Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Another device I suggested she check out before purchasing was an iPod Touch. The same thing happened, she went into a very big national retail chain, only to discover that the iPod Touch they did have open had its batteries flat, and the rest were locked away in a cabinet sealed in their packaging.
Apparently this was because two years ago, a customer had walked into that store, had asked to look at an iPod, and had run out of the store with it. She of course said she wasn’t going to do that but the retail staff just didn’t care and weren’t going to budge. What, are we all criminals now?
Anyway, I suggested she go to an Apple store instead, where at least they (I would expect) have a demo model for her to try, and she’s going to do just that. God help Apple if she gets the same run around, although to be fair to Apple, their official 'Apple Store' retail experience is arguably the very best on Planet Earth, and while there are still no offical Apple stores in Sydney, their reseller, Next Byte, has from memory had stock on display to try first, so I’m hoping she’ll have a much better experience than two last two from today.
Brick and mortar retailers in this world need to understand that walk-in customers are their bread and butter.
They had better have a nice retail experience for customers that lets them try before they buy, especially with big ticket items, because we, the people, are getting sick and tired of being shafted by companies and retailers.
Today, I was truly stunned at something so simple – a test drive on an approx thousand dollar phone, the HTC Touch Dual 850, one that I actually quite like, simply wasn’t possible.
Well, Telstra: it’s just not good enough. Your tagline is ‘making life easier’, but the actions of your store retail staff made my life - and that of my friend, harder. She still needs to try the phone out before she can buy, and while she was happy to buy a phone today, decided to buy a new notebook computer instead: the phone will have to wait for now.
Telstra, I know you have a stunning new store in Sydney's CBD which offers an amazing hands-on experience, where my friend (hopefully) wouldn't have had any problems, but the rest of your stores around Australia are the regular, standard Telstra retail store. How many other people are being turned away because they simply can't try before they buy?
Being able to offer customers a 'test drive' of their new phone, one that will be their constant digital companion for probably the next couple of years, is essential. These little plastic demo phones that you can't turn on simply don't cut it, and virtually every phone store and every telecommunications company is guilty of this in some way.
Retailers: Can the lot of you please, please get your act together, and actually deliver walk-in customers an experience they'll never forget for all the right reasons, and not the catastrophically wrong ones as was so shamefully experienced from two separate retailers today?
David Bass
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