What is Happening to Consumer Support?

This photo is from Flickr.com by PinkMoose.

In a world where we have so many ways to communicate, so many people looking for jobs, and so many demanding customers, why does it seem that consumer support is lacking?  With the economy being what it is, it seems that businesses are cutting back on employees, as well as employee training,  but is this really beneficial to their businesses?  Consumers do not want to do business with a company that cannot help them, therefore, they are losing money because they are losing customers.

The other day, my brother and I went out to find a wire for his gaming system that makes it possible for him to play in the car on long road trips.  We ended up visiting multiple stores to attempt to find one that was the right size.

After striking out at two places, we decided to check online before going anywhere else.  Wal-Mart had the part he was looking for, so we went there thinking that it would be an easy find, considering we now knew the name of the product and even the product number.

At Wal-Mart, we struggled to find anyone working besides the cashiers.  We searched for an employee in the electronics department, but to no avail.  Eventually, we found a man in the section with bicycles.  He wasn’t privy to anything in the electronics department, however, so he then had to search for someone who could help us.

Once he found an employee who knew the electronics department, this employee told us the wire would be in automotive, but he couldn’t help us himself.  There was no one stationed in the automotive department either (big surprise).

After roaming the aisles multiple times, we finally had to call the Wal-Mart store in which we were physically standing in order to ask if they had the part and where it would be found.  The female employee who answered the call said that she wasn’t sure and that no one was on staff with whom she could direct the call; so we went home empty-handed after spending over an hour in Wal-Mart.

I also recently went to Nordstrom’s for shoes with my two younger brothers and again, had difficulty finding anyone around to assist us.  We went upstairs to the children’s section and found an empty register.  Unfortunately, the shoe that was set out as a sample wasn’t my brother’s size so we did need someone to go to the back and get a pair for him.  We looked around the whole department to find only customers, no employees.

Finally, a woman with a name tag walked through the department.  She was in a hurry with her arms full, so I even had to feel guilty asking for her help, but she told us that there, of course, should be someone in the shoe department.  She put down her boxes, disappeared behind the register, and came back with a teenage boy following behind her, who had been slacking on the job and apologized before helping us out.

It is commonplace lately to find a department store with only one register open to check out at or employees who only know about their single department.  Shouldn’t employees be able to assist all customers a little better, especially if there isn’t anyone working at all times in certain departments?

My aunt was telling me that when she was younger and working in a department store, they were trained in all departments and needed to always be “standing at attention.”  Managers would do rounds around the store and make sure that you were not sitting or slacking off.  Where is this dedication to consumer support today?

It is extremely unfortunate that cuts are being made in the area of consumer assistance.  I would think that that would be a business’s first priority, or at least made to appear that way.  Let’s hope that it improves in time, along with the economy as a whole, and that businesses start to hire more employees (preferably before I need another pair of shoes).