Hands up who’s been in a EzyDVD physical outlet store and been delayed by a technology issue? “I’m sorry, the internet is down so we can’t tell you whether we can get that movie in for you” and “I’m sorry, the computer is playing up so we can’t tell you if we have that in stock at the moment” doesn’t just inconvenience the customer, but everyone behind them in the queue. Today at the Woden store, the queue was a long one. I had two DVDs in my hand, and money in my pocket to purchase them, but was unwilling to wait any longer so left (and kudos to The Powerhouse for taking my money and selling me what I wanted for a couple of bucks cheaper than EzyDVD).
It hasn’t happened every time I’ve been in a store, but it has happened more than once at a few different locations while I’ve been there - Macarthur Square (NSW), Tuggeranong and Woden (here in the ACT).
If old-fashioned service is back in fashion again, what does this say for EzyDVD? Their website shows a fairly aggressive franchising push - the store locator shows which franchises are for sale in whatever state the user selects. Maybe they need to look at their infrastructure and see if it suits a hybrid clicks-and-mortar business model.
So is it a technology failure or a management process issue? My first best guess is to say the latter - the technology doesn’t actually care if it works or not, so somewhere someone has made a decision to stick with the current infrastructure. To be fair, this is a cost-benefit decision that I am questioning without being aware of the full picture - all I know is that as a customer off the street they have failed me and I have what I consider to be reasonable but unmet expectations.
Interesting slant on a issue you seem to have little or no information on.
Let me see if I have the point of your rant right - you had DVDs in your hand, the staff were engaged with other customers, and you didn’t want to wait. So you went to a Department store and got it quicker.
Notwithstanding that the store in question may have had technical issues at the time, you are now questioning the management process of several stores. You seem to have branded them all with the same brush…..
Your rant, states quite clearly that the technology in the store fails and this doesn’t provide “Old Fashioned Customer Service”.
Perhaps what that means because to me, that means a sales assistant speaks to me, tries to find what I’m looking and either locates it or makes other recommendations. Your definition seems to be one that means you get served first, regardless of anyone else.
Firstly, exactly how many times have you attended a store and how many times have you requested information from the staff directly?
Out of those times, how many times have you been told specifically that the computers are down or were you simply advised that the staff couldn’t locate the title in question? Perhaps you were even advised that there was some question on the availability of a title as it was known that it was going out of stock?
My experience with this specific issue is that customers tend only to hear what they want to hear, not what they’re actually told. Most times a customer is told that a title can’t be ordered because, it is simply that - it can’t be ordered. There are any number of titles that have not been released to DVD in Australia, but have been readily available overseas for some time. Not withstanding that, there are still titles that have never been released to DVD.
I know that a lot of times, the staff at Tuggeranong spend many minutes with a customer, delaying many other customers, trying to identify a specific title for the customer. Maybe this is an inconvenience and a delay, but given that the staff are actually trying to help someone, this actually goes back to “Old-Fashioned personal service”.
Given that the DVD catalogues are now in excess of 20,000 in Australia alone, and this increases / decreases on a daily basis, what would you suggest be done to provide the “Old Fashioned Personal Service” that you so seem to desire.
The point is, you didn’t want “Old Fashioned Customer Service” - you wanted in and out without interaction - this is not Customer Service, that is Department Store, cattle yard type mentality.
From your description, the type of service you require is best provided by a vending machine - why bother with people at all.
Charly,
I waited in that store for over five minutes while other people weren’t adequately served. EzyDVD fails me as a customer because they can’t get their act together technologically - they couldn’t serve the people in front of me, they couldn’t serve me, so I had to wonder why they bothered being open. I was happy to wait the five minutes, but not if they couldn’t help anyone.
If EzyDVD is going to offer a face-to-face experience that competes with the online offering in any way shape or form then they need to add value - I am not an expert on DVD stores, don’t pretend to be, just a customer that they have failed on several occasions. If they cared, they would be trying to keep me as a customer, not sending you to rant on their behalf. QED.
Cheers, Andrew