Service Failure

Introduction

The man walked into a clothing store and spent a few minutes searching for khaki pants, without any luck. He finally spotted an employee and approached him to ask for assistance. “Excuse me,” he said. “Do you carry Dockers?”

The sales associate, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, gazed around the immediate area and then stammered, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, huh?” the customer responded, walking out of the store without waiting for a reply.

Does this story sound familiar? We all experience poor customer service far too often. Many employees don’t seem to care about helping their customers. Even those who do make an effort frequently miss obvious opportunities to provide better service.

It’s easy to think of customer ...