Consumer is not king-- he is nothing

An acquaintance, recently returned from abroad, complained to this writer that she had undergone an unusual (to her) experience at a local clothing store. Having gone to the shop in question in order to buy a present, she found a couple of male employees lolling beside the main desk and the only (apparently) working employee, a woman, busy with another customer. She therefore made her request to one of the two lollers, who somewhat reluctantly made his way into the depths of the establishment.

Meanwhile an item on display caught the acquaintance’s eye and she examined it and asked the remaining male employer what its dimensions were. He replied, somewhat nonchalantly, she felt, that it ‘must be’ of such and such a size. She then asked him to tell her specifically what size it was, and he replied that he didn’t know. She then asked him to measure the item, which he proceeded to do after she had repeated her request several times. He then gave her the dimensions, but the length in inches and the width in centimetres. She then asked him to measure another item, which he abjured, asking the other male employee, now returned but busy on the original request, to do so. Fairly annoyed at this cavalier treatment, she admonished the man; to which his answer was a very rude indication that it was not his job to please the customer.

Leading supermarket chain

The acquaintance was very surprised at this treatment, which she had never come across in her many years abroad, where shop employees tend to be at helpful, or at the very least, civil. However, it is not all that uncommon in Sri Lanka, where the prevalent business dictum appears not to be ‘the customer is always right’, but ‘caveat emptor’ (the buyer beware).

A customer selecting goods. File photo

Another shopping anecdote came from the overseas returnee, who went to the branch of the country’s leading supermarket chain. There was only one counter at which credit cards could be processed, so she had to stand in the queue for this one cashier. In the queue ahead of her was an elderly lady, who had enough trouble carrying her handbag, let alone the groceries she was purchasing. It was pouring with rain from the recent Tropical Cyclone Nalim, and no help was forthcoming for the elderly lady to take her goods to the waiting vehicle.

This writer also has a personal anecdote, having attempted recently to purchase an egg roll at a posh Colombo supermarket. The cashier’s mind was elsewhere, and she mixed up this writer’s purchase with that of the customer in front, whose order (it should be mentioned) she took an inordinately long time in processing. The result was that the customer in front fumbled with the bags and dropped the egg roll on the counter. In this case, the cashier should have (in addition to processing the order as speedily as possible) made sure that the bags did not get mixed up. A food item should not be allowed to roll over a counter, even if it is an egg roll.

Consumer marketing practices

These anecdotes are illustrative of the extent to which Sri Lankan shop staff are ignorant of the basic tenets of how a shop should be run, in the late 20th century if not the early 21st century. In the developed nations, such problems were ironed out nearly a hundred years ago. Here, unfortunately, we are far behind the times. Modern consumer marketing practice is one of the ‘black arts’. It is characterised by multiple techniques, ranging from ergonomics to psychology, for bringing consumers face-to-face with the items they wish to procure, in a manner most advantageous to both vendor and vendee. Ensuring customer satisfaction is an essential part of contemporary sales practice.

It is unfortunate that many Sri Lankan shop owners, including major players, appear ignorant of this. They seem to believe that all that is required to start selling things is to buy or lease a shop front and stock it with goods. The other, essential conditions are dispensed with.

Shop staff receive almost no training in dealing with customers. This is especially true of food outlets, where the personnel handling food seem unaware of why they have been given tongs or gloves. It is true that the advent of modern supermarkets was responsible for a sea change in customer convenience in Sri Lanka. Many people now go to supermarkets rather than the local greengrocer because they can choose the vegetables they want and the quantity they want, rather than what is thrust on them by the shop keeper.

Public relations skills

However, most supermarkets, even those belonging to the ‘Big Four’, still fall short of the standards of modern supermarkets in developed countries. Some of these shortcomings are due to the lack of application of modern techniques – such as ergonomic design of checkout counters, allowing the cashier to bag goods while billing them, all the while sitting down.

Most, however are due to deficiencies in staff attitudes and training. Personnel are often not aware of how to deal with consumer complaints.

It is not unheard of for employees to complain to complainants about the inadequacy of their employers, in which the consumers are not really interested. In the old days, Pettah merchants (mainly Bohras and Sindhis) had small establishments in which the proprietors interfaced with the customers and deployed all their management and public relations skills in dealing with them. Nowadays, these establishments have ballooned into multi-billion rupee conglomerates and the personal touch no longer exists. Sri Lankan retailers need to train their personnel in those old skills as well as more modern procedures. They could do worse than to look at one of the leading blue-chip supermarket chains, which deploys trained customer relations personnel who walk the aisles and solve customer complaints, a very effective solution.

The operative factor here is having the will to improve, not merely profits but - more importantly - the service offered to customers.