Why no wireless phones used in retail stores???

[Sensi Star]

Very often when I call a retail store (Walmart, K-Mart, grocery, department stores) for product information:

" me: Do You have _____ in stock?

employee: Hold on... (5 minutes pass)

employee: No, but we do have something similar called _____.

me: Does it have the same features as _____, how does it compare?
What's the price and quantity?

employee: Hold on... (5 minutes pass)

employee: It has ____ but not ____.

me: And the price and quantity?

employee: Ooops, sorry I forgot. Hold on... (5 minutes pass)

employee: It costs _____. "

I encounter these ridiculous delayed conversations much more often than major retail companies should tolerate.

Why aren't retail stores using wireless telephones for customer service phone calls? I can't believe I've heard no one ask this question before. Outside of the retail world we've got amazingly effective and efficient wireless technologies, yet stores have not yet utilized the simple advent of a land-line wireless phone that was invented more than 10 years ago?

You might say, "just ask all the questions you need in the initial dialogue." However, often times the latter questions you need to ask arise from (or dependent upon) answers to former ones, and also the employee is likely to forget some things on the way to and from the product's location.

Is there something more to this than ignorance/complacency? Are they afraid employees will abuse it and hinder productivity? I'm sure there would be ways around that, and the risks/prevention shouldn't be any different than standard landlines. It seems to me that in every way except phones companies are constantly aiming to increase productivity and efficiency, but miss this one. Imagine how more much efficient and quick customer service calls would be, not to mention communication between employees instead of paging them on the intercom and waiting for them to find/reach a land-line. [/rant]

It's understandable this hasn't been discussed in my presence before since we (Americans) are programmed not to be thinkers/percievers, but there have to be some thinking + perceiving types here that have thought about this?

Any theories or direct answers?

 

[Eido]

I worked in retail for a number of years during college, and I'd probably say stores don't do this because it doesn't have much return on investment.

You might think that your average retail store gets at least a hundred calls a day which would require sales floor or stock people to answer, and therefore having wireless phones would be beneficial, but in my experience stores typically don't get as many calls as you might think. In fact, on an average day, our store only got about 10 or so calls in which a wireless system would be beneficial.

Now, the other major component is that conventional wireless technology, or the other commercial retail wireless systems that can be bought, still would require significant installation and maintenance costs. An average sized store would require several WAPs and 20 handsets.

Retail stores never do anything that won't give them a clear return on investment, and most wireless system probably don't. It's just business being business.

As for communication between employees, this is usually done through radios anyway, so a wireless system would be redundant in that regard. But I do agree with you, customer service would be generally more efficient with a wireless system.

 

[Cognisant]

Get off your fat lazy ass you giant piece of steaming stinking crap and go shop for yourself.

I work in retail, in Australia, and we are given mobiles to provide just such a level of service.

But what are you ranting about really, five fucking minutes out of your day, oh my god someone call the pope because the world is coming to an end, do you not realise that having a call in service at all is a courtesy? It's not right, you're not paying for it, indeed to answer your call someone who was probably busy doing something else has to stop and answer your utterly inane questions, most of which you could have gotten answers from the fucking website anyway.

How much it costs? That'll be on the website.
What other options are available? That'll be on the website.

There you go, now you only have to ask how many there is in stock, dumb ass.

Do you order things over the phone? I hate those people, too fucking lazy to shop for themselves and too fucking stupid to do it through the internet, so what do you do? You get some poor fuck to manually do it for you, despite the fact that it's usually midday or four o'clock in the afternoon (or whenever that store's busiest time is) when the store is full of people, who also expect to be served right fucking now.

You try working in retail, you see what it's like to do the best job humanly possible and still have people throw tantrums at you while you have to stand there and smile back apologetically.

 

[Cognisant]

Here's innovation for ya, let's design all stores like giant back-accessed vending machines, so there's a big thick wall between the customers and the people who refill the shelves, that would be awesome, no longer would we have to put up with you morons, no longer would we be sneezed on, yelled at, or have to endure the stench of the old and crazy peoples, no longer would we have to chase out thieves and hooligans, or endure the danger of armed robbery.

