Well, this is my first article, so bear with me while I find me feet. My intention with these articles is to give you some of my real-life experiences, and how that translates into my mindframe. Hopefully, if you are reading this, it might make you think about something similar in your business and give you that eureka moment.
For the past couple of years, I have been working full-time from home, so I gave up my car and just car share with my wife, if I need to go anywhere that isn’t easily accessible by train. My wife got in from work and told me that she forgot to put petrol in the car, so I thought that I would jump out to get petrol while she was getting herself ready.
Now the point of me saying that last part is to paint you a picture that I don’t regularly go to put petrol in the car anymore, so what I saw this evening might now be common practice, but it if Shell was a customer-focused business (which we know it is not), it certainly shouldn’t be.
Granted, the time I arrived at the garage was around 8:15 pm, but I pulled up as I usually do (pump to the far left, I’m particular for some reason). It always annoyed me that they removed the self-service on all of the pumps, especially when my vision is always to put the customer first, rather than inconveniencing them in order to get more sales from the shop.
Anyway, I got myself sorted, lifted the pump and waited for the authorisation from the staff member, but it didn’t come. Being my polite self, I waited around for another few minutes, assuming that the staff member was perhaps busy with another customer, but the garage was really busy, and the other customers were not quite as patient as myself. Customers were banging on the windows and the door, tooting their horns and getting restless, but there was no staff member at the till like there usually was.
This is when I spotted it… a hand-written sign that said ‘I’m on Break’…
A few moments later, the young staff member came out from the back room, up to the glass and pointed at the sign that she was on break, then essentially started arguing with the customers about how she was entitled to a break.
The customers were livid, calling the poor staff member all of the names under the sun, and huffing and puffing like it was the end of the world. I, on the other hand, didn’t blame this poor girl at all. This situation was a calculated move by her superiors to save money.
Now, in my business, we have two main themes that we always stand by. We should be Customer-centric and have a great staff culture. What I saw at this garage was the complete opposite of what I stand for.
Not only has Shell decided to remove the self-service pumps at the customer’s inconvenience, but they have also doubled down and sacrificed their workers, all to make sure that they save as much money as possible by having a single staff member on.
The above might sound like I am having a bit of a rant and a rave here, but that isn’t my intention. It was an inconvenience, but I simply drove to the next petrol station that was less than 4 minutes away. To be honest, I’ll probably not return to that Shell and just use the Morrison’s petrol station in future because they are always manned.
The moral of this story is that if you want to retain your customer and keep your team members happy (A happy worker is a productive worker), then you cannot sacrifice the customer experience, or your competitor will reap the benefits of your shortsightedness.
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