I occasionally receive emails or letters from customers bemoaning the service – or lack thereof – that they have (or rather haven’t) received. In every instance, these complaints are referred to the retailer concerned and depending on their response, a decision is made whether to go public or not. We are especially careful when naming names. In this particular instance, we went to extraordinary lengths to obtain a response from the retailer as follows. On May 26, 2015, I wrote the followin
g email to Alistair McGeorge, CEO of Big W.
Dear Alistair,
On Monday 18th May I contacted Big W providing you with the opportunity to respond to a customer complaint prior to deciding whether to publish an article in this regard.
I was transferred from one person to another, and the third person was at your Mittagong store while the matter had nothing whatsoever to do with that store.
I persisted and spoke to Marlyn in your media centre and subsequently Samantha Lo Blanco who apparently made contact with your HR department.
I requested a response by COB Thursday 21 May. On 20 May I was advised by Samantha that I could expect a follow up by BIG W.
On Thursday 21 May I received an email from Samantha at 10.30am advising that she was awaiting a response from your HR department. I have heard no more since.
It is incumbent upon me to give a retailer the opportunity to respond before going to press. I hope you will agree that I have gone to some lengths to do this.
This email is a final attempt to provide Big W with the opportunity to respond.
Yours sincerely,
Notwithstanding this email stating that it was a final attempt, we wrote a further email advising that we assumed due to the passage of time that we would not be receiving a response.
The customer’s issue pales into insignificance. The matter is now one of arrogance and contempt. No less than five people at Big W were contacted, plus the CEO and his PA.
The message, not even coded, is quite simple: “We do not care one iota about our customers and we do not care whether or not we are named”.
Just a few weeks ago, Sue Mitchell, Senior Reporter for SMH’s Business Day, wrote that since announcing plans this month to cut another 400 support jobs, Woolworths has lost at least two senior executives and another two are reportedly eyeing the exit doors.
On May 22, 2015 I wrote about Aldi’s rollercoaster ride and commented on the first-ever quarterly sales drop in 20 years by Woolworths (and incidentally Tesco).
At that time in a major mea culpa, Woolworths chief executive Grant O’Brien said Australia’s largest retailer had taken its eye off the ball in recent years in its pursuit for growth and had lost the trust and loyalty of customers. Some of the CEOs within Woolworths have clearly not got the message.
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing (www.impactretailing.com.au) and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or on 0414 631 702.