And if you have enquiries, there's the Internet! We have the technology!

 

[Sensi Star]

This is just a hunch due to a lack of complete knowledge on the technical side of the issue: but as of now I disagree that there would be too little return on investment.

Think of all the people who are interested in shopping at a particular store, call to get information, and hang up due to the frustration of long hold times. Combine with people who feel the employee was dismissive, and/or giving inaccurate information about products and availability due to being overburdened: both of which leads to a lack of business from the callers.

I could envision a lot of people who have very little patience and are easily irritated (especially in the USA where our lifestyles are stressful) hanging up on one place of business because of reasons mentioned, and calling another, where they may get quicker service and end up shopping at the latter store instead.

I used to work at K-Mart (2004-6) which was not a very bad period in terms of volume of business. We got easily 30+ calls a day, and there was only one stock person on the floor at any time in the day trying to balance his default duties, answer questions from present customers, and tend to those on the phone at the same time. I can say with certainty there were quite a few hangups due to phone-waiting during busy times. Maybe near 25% or more.

I don't think installing and maintaining wireless handsets for phones would be all that costly. Maintenance may be ongoing, but to be realistic how much maintenance is really necessary? I've had home phones that were wireless, and there was no maintenance at all other than charging the battery in the hand-set. How would retail be drastically different?

A retail phone would have the addition of a hold/switch system in place, but they already have this implemented with non-wireless phones. From my perspective, what it comes down to is:

cost of very little maintenance + a one-time installation fee vs. an indefinite / ongoing number of potential customers lost due to low-quality service. I don't see how in this scheme the new system wouldn't pay for itself in well-less than a year or even 6 months, Especially if any given retail company is the ONLY/FIRST one to implement it.

Now that the business of tangible products has been mastered by many, our society is increasingly becoming more and more service-oriented, and a wireless phone system would be a cheap, no-brainer way to significantly increase to efficacy and quality of service. I just can't imagine this not returning on the investment.

 

[Sensi Star]

Get off your fat lazy ass you giant piece of steaming stinking crap and go shop for yourself.

I work in retail, in Australia, and we are given mobiles to provide just such a level of service.

But what are you ranting about really, five fucking minutes out of your day, oh my god someone call the pope because the world is coming to an end, do you not realise that having a call in service at all is a courtesy? It's not right, you're not paying for it, indeed to answer your call someone who was probably busy doing something else has to stop and answer your utterly inane questions, most of which you could have gotten answers from the fucking website anyway.

How much it costs? That'll be on the website.
What other options are available? That'll be on the website.

There you go, now you only have to ask how many there is in stock, dumb ass.

Do you order things over the phone? I hate those people, too fucking lazy to shop for themselves and too fucking stupid to do it through the internet, so what do you do? You get some poor fuck to manually do it for you, despite the fact that it's usually midday or four o'clock in the afternoon (or whenever that store's busiest time is) when the store is full of people, who also expect to be served right fucking now.

You try working in retail, you see what it's like to do the best job humanly possible and still have people throw tantrums at you while you have to stand there and smile back apologetically.

^^ This is exactly what my proposition is aiming to avoid. To AVOID people getting pissed off because they THINK you are not being productive enough.

I actually have worked retail, and what I've said has very little to do with the demands of myself (I don't usually order stuff over the phone), but rather what I've noticed about the effects of the callers AND employees as a whole.

I WAS in the position of stock boy, and it really sucked having to waste so much time walking back and forth from the phone to the product to answer questions, putting me far behind schedule while I had loads of work to be done, and the boss is riding my ass because of it (thinking it was because I was too slow).

It's not good for the caller OR the stock person, because it makes him more stressed and less productive, but you wouldn't have picked up on that because it's clear you formed a judgment about my motives before any thorough assessment on what I've mentioned.

And what you said about looking online to find out what's in stock reveals that you are talking out of your ass, because more often than not the online version of a company operates completely independently from the local locations, AND has different products as well (at least in the USA).

