Customer service really does matter

Loblaws has been our supermarket of choice for a number of years, since the Dave Nichol era, actually. They've often come up with new and interesting grocery products or packaging options that — even if they didn't pan out — kept up an unusual level of interest in the otherwise humdrum world of the food retailer. Lately, Loblaws has been changing many of their stores to "improve" the customer experience. One of the changes is in line with the current craze for eliminating plastic bags . . . encouraging shoppers to bring in their own bags.

I'm, at best, ambivalent about that notion¹. I don't mind carrying a bag or two for occasional purchases, but if I'm going to be spending a few hundred dollars for groceries (the weekly family grocery order), I'm not likely to carry anywhere near enough bags to package that kind of purchase.

The latest "innovation" is to expect shoppers to not only bring their own bags, but to pack their own bags, too. This, I'm sure, is seen as a great step forward for Loblaws, but is a severely retrograde step for individual shoppers. It's apparently also company policy that cashiers are not supposed to help shoppers to pack their grocery purchases, even if they're not otherwise busy. This may not be actual company policy, but it's what we've heard from cashiers themselves, as reason not to assist.

As Megan McArdle pointed out in a slightly different context, "This is why customer service matters. It's often the first thing to be cut by companies, because bad customer service doesn't show up anywhere on the bottom line. Not until much later, and not very clearly even then. But I'm willing to bet they'll lose substantial sales to people who see the first post, but not the second."

¹ I user the term "I", although Elizabeth does the vast majority of our grocery shopping.

Update, 24 June: Russ LeBlanc sent me this as a comment and (with his permission) I'm posting it as an addendum to the main entry instead:

The plastic bag scare is a classic example of PR corporate do-gooder spin that translates into increased profits. Plastic bags represent less than 1% of an average landfill. Not having to provide bags and getting praised to do it is a huge windfall for these companies. BTW, many of those re-usable bags are made in China and are comprised of "questionable" recycled material. Go figure.

Saving the environment is a good thing however much of the recycling movement is based on "junk" science that is right up there with mom's apple pie. If people only knew the real story they'd switch to cake.

While you can't blame a company for jumping on a bandwagon that will help increase corporate profits while improving the company's public profile, you'd prefer to see this being fact-based, not emotional-blackmail-based.