Australia Blog: The Invisible Man

November 20, 2003

The Invisible Man

After the nightclub incident involving my glasses and the dancefloor, I went down to the local shopping mall to scope out the scene on new lenses and potentially frames.

There's 5 optometry stores in this mall and I worked my way through all of them. In all but the very last one, I was completely ignored by the staff. No acknowledgement of me as I walked in the store, no one came up to me to see if they could help or answer any questions, not even after spending at least 5-10 minutes in each place.

I realise that I'm conditioned to a higher standard of customer service, having lived in the US for a few years, but this was ridiculous. These aren't minimum wage hacks in these stores, these are trained vision specialists and when you see someone wearing glasses come into the store, you'd think they would at least see how you're doing.

Frames aren't cheap. The lenses in them aren't cheap either. Contact lens can set you back a pretty penny. Considering these are pricey items, you'd think they'd be interested in making a sale. These stores were not overly busy. There were a maximum of two other customers in each and as I write this, I'm struck by the irony of not being seen in an optometry store.

Oh well, tough luck for the others. The last store, OPSM, gets my business and I'm finished with my little rant.

Posted by Chris on November 20, 2003 05:38 PM Brisbane Time
Category: Observations

Comments

Oh, you had to mention customer service.

Now you did it. One of my big pet peeves about the UK is how the height of good customer service there is to look right through you, and then with a perturbed snark, exclaim "YES PLEASE!" to the waiting customer.

My dream is to take over the retail management of some operation in England, sack all the clerks and start all over again. I am betting that I could double sales and cut payroll by half within a month.

Posted by: joe e on November 21, 2003 03:05 AM

Great on Joe...very true.

Damn Aussie optometrists!

Just kidding of course...make sure you take a pic of you and the new frames Mr. 4 eyes.

Once Nick and I get to Brissie - it'll be 12 eyes among 3 guys heading to the pubs to try to meet 3 Aussie woman. Haha.

Chris - great idea to remove the url field on comments so those spammers can screw off.

Posted by: Sean on November 21, 2003 03:12 AM

A head chef I once knew told me he believed that awareness was such an important commodity. People in restaurants and shops demand immediate attention.

I remember once waiting for an order in a printers in Eugene Oregon. There were no other customers when another older man walked in and waited. Nobody going about their busy tasks looked at him much less acknowledged him. Too cap it off a couple of 23 year old counter staff were having an animated chat and laughter session about Saturday night. I watched this guy get madder and madder, turn around and walk out after about 5 minutes and no one noticed!

Regarding English customer service I agree, those 'standard questions and answers' (Yes Please) come across like a slap in the face.

My solution for large parts of London is to 'sculp' entire areas with a Terex Titan.

http://www.sparwood.bc.ca/titaninf.htm

Posted by: Nick on November 24, 2003 05:51 PM

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