Why service kaizen?
Kaizen means continuous improvement. It involves making many small changes to affect large improvements.
As we all go about our daily lives we can see that, in general, service sucks. With a capital S. It doesn’t really matter what service or product we are shopping for. Getting good service has become a rarity.
It’s my raison d’etre to do what I can to help companies improve service.
My full time job revolves around working with retail establishments to improve sales and service levels.
My part time job is a Mystery Shopper, working with a number of different companies to evaluate service at a wide variety of retail outlets. The companies take these reports and work with their own staff to improve service.
So this blog is about my adventures to help improve service where I live, shop and play.
In a perfect world, retailers will read this and make use of what they read, applying lessons learned to their own businesses. In a perfect world.
In reality, this helps me blow off steam!
What are the common areas of improvement you come across? Is there an area that you find businesses overlook? Consistency is definitely a big plus for me when it comes to what business to support. I’ll certainly pay more for better service.
Typically I see 1) signage is very, very poor, and 2) unmotivated staff. Example: I did a shop recently at a major retail chain and when I walked in the door, I had to find men’s clothing. I could not see a sign anywhere for that. I went to the escalators (3 floors) and there was no sign telling me where men’s clothing is. So already, the store has pissed off the shopper because they made it difficult to find information.