The signs are everywhere
…except where we can see them.
I don’t know if I’m a typical guy, but when I go shopping, I know what I want to buy and don’t want to waste time looking around for it. So why, or why do retailers not try to help us? Are they purposely trying to pi## us off? Of course not. Maybe they just aren’t looking at their store from the customer’s view point.
Case in point. I had a mystery shop at a leading Canadian department store. I also needed to buy some clothes (neat fit, eh?). So off I go. My first stop would be the men’s clothing department.
One step into the department store and voila. No signage. This store had 3 stories and all I could see were signs for everything on the main floor I was on. So where was the men’s department? I look around and get no hint or clue.
“Well, it must be on another floor.” I think to myself. However, already I’m ticked off. I don’t want to have to first spend time to find information to know where to go and then spend more time looking at clothes.
I walk to the escalators and my blood boils even more. There’s no store directory at the escalators. Do I go up? Down? I guess up.
At the top of the escalators I finally see the men’s clothing department. However, I am in a bad mood. I do my mystery shopping assignment and buy the things I really needed to buy. I might have bought a couple of more shirts, but I was so unhappy and not in a shopping mood that I didn’t.
So retailers; help yourselves by helping us find what we need quickly. Don’t make us waste time. The customer’s time is always 100 times more valuable than your own time. Store directories, maps and signs. Please.
My pet peeve is when I go into stores and the music is so loud that you can’t even think. It’s like they are trying to drive shoppers away! Have you ever walked into a Hollister store?
It’s so dark you need a little white cane just to find your way, and the music is pumped up higher than most night clubs!