The
other day my college mate and me visited
the super premium cosmetic brand store MAC Juhu Mumbai , what a truly disappointing experience it was ! I am not sure how MAC India operates , but MAC UK I recall just enjoyed the whole
experience and got hooked on to their products since then.
Narrating the India service...
First of all the sales personnel had put on
some real garish make up and weird
hairdo… Gee! if that’s the way to attract customers then let me tell you MAC its a big put off . With their
attitude we realised we were not
considered to be potential customers at all. Though I was planning to buy one of
their products ( just one ) not that
they were aware of !
3
sales personels including the cashier together fawning over one customer ( a
Lady ) with 3 of her entourage None of
the MAC associates bothered or even showed the slightest interested in us . We discussed and gauged that were not dressed or carried an attitude of a socialite perhaps that must have been a big
put off for them . I browsed through the testers and found what I wanted .. a powder
blush for my skin tone , and ofcourse
waiting patiently at the cash counter for someone to show up and give me a
fresh piece . 10 whole minutes and trust me no one bothered to even ask me what
was I waiting for ? Well then we made some usual errant customer
noise , which got the cashier going and
he quickly came over quickly and gave us the piece .
Now
comes the billing part , waited patiently for him to give us the bill …NOPE NOT
A CHANCE …. No bill since I wasn’t carrying my first citizen card they couldn’t
enter the points for me ,” he tells me go and see whether u can get it from the
Shoppers stop cash counter and then come back here” . TOTAL TIME SPENT AT THE
CASH COUNTER 23 minutes and left without buying . TIME TAKEN FOR BROWSING 12
MINUTES . LEFT COUNTER WITHOUT ANY PUCHASE > TOTAL TIME WASTED -35 MINS
Questions
:
Q .Will I go back to MAC India
A :NO !
Q Is this my first visit
A: NO – Previous 3 visits
Q: Your
experience
A: Similar ones ! Where the sales staff did not find me
interesting or potential enough to assist me. Infact during one of my visit to the very same store the
sales staff had a sceptical look on her face and made sure I was aware about the MRP of the product even before I could
reach out to the testers.
I remember my first visit to London , I made
sure that I visited Tiffany’s at bond street . I was so amazed with their service.
They showed me the merchandise enthusiastically explained, chatted without making me feel
uncomfortable. When I said Thank you and was about to leave , with a beaming
smile the sales personnel asked me to visit their store again . No irritation at ALL ! that I had not bought anything , no sniggering too. This is called true
shopping experience. Iam sure they must be getting many tourists like me but
the fact that it did not deter them from doing their job us something that
needs to be noticed .
My thoughts
No matter which brand enters India, but with
no training the brands will not generate the required business and brand positioning in India
.Brands spend so much of moolah on advertising and marketing , yet I fail to
understand why they do not allocate funds
/budgets for customer training and grooming . I fail to understand why are we trying
to miss out such a crucial part in the circle of business.
MAC is an example of just one of the many brands including the hotel industry which lacks customer service , I can give you
many such companies and brands , reliance hypermarket is one of them. Be it a luxury , premium , middle , lower , discounted customer service is a challenge in the organised retail sector in India
Retail and the hotel industry needs to
consolidate their business by working on making the basic strong and customer
service is the only way that business can prosper and can gain customer loyalty .
