Quite some time since I posted a CRM horror story. This time it was at The Shoppers Stop at The Garuda Mall, Bangalore.
On the 2nd floor, D and I are looking around, when we’re approached by an in-store staff who asks, “Would you like to avail a First Citizen membership?” I wanted to scream, “WTF! $#@!*^%.” D simply said, “We already have a First Citizen membership.”
At the ground floor billing counter, another in-store staff starts, “Would you like to avail a First Citizen membership? There’s a Rs 200 charge. But unlike before, you now get blah blah discounts for some blah blah products at some blah blah stores. Here are the blah blah coupons for the blah blah discounts.” Pause. “NO. We don’t have time.” Resume. “It will only take 2 minutes. Here are the blah blah coupons for the blah blah discounts.” Pause. I wanted to scream, “WTF! $#@!*^%.” Resume. “You can get 50% off on cosmetics blah blah…”
Message to Shoppers Stop: If you desperately need money to run your stores, just keep a donation box at each entry/exit point. Stop harassing your customers. Thank your lucky stars that they’re still walking into your stores.
8 thoughts on “CRM Horrors: Shoppers Stop — We’ll Haunt You Until You Become a First Citizen”
Sheesh!, such desperate idiots.
I am completely taken aback with your experience. i have found the shoppers stop sales people are not so pushy or annoying they do have a pleasant staff, i am really shocked with your case, i know for a fact that this would be a one off case!!
I agree with shirley, I have never found their sales people pushy. Infact, I think they are pretty polite and helpful.
i usually shop at Shoppers Stop in Bandra and the only time when the sales people actually approached me for a membership was during the billing ….which i think it pretty reasonable, since i would like to know what offers they have for me
Do we infer that you will not step your foot into shoppers stop again?
Cheers
Anoop
Well I have always had a pleasant experience at shoppers stop. Their staff is in fact been quite helpful. I dont think one bad experience should deter someone to go back to the place, because shoppers has good stuff. Everybody has their bad days i guess :)
Vinay,
One thing we can’t deny is the fact that the employees @ shoppers stop have no choice but to try speaking to customers about the offers they have, otherwise these offers can never be sold in the market, just because none buys them if they put it on sale or even stick posters outside, nobody is expected to notice and show them interest especially when it comes to these offers, we are always about to avoid them more than listening to them patiently no wonder a salesperson just coughs up everything he/she knows within a minute. I don’t really blame the shoppers stop employees for harrassing their customers, but I do blame the company who came up with such offers and expect shopper’s stop employees to sell the same with targets, bickering with employees certainly wont help our cause or their cause, and I definetely agree with Ms/Mrs. Divya that one bad experience should not really deter anyone from visiting shopper’s stop.
Let me know your thoughts.
Cheers
Dear Anoop,
there is no doubt that you are from Shoppers Stop. Being a retail graduate, i strongly feel that we always try to see such issues from our (retailers) side, not from customers perspective. In a typical store of two floors, one fine Sunday morning briefing, floor employees are told to sell(?) as many as 5 membership cards on an average. The store employs at least 40-50 sales people at two to three shifts and each department has two sales executives. On an average, a typical customer will go through 9-10 departments at minimum. If that customer is approached by each sales people in each and every department he/she visits, it is bound to give such outbursts.
If it needs so much of loyal customers, why not sale it as a product rather than trying to lure customers through sweet comments !