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Apple's New SVP of Retail Went Undercover as Regular Salesperson
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It is true that when Browett took control of Dixons – embracing Currys and PC World as well as businesses in Scandinavia, central Europe, Italy, Greece and Turkey – the brand was a byword for lousy service.
But if Dixons’ research is to be believed, that really has changed. Nearly three-quarters of customers now declare themselves ‘very satisfied’ with the service in the company’s shops.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...chover-John-Browett-leaves.html#ixzz1lGas8JoM
There you go, almost 75% recently declared themselves as 'very satisfied' with the customer service they received.
Some people see only negativity, it's typical online nonsense.
But if Dixons’ research is to be believed, that really has changed. Nearly three-quarters of customers now declare themselves ‘very satisfied’ with the service in the company’s shops.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...chover-John-Browett-leaves.html#ixzz1lGas8JoM
There you go, almost 75% recently declared themselves as 'very satisfied' with the customer service they received.
Some people see only negativity, it's typical online nonsense.
We have no detail about how this survey was carried out, and it was done by Dixons themselves.
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Good to hear, I'm sure he's highly capable. Apple is a company very different to DSG, if they have a similar philosophy it's easier to maintain and improve at apple than change a culture at DSG
Good to hear, I'm sure he's highly capable. Apple is a company very different to DSG, if they have a similar philosophy it's easier to maintain and improve at apple than change a culture at DSG
I generally research a product online before going to stores and only talk to the sales staff for help finding it.
Maybe salespeople generally don't work on commission in the UK, but I don't think it's realistic to expect any staff working the floor to have an unbiased view. They will just tell you whatever is necessary to make the sale. And they almost never have expert-level knowledge of the products anyway.
I don't know if there's a cultural barrier in that UK shoppers put high value on customer service, but I'm confused why the customer service is such a big deal.
Maybe salespeople generally don't work on commission in the UK, but I don't think it's realistic to expect any staff working the floor to have an unbiased view. They will just tell you whatever is necessary to make the sale. And they almost never have expert-level knowledge of the products anyway.
I don't know if there's a cultural barrier in that UK shoppers put high value on customer service, but I'm confused why the customer service is such a big deal.
Some spend their entire career that way with out even knowing it. I got a few out of that funk with this last start-up.
I can only assume you are a senior DSG employee from your post? I simply cannot think of words that would describe to our American cousins just how bad DSG are at customer service. Think of anecdotes of who your worst retailers are in the USA then consider this - I'm pretty sure DSG would make them look very good by comparison. Let's put it this way, if you buy something from DSG just hope and pray it doesn't go wrong as you're very unlikely to get a refund or get the product repaired. We once bought a washing machine from them and had it delivered. As I was examining the machine I noticed one side was all dented (the delivery guys had cleverly covered it with wrapping). I dashed out to the van as it was about to drive off to tell the delivery guy. Instead of stopping the guy held his door shut whilst roaring off down the street. It took me 7 weeks and the threat of court action before DSG finally exchanged the machine. I can only assume Apple have taken leave of their senses.
With the range of products currys and pc world sell, its hard to always know about all the product, and they change rather a lot. No time is given when you arrive at work to learn about the products and has to be done in your own time.
Still makes no sense:
The fact that someone had 1 undercover shopping experience proves nada - there are hundreds of thousands of great and knowlegeable sales people every day going to work and not being paid hundreds of thousands by Apple.
As an exec his mission was to see change, and frankly walking into one of his old stores - well if I said it has not changed in 20 years I think I would be more than fair.
No doubt he has a burn in period with Apple, but frankly I have met far more people with vision who has seen it to fruition - and again, to say he has this great idea of service and they hired him simply makes no sense....
What he does in practice is what people hire on - and unless he has negatives of Cook or Ive, I cannot make out what differentiator that is.
It certainly isn't his life sum of work experience - as frankly he was innefectual.
So who knows.
Mind you, all the discussion proves one thing to Apple immediately: they have some work to in the PR dept. on this hire... It obviously makes little sense to many of the people buying their product.
The fact that someone had 1 undercover shopping experience proves nada - there are hundreds of thousands of great and knowlegeable sales people every day going to work and not being paid hundreds of thousands by Apple.
As an exec his mission was to see change, and frankly walking into one of his old stores - well if I said it has not changed in 20 years I think I would be more than fair.
No doubt he has a burn in period with Apple, but frankly I have met far more people with vision who has seen it to fruition - and again, to say he has this great idea of service and they hired him simply makes no sense....
What he does in practice is what people hire on - and unless he has negatives of Cook or Ive, I cannot make out what differentiator that is.
It certainly isn't his life sum of work experience - as frankly he was innefectual.
So who knows.
Mind you, all the discussion proves one thing to Apple immediately: they have some work to in the PR dept. on this hire... It obviously makes little sense to many of the people buying their product.
A lot of people would like to leave the UK.
You're actually that arrogantly stupid to think that there's UK members of this forum venting about how bad Dixons is because we're "jealous" that a UK citizen has left for America? Seriously? You're THAT unintelligent that you genuinely think that this whole "debate" is down to Brits being "annoyed" at America "stealing" a Brit?
Get over yourself, seriously, and do it as quick as possible before your delusions of grandeur warp your concept of life any further.
It's nothing to do with people being jealous that he left the UK and a lot of us here can't. The FACT, and it remains FACT, is that Dixons/PC World is/was a hellhole of a company and their stores are abysmal shopping experiences and were BEFORE, during, and AFTER this blokes tenure as CEO.
