Every Day, Customers Walk Out on Bad Service. When Did This Become Normal?

The other day I took my two kids into a local children's fashion store to buy a few skorts for my nine-year-old. It should have been an easy, pleasant experience. Instead, it showed me how low the bar for retail service has gone.

Twenty-five minutes of silence

We walked in to complete silence. No greeting, no eye contact, nothing to say anyone had noticed us.

For the next 25 minutes we browsed the racks and used the fitting room. Not once did anyone approach us, offer help or check if we needed another size.

We weren't the only ones. A dad with his baby daughter in a front pack was holding little dresses up against her, trying to work out sizes on his own. Another woman stood at the counter waiting to pay.

The two sales assistants weren't tucked away out the back. They were right in the middle of the shop, between the counter and the fitting room, holding up clothes and chatting about which sizes would fit them best.

At the counter

When I finally reached the counter, there was still no greeting. One assistant asked for my loyalty details, scanned the skorts and pushed the sale to the EFTPOS terminal without telling me the total.

I tapped my card for $95, declined a bag and asked for an emailed receipt. Then, before I'd said a word, she looked past me and said, “You're welcome.”

She was answering a thank you I hadn't given.

As we walked out the door, my daughter looked up at me and said, “Mum, that was the worst customer service we've ever had.”

When a child notices, the bar is on the floor.

Why it matters more than ever

Online shopping is faster, easier and often cheaper. The one thing a physical store has that a website can't match is people, with their warmth, expertise and real connection.

Every customer who walks through your door has chosen to leave the house, find a park and spend their time with you. Meeting that with bad service is an insult to the customer, and it's bad for business.

That store still made a $95 sale. But retailers spend millions on marketing, branding, fit-outs and stock to get people through the door, and two assistants on the floor can undo all of it in seconds.

What it could have looked like

None of this needed a script or a training day. Four small moments would have changed the whole visit:

• Greet. A hello and eye contact in the first minute. That's all it takes for a customer to feel seen.
• Meet. “Who are we shopping for today?” opens the conversation and tells you what they need.
• Close. A check-in at the fitting room, the next size fetched, and the total said out loud at the till.
• Upsell. One suggestion that goes with the skorts. Most parents would be glad of the help.

It doesn't have to be this way

Retail used to be an honourable career path, and at Be Brilly we believe it can be again. The best retail people have the skills to read their customers, solve their problems and turn a quick visit into a great experience. That deserves to be recognised and rewarded.

We have a saying at Be Brilly. Reward the rockstars and coach everyone else up to meet them. We live by it because we're customers too, and every customer deserves better when they take the time to visit a store.