spokespeople for Superquinn, Tesco and Dunnes Stores all agree that customer care is important and they constantly strive to evolve their procedures to deliver a top-quality service. However, according to Damien Gibson, the store manager of Superquinn in Naas, Co Kildare: "Customer expectation has increased, and the more you try to give, the more they expect." All spokespersons agree that a good percentage of customer problems invariably boil down to one, critical factor. Time.

The pace at which we live our modern lives, it seems, is sometimes too fast for comfort. When we come to shop, we've probably encountered several stressful incidents en route. Traffic, parking, family juggling, weather, and the need to be somewhere else later on. On time. We want to get in and get out quickly and with the maximum of assistance. We don't want to queue; we each have our very important lives to get on with and we want everyone else to move at our own frantic pace.

A checkout delay compounds the stress and gives us the consumer hump. Unfortunately, the checkout operators are in the firing line. We perceive that they're just not working hard enough or fast enough. In other words, we start to believe that they don't care. Suddenly, they're rude, churlish and incompetent. Sometimes it might actually be so, but sometimes our own stress has coloured the situation that way. We, the customers, have bad hair days.

Siobhan Conneely, who has worked for Superquinn for 17 years, says the checkout is her least favourite position: "It's more demanding than ever before". Superquinn tries to minimise queues and waiting time by providing "packers" at every checkout at all times. Conneely says she tries to pack the goods sensibly but this is seen as time-wasting by some customers. "They would be quick to complain if there was something damaged," she adds.

The business of getting through the check-out has become a bit of a palaver. Conneely recites the routine: "Have you got your Clubcard? Have you got your bags? Have you got your parking ticket? Are you collecting the stamps for . . .?"

Another checkout delay is the method of payment. Plastic has largely replaced old-fashioned cash. Some swipe-card machines might take a few seconds to verify the details and some cards might not work first time. The delay may be mere seconds but it leaves some customers drumming their fingers.

Jewell agrees that customer service is definitely slipping but blames the chiefs rather than the Indians: "Companies are overly focused on loyalty cards and so on" - which means that basic standards are overlooked.

But if it's good, old-fashioned service-with-a-smile that we want, perhaps we should try taking the time to give the odd grin ourselves?