Try comparing the inventory of walmart.com to a local walmart and you will see what I mean. Apart from the .com branch shipping products out for in-store pickup, there's not much of a connection at all. When I directly asked about this relationship: the words of an actual Walmart employee were, "it's like we are completely different stores."

--p.s. I believe you might be at the wrong forum, try searching for an INTJ site, more suitable to swiftly-judgmental, misinterpreting pricks such as yourself !

 

[Cognisant]

Yeah yeah the phones at our store let the calls be passed from POS to the individuals in each department, we try to answer within 12 seconds (most people hang up in 13) and it works fine most of the time.

Still shits me when I've got a circle of parents around me, school lists in their hands, asking why they can't find the exact bloody brands on their sheets, and some asshole gets up me because it took me 20 seconds to answer his call, often because he's too fucking lazy/stupid to check the website himself.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for technology, it's the outdated meat bags that use it I have a problem with.

 

[Cognisant]

I wrote that last post before I read you last post.

And what you said about looking online to find out what's in stock reveals that you are talking out of your ass, because more often than not the online version of a company operates completely independently from the local locations, AND has different products as well (at least in the USA).

Wow, granted this is from a land where they mistake the continent for their country, but still that is so dumb, how does anyone run a business like that?

 

[pernoctator]

But what are you ranting about really, five fucking minutes out of your day, oh my god someone call the pope because the world is coming to an end, do you not realise that having a call in service at all is a courtesy? It's not right, you're not paying for it ...

This argument could repeated for every small benefit of technology, though. It's not a matter of entitlement, it's just that if something can be used that would benefit both parties, it should be.

 

[Cognisant]

--p.s. I believe you might be at the wrong forum, try searching for an INTJ site, more suitable to swiftly-judgmental, misinterpreting pricks such as yourself !

My people!

 

[Eido]

I don't see how in this scheme the new system wouldn't pay for itself in well-less than a year or even 6 months, Especially if any given retail company is the ONLY/FIRST one to implement it.

Oh, I completely agree, but it's also hard to quantify exactly what is gained by improving customer experience. Will you increase patronage? Yes, but it's much more difficult to put a profit value on the subsequent improvements brought by a more streamlined customer service system.

Will it pay for itself? Probably, but large retail/grocery chains are very hard to steer toward anything new, especially when that new thing doesn't have a concrete reflection in the bottom line.

In my personal experience, stores are very slow to adopt new technology, even when the cost of upgrade or installation is comparatively low. I worked at a store that was still using ordering machines that were over 12 years old. These machines were far inferior to the new generation, and if they had been upgraded, would have likely saved the store thousands a week, yet district management refused to upgrade any of the stores. What did they do instead with the money? They spent thousands upgrading our box-cutters! Our box-cutters!!!!

It was days like those I hated being an INTP; seeing flaws in the system, yet being powerless to make it more efficient.

 

[Sensi Star]

It was days like those I hated being an INTP; seeing flaws in the system, yet being powerless to make it more efficient.

Ahh, the life of an INTP... (sigh)

 

[Cavallier]

It's hard to find good help. I worked retail for years. After that I was the marketing supervisor for about two years before finally getting the hell out.

We all had headsets and could literally ask every associate in the store a question at any time we wanted and were reasonably sure of getting an answer. This doesn't mean the customers believed us though. I was good at my job. I was known for being able to hunt down shit based on color and general cover description alone (it was a big retail book store). I had a couple of regulars that would come in with new tests for me every week. Once I found a book in the span of ten minutes based on the description, "it's redish, has an apple tree on the front, and the author has three names".

However, this didn't stop the fact that I stood in the back with everybody else for 5 to 10 minutes at a stretch because the pretentious asshole customer out front looked at a perfectly easy to see and understand display of product and upon not seeing what they were looking for asked if we had it in the back. When we told them we did not have it in the back and then asked on our headset if anyone knew of it being in the back and received a resounding "everything is on the display" we are then asked to double check just in case...yeah we take a long fucking while to get to the POS.

As for the people your talking to not knowing their product? It's either new product, they don't like you, or they are simply lazy. Like I said, it's hard to find good help.

