I received a call yesterday from a newsagency shopper in regional Victoria wanting to complain about service from their local newsagent. The shopper called me thinking I was someone else connected with the brand the business trades under. I have no connection with the business at all. But the customer and I talked.
The newsagents, a husband and wife team, provide poor customer service according to the caller – swearing at customers, refusing to hold a newspaper for collection later in the day and opening at different times in the day.
My caller, a long term newsagency shopper in their eighties, wanted to know what could be done. I explained that this was a locally owned independent business. Don’t you care about how they make you look I was asked. Of course I said. So call them and tell them to improve their service. I though this was a fair enough response but declined. It’s not my place to call a newsagent I have never spoken with and have no connection with to ask them to lift their game.
I gave the called the details of the people behind the brand so they could at least get the service complaint to someone commercially connected with the business.
Talking with the caller some more it turns out that they want the problems fixed so they don’t have to our newspapers, magazines and cards from the local supermarket – one of the big two. I was please to hear this yet sad to hear of such poor service from a newsagent.
While I appreciate that there are often two sides to a story, my caller sounded genuine.
We all in this channel have an obligation to each other.