Service! what service?

Here we go again, my god I'm incensed I have been listening to whinging retailers stating that things have never been this bad and they have nobody visiting their shops and the world is coming to an end...
I have just had to point out that the reason that they are talking crap is that they are not really professional retailers they are order takers and a monkey can do that probably with better humour.
Shop keepers should be taught how to build a relationship with the customer not just their wallet! Take a look at Estate Agents for the last few years they have let people buy buildings from them with the only selling point being that they will increase their investment in a few years. oops that's going to smart! Now they have to re-learn how to sell the dream of owing a home all over again, if they ever knew about it in the first place.
On line shopping rules are:

1. You can always get it cheaper on the internet
2. You can guarantee that if you do it will be late/damaged/incorrect or just crap
3. After sales service is very much out of sight out of mind - please email our spam box with your complaints
4. You will never ever get to touch and feel the product before you have paid for it...

Off line we cannot do the same thing and get away with it the likes of Stanley Kalms have destroyed customer service if you want it cheap sold by a complete idiot who can manage to ignore you while actually in conversation with you. Its like talking to the party tart they look over your shoulder to see if they can see someone with slightly more money than you. I once got ignored midway from buying a top end laptop with an assistant because a voluptous woman wanted to get a cheap packet of printer paper. Did I go elsewhere? of course if I want to treated like an avatar then I can go on line.

The local computer store is hungry for my business and offers intellegent conversation of interest and serves great coffee even if you don't buy anything.

This is it then either learn about proper customer service or die cos you deserve not to survive...

Before we know where we are its halfway through summer and edging close to the longest day.
As I travel around supporting my clients I have found the panicky questions about when is the world going to end, seem to diminish and as long as the focus can remain on their business then I am happy.
Encouraging people to work on their growth plans is not more essential than ever and if we have forgotten it start treating our employees with a whole lot more respect. Try to make sure that when we come out of this small decline that they don't all jump ship because the business owner has been a right pain in the neck.
Nothing brings a business to its knees quicker than just as you think the world is getting back to normal you suffer a major skills exodus just look at the government in the UK. Don't even think that it is motivated for the greater good as proved with the expenses situation, oh sorry I thought morals were something you put on hold when filling in your expense claim... who in their right mind thought that trying it on just to see if you could get away with it was similar to taking up a moral position needs to seriously consider doing some form of enforced community work. I digress look after the staff you want to keep and the ones you want to lose as well in fact look after everyone if you can if you can't then shut up shop now before you lose any more money!