And, for an American, you're awfully smug about the debt situation in the EuroZone/UK when your own country contributes to the vast majority of world debt and your dodgy banks and their paper thin mortgage deals and lending promises brought the world economy to the biggest credit crunch since the depression.
Don't bother replying ...
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Ive only had a good experience with th when i was living in london. Had a problem with my 32" tv so they let me upgrade to 42" just paying the diffence of they days prices which was bugger all.
gazter said:Well, Well, Well!!! It may turn out that we are all wrong about ole John boy!
I hold my hands up to pre judging him based on the shower of crap that the DSG is and still remains.
Yes, the irony. DSG are a plague on the people of the united kingdom. At one point they had the entire high street sown right up. PCWorld has an utterly atrocious reputation for customer service and honouring warranties.
Ive only had a good experience with th when i was living in london. Had a problem with my 32" tv so they let me upgrade to 42" just paying the diffence of they days prices which was bugger all.
I can only assume you are a senior DSG employee from your post? I simply cannot think of words that would describe to our American cousins just how bad DSG are at customer service. Think of anecdotes of who your worst retailers are in the USA then consider this - I'm pretty sure DSG would make them look very good by comparison. Let's put it this way, if you buy something from DSG just hope and pray it doesn't go wrong as you're very unlikely to get a refund or get the product repaired. We once bought a washing machine from them and had it delivered. As I was examining the machine I noticed one side was all dented (the delivery guys had cleverly covered it with wrapping). I dashed out to the van as it was about to drive off to tell the delivery guy. Instead of stopping the guy held his door shut whilst roaring off down the street. It took me 7 weeks and the threat of court action before DSG finally exchanged the machine. I can only assume Apple have taken leave of their senses.
I can 2nd that, same story with a dishwasher (currys), big dent in the side when delivered took ages to get a replacment.
Gave them the benefit of the doubt, wanted to buy a new tv for the bed room looked online found a fairly cheap tv £300 went over to the huge store at Fosse Park (Leicester) same tv in store £350. They wouldn't match the online price in store ! Same company !!! Had a conversaion with the "manager" who was quite possibly the most unhelpful person i have ever met, was not interested. Went next door to Argos and they got my money instead. I wrote to DSG to complain and am still waiting for a reply. I will never spend a penny with DSGI again.
Sorry, yes Dixons Store Group, the parent organisation to Dixons online, Curries and PCWorld.
But who does the board answer to? (don't say stockholders, it's not the right answer)
When it takes 30 minutes to get someone to tell you where the external hard drives are, that is bad service that costs me time. When I walked into an old Circuit City and they would not let me out the door until I agreed to purchase an extended warranty, that was bad service. It cost them a sale and gained me a party when the company went out of business. When you need to wait for the register girl to finish her nails before she will check you out, that is bad service.
You know that he does not respond to all emails. He responds to some, just not yours.
I got what you said, dont worry. You were making a geeky compliment. No need for the other poster to flame you like that.
Er? What? And that has to do with this thread how?
I feel that there are certain people on here tonight (or today for some of you), who seem to focussing on the British angle of this whole story rather than his past retail experience.
Well, I'll bite ...
I think you will find people who have experience of Currys/PC World/Dixons/Pixmania are commenting on this and raising eyebrows about why he's been employed by Apple.
I'm prepared to not sully the man based on his past experience but the very fact of where he has come from and the reputation of that company is a little surprising for those of us who have experience of his former employers.
I wish him the best of luck, and hope he was in the wrong company at DSGi but come on, this has nothing to do with British vs American.
For me, it's because the Apple retail experience is so polar-opposite to PC World, etc. we would all not want Apple stores to go that way.
- D
He was at Tesco.com dude, not Tesco. Dixons Group are the Krusty Burger of Electronics retail..
No intention to flame and to @RalphTheDog no offence taken.
True, I didn't see the humour in that but didn't intend to flame.
- D
...I never got to find out how Best Buy's customer service compared to Currys/PC World's because their prices and range of stock were just as bad, if not worse. Considering that they opened up on a retail park which already had large Currys and Comet stores and was just across the road from a large PC World I'm not sure what they thought would get people through their doors. I don't think I ever saw a TV ad, either.
When I wanted a hard drive, PC World had a range of branded and white-box products at only mildly usurious prices. Best Buy only offered a couple of full-retail-boxed WD drives costing $$$$How Much!? The local PC world even has a sort of Apple store-in-a-store area with attached salesdroids (who, presumably, won't persuade you that you want a PC).
Even pre-recession, the brick & mortar stores were facing a threat from internet box-shifters. The only reason I ever buy anything from brick & mortar is because I need it now or if its too minor a purchase to worry about the pennies or getting the latest model. If I need pre-sale advice I get on the interwebs and download the user manual for the product I'm considering (seriously, how did we survive before the web?).
If Best Buy UK had wanted to survive, then they needed to offer close-to-Internet prices in a retail park store. They didn't.
The fact that some of them have managed to muster enough power from their single chromosome to even come up with such an idiotic slant on us Brits slating of Dixons/PC World is as odd as it is utterly ridiculous.
I would just like to add my voice to those saying how awful Dixons and PC World are. It looks like this guy was in charge and made zero impact in their customer service.
I browse in Dixons in Cambridge from time to time and I've never found any staff who can answer a simple question about the products. Always clueless.
I browse in Dixons in Cambridge from time to time and I've never found any staff who can answer a simple question about the products. Always clueless.