EDIT: Yeah, the websites often are run completely differently from the brick and mortar stores. There are differences in what is discounted, differences in shipping costs, and differences in the availability of product. In a lot of ways the website store and the brick and mortar store are separate businesses run by different people. It can be very irritating for both the customer and the employee when a customer asks about how the website is run and the employee can't give them a straight answer. Don't blame the kid in the apron though. Blame the shitty training they got and the lack up support they get from their supers. Really, it's a wonder companies don't go bankrupt more often.

 

[Meer]

Stop buying things and using phones.

Motherfuckin' problem solved.

 

[Reluctantly]

Any theories or direct answers?

Having known someone that runs a million dollar music festival each year (where he uses his own home phone as the support line), I can say that most of the people calling him are asking stupid questions. They either ask a question that is answered on the website or on the pamphlet they received OR they want to be allowed to break some rules of the festival OR they are too stupid to use a computer and need someone to buy shit for them OR they want to know how to get discounts that don't exist or want to find out how to get free stuff/tickets OR etc. (it goes on and on).

Basically, wireless phones are expensive and the majority of callers are asking ignorant questions. This is why websites try very hard to make certain things more noticeable because people tend not to read shit that is given to them (you have to throw it in their stupid faces and make them read it); and even worse because of this, support centers set up pre-recorded messages to try and help the ignorant before they need to waste someone's time talking to an actual person (those that actually need help have to wade through all the bullshit).

That's probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's direct experience of the kind of shit that goes on with phone support. People abuse it and ruin it for everyone else.
That said, in this case you really shouldn't be asking someone to describe something you know nothing about over the phone. These people are already busy helping people at the store and aren't paid on commision, so they probably don't know that much about the stuff they have to begin with; that's not an efficient use of someone else's time or even your own, when you expect other people to do your own product research when it doesn't benefit them in any way. IMO, your call probably should have been done here:

" me: Do You have _____ in stock?

employee: Hold on... (5 minutes pass)

employee: No, but we do have something similar called _____.

*I look up price, features, anything I need to to decide if I want it instead*

Or did you just want to rant and decide you were right from the get-go, pushing your argument against all reason of rebuttal, poster by poster, reply by reply? *Here's hoping that you don't*

 

[Kuu]

Stores should have their inventory directly linked to a website, with clear product descriptions. Problem solved. Why it isn't done is beyond me.

Why would anyone willingly *call* a store? Phones are the root of all evil. I'd rather go to the store and do all the investigating myself without ever having to talk to anyone, than use the phone and suffer long waits and annoyed employees...

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Any theories or direct answers?

My thoughts, having worked in retail for 2.5 years:

Customer service doesn't sell things. Bright colors, packaging, and placement do. Retail employees function as nothing but drones that stock shelves and run cash registers. In spite of retail's own mantra (the customer is always right), customer service and people skills aren't functionally emphasized.

From a loss prevention/security perspective, landlines are beneficial in that those in charge physically know where the phone is.

From my experience, cordless phones are occasionally used in conjunction with landlines (especially in certain departments where employees are required to move around a lot/chronically massively overworked, and with managers so they can constantly be contacted), but like everything else in a retail megachain, the equipment is poorly maintained, of poor quality, and falls into disarray, e.g. it took 8 months to get a new battery for my cordless after the initial one exploded (and I worked in electronics...).

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

--p.s. I believe you might be at the wrong forum, try searching for an INTJ site, more suitable to swiftly-judgmental, misinterpreting pricks such as yourself !

My people!

I can confidently say that if I still worked in retail, I would have responded the same way. The "customer is always right" mantra makes acting like an asshole the norm for the bulk of the general public.

 

[EditorOne]

Cognisant, I feel quite secure in saying retail may not be the ideal career for you.

 

[ohrtonz]

Target has wireless phones at least in electronics and all employees have walkie talkies. We use these walkie talkies to ask other departments if they have something or ask the whole store if something exists somewhere, even to ask the backroom inventory to look up if we have something, (without disappearing and leaving the customer to wait). I worked there a few years. It helped a lot it answering many questions and finding things or figuring out we don't carry something. Whenever I go into Target there is always someone to find to help. Good look at the Walmart across the street.