 | Stephanie Macera
is president and owner of Fashion Cents Consignment Boutique. Stephanie began her business with her sister and grandmother in 1999. She has 15 years experience working in the retail and service industry, formerly with Cessna Aircraft and Havertys Furniture Company. Fashion Cents consigns with individuals, retailers, wholesalers and artists in Wichita and the surrounding area. After the consignment period, unsold merchandise is given to area donation centers such as The Treasure Chest, YWCA Women's Shelter, Operation Holiday and the Children's Home in the consignors name. Stephanie can be reached at (316) 722-8360. |
Clothing, Shoes & Apparel
2003-04-01 10:42:00
Customer service *()&%!&
: What has happened to the good old ‘customer service’ in America?
ANSWER: Americans are excellent consumers, we demand high quality products at bottom dollar prices from every type of business. We work hard for our money and want the best customer service on all our purchases. What we fail to realize is that the demand for high quality products at low cost means that retailers must eliminate expenses wherever possible to maintain profitable while meeting our demands. Online shopping has made price comparisons so accessible that smaller, more customer oriented, family operated businesses have lost to larger discount operators who offer part-time employment as a way to eliminate the cost of offering costly benefits and have high employee turnover. To remain competitive, most businesses in the service and retail industry have resorted to offering low or minimum wages, eliminate important staff positions, cut benefits, minimize training and avoid retaining costly long term employees to avoid pensions and retirement costs. This means these positions appeal to a limited audience of applicants. Those employees they do draw are concerned with job security and are often less loyal because they view this as a transitional job. They provide minimal services to customers, at best.America has discount-shopped itself into a marketplace that will do whatever is necessary to obtain our hard-earned dollars. Now, "getting what you paid for" is often no more than the product and the box it came in. To cure the ambivalence we encounter from sales staff at retailers and service businesses, we must exercise our freedom as Americans to choose to spend our dollars at the businesses that offer more than the best price or the fastest service. We must stimulate the need for good customer service as part of the package deal by taking our dollars where the customer service is best, not just where we find the convenience of one-stop shopping. We must demand the human factor to be just as important as the price of the product in order for employees to be considered valued by their employers. We must frequent small businesses as well as larger ones who value their employees as much as they do their customer's wallets. While this may mean we will pay more here and there, it will also mean that we find that "getting what we paid for" includes a "hello, how are you?'', a "can I help you?" and a cheerful and heartfelt "thank you, come again!".
