“Community Columnist” Michael Schrader

(About the need for good customer service)

Written 18 April 2015

When you have two college students and one working computer, logistics become an issue, as the computer is the most important piece of equipment a college student has. When one of the students is a grad student and the other is taking an online class, who gets to use the computer when results in much stress and unusual solutions, such as staggered sleep hours to ensure maximum utilization of the limited computer time available. Getting up at 2 AM to get the necessary work done is much more challenging when you are a middle-aged graduate student than when you are a strapping young buck of an undergraduate in your late teens. Thus, the decision to go out computer shopping last week.

There is a reason I don’t like to go shopping, and our computer shopping adventure is the epitome of my shopping experience. With the demise of Radio Shack, one is, for all intents and purposes, forced to shop at the big box stores for computers and other new technology. Shopping at these stores, no matter where you go, is a miserable experience. Good luck finding a clerk; I pretty much had to tackle and hogtie one just to get any kind of service. If you are lucky enough to find a clerk, there are three basic types: the clerk who is completely clueless because he or she was never trained and just thrown out on the floor, which is a disservice to both the clerk and the customer; the clerk who hates customers and is snotty and rude; the clerk who wants to impress you by talking down to you and treating you like you are a moron. After four hours wasted, we went home empty-handed.

As any college student will tell you, one cannot live without the ubiquitous Powerpoint. Instructors love Powerpoint, and expect students to share that love. The problem with Powerpoint is that it is time-consuming. It only takes a few minutes to pop 80 slides in a carousel projector, but to make a Powerpoint with 80 slides would take many hours. This past week, I was faced with a choice – use 150 or so old fashioned slides, or try to create an equivalent Powerpoint. Given the non-resolution to the computer logistical issue, I opted for the former, which necessitated acquiring a slide projector. My particular institution does not have such a beast, which meant I had to go out and buy one, using those funds I had budgeted for a computer. I did an Internet search for local stores that sold slide projectors and camera equipment, and called the first “hit”. To my surprise, the telephone was answered promptly, courteously, and this particular small business had what I was looking for.

Instead of spending money at a big box retailer in Fort Gratiot, I instead spent money at a locally owned small business in Port Huron. I spent four hours on a fruitless quest for a common item, a computer, and spent 30 minutes on a successful quest on a hard-to-find one, a carousel slide projector. The difference is the quality of customer service. I received a good deal of feedback about my column of a few weeks ago about rudeness, and how not everyone is rude. I completely and totally agree; most people are not rude. However, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link; the very small percentage of rude and incompetent people ruin it for the rest of us.

I am sure that I am not the only one who has opted not to buy something because of poor customer service. How much revenue are we losing? Since I live here, I spent my money elsewhere locally. How many people who are passing through do not spend their money here at all?

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