Well this one is pretty fair....it's almost as bad as asking a Best Buy employee.
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Why do customers not trust technology?
- Thread starter dontwalkhand
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Well this one is pretty fair....it's almost as bad as asking a Best Buy employee.
People are not necessarily untrusting of technology as they are concerned about the lack of quality customer care & laziness. I personally have dealt with this at a couple of the local Wal-Mart stores. The best example I can site is when I was shopping for a Google Chromecast. I checked online to see which stores had the item in stock. I then called to assure that this item is available. When I got to the store I could not find the item on the shelf where it was supposed to be. The tag was on the shelf and all. The first problem I had is when the 3 socializing employees refused to assist me, then a reluctant employee from another department supposedly 'checked in the back' (yes using the handy scanner). I was not as untrusting of the tech as I was at this point untrusting of the pure lack of customer service, job ownership and obvious laziness. So on the way out of the store and as more of an afterthought I shared my disgust with the manager. The manager had zero trouble in locating the devices that are in stock at the store. There were 2 items in the back room and the remaining 5 were in a basket waiting to be stocked, stocked by the 3 employees that initially refused to assist me. Isolated incident, perhaps, reason to not trust somebody else's word, definitely.
It's not the technology that the customers don't trust, it's the people. If someone forgets to scan a barcode on an item in the back, guess what? It's going to show up out of stock even if you have one. Walmart employees don't get paid very well so what's the incentive for someone being meticulous in their scanning duties?
Ever try and contact someone that just isn't picking up because they're either unaware they're being called/texted/paged or they have other duties going on. Just because it's your system for doing something doesn't mean it's a good system for doing something.
You're right, most people probably DON'T KNOW how a store works. Not everyone has worked at Walmart, worked retail since new systems have been put in place, or even worked retail at all. Why are you ranting about people not knowing how your job works when they probably don't have any experience with it at all. Even if I was forced in to a minimum or near minimum wage job, I'd be seeking employment at some place other than Walmart.
Most people that work at Walmart probably have no idea about the computers they sell. Just because you think you know something means everyone should bow down around your feet and worship you?
This whole post is pretty sorry. It would be like me ranting that you don't know guns laws because you don't work at the ATF...except, those are actually laws, so even if you don't know them and break them, you have to face the consequences since it's kind of your civic duty to know the laws.
You show commendable dedication to your employer and your customers. You want to do the right thing for everyone. Rare nowadays.
Yep, you're talents are wasted in Walmart.
Yep, you're talents are wasted in Walmart.
Exactly. Computer technology is innately opaque. It's all invisible electrons whirling around in silicon and copper. People can't see what it's doing - or if it's doing anything at all!
Good UI feedback helps. For example, when you key in a code on the register to call for help, if you could hear the register clearly speak back "manger requested in small electrical" that would help reassure the customer that something was happening.
It's the omission of small UI details like this that makes systems hard to understand.
Most people over 50 have no idea how new inventory systems work. Plus, they have DECADES of experience of people checking the computer and having the wrong information.
Those of us who remember the 80's and 90's and all the "new" inventory systems remember how often they were wrong. Being sent to stores where the system said something was in stock, but them not having it because their system didn't sync with the central servers yet. Systems showing stock, but being sold out because the check out system hadn't synced with the stock system yet.
Most of these older systems only synced at night, and many of them took hours to sync over 128 kps lines, and holy moly if a store had a T1.
The vast improvement in tracking in the last ten years is a blip to those of us who have had people check the back for 30 to 40 years.
Those of us who remember the 80's and 90's and all the "new" inventory systems remember how often they were wrong. Being sent to stores where the system said something was in stock, but them not having it because their system didn't sync with the central servers yet. Systems showing stock, but being sold out because the check out system hadn't synced with the stock system yet.
Most of these older systems only synced at night, and many of them took hours to sync over 128 kps lines, and holy moly if a store had a T1.
The vast improvement in tracking in the last ten years is a blip to those of us who have had people check the back for 30 to 40 years.
Very good post.
To the OP: I took the time and trouble to read the entire thread before setting out to post a reply.
Two things about your own post struck me, the content and the dismissive and somewhat contemptuous tone when describing your encounters with customers who don't know how the stock-take technology (flawed or otherwise) is supposed to work in a store.
They are customers, not technical experts. To be honest, it is not their job to know how the store works, the sole reason for their visit is usually to buy something, and that is all that interests them.
If the product is not available, they usually like to see a little bit of interest, or enthusiasm from the staff, such as volunteering extra information such as when the item in question will be in stock again, or, whether it is sold out, or has been discontinued...
Here, I have to agree with welltrainedvc and others who have mentioned staff; I doubt that the problem is a lack of understanding of how the technology works, as much as a problem having to deal with bored, dismissive staff who cannot be bothered to respond with any degree of interest or courtesy when a customer asks a question about a product.
Regarding the OP, reliability of the inventory system from store to store varies. This is why. From my own experience, I've seen it go both ways. And some of the time, the customer does not trust the employee, who tells you something, but really does not know, such as where an item can be found, when in reality, the Walmart does not carry it.
Agreed. Explain the system as best you can and then it is out of your hands. You can't make someone believe something.
I can answer the first question. We've all experienced 'technology' messing us up. For instance - I couldn't find a product on the shelf at my electronics chain store. No problem - they said, the system will have ordered more and it will be on the truck coming in on Thursday. It wasn't. They checked into it. Turns out their 'inventory' (everything scanned in and scanned out) listed 20 items in the store - and therefore the automated system hadn't ordered more. They checked around some more and it seems that the 'technology' had lost those 20 items so they manually readjusted the count and eventually I got my stuff. We've all been victimized by 'technology' in this way - so yes, I am suspicious sometimes.
The second part is that I'm surprised Walmart doesn't do a better PR job in it's training. When I was working in hotels if we had a customer who absolutely demanded that we 'go check with the manager' (because we couldn't offer a discount/upgrade/early check-in/etc we'd leave the desk, grab a quick cup of coffee, and come back and tell them the same answer. And they'd be mollified. Sometimes it's not the answer they're unhappy about, it's the process. If you were uncomfortable with outright lying you could pop your head into the managers office and tell them you had a customer who wanted a discount/upgrade/early check-in/etc and you needed to say no - and the manager would nod 'whatever'.
Sometimes it's the show the customer wants. Play up what happens when you text your manager. "Right now there is text box bouncing around on their computer, and they can't do any more work until they deal with it" or whatever is appropriate in your situation. But the customer wants to hear that someone - a person - is personally dealing with their problem.
If there is no stock on the shelf - how difficult is it for someone to look up the location where it should be and look? You say the system tells you the location... The customer doesn't mind waiting (probably) - as long as someone is trying to fix their problem.
Exactly. When I worked retail in high school we had a saying: "backroom equals breakroom" when a customer asked us to go check the stockroom for something that we clearly didn't have.
It's as simple as saying "sure sir, I'll definitely go check the stockroom for more Furbys on Christmas Eve" and going and resting for a couple of minutes.
This would be called conditioning the customer, but it is lying.
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It will not give you a location number unless it says there is an item., because the back room team has to also scan the item into a location number. There isn't anything to look for without these numbers because frankly, you literally wouldn't have anywhere to start. Also as stated, all the boxes are plain with barcodes on them, without the aid of the system, you literally can't just look. The system doesn't cooperate unless it knows the item is there.
That being said I know the sales floor inventory counts can sometimes be wrong, but back room inventory is entirely different. Sales floor inventory is mostly wrong due to shrinkage, misplaced items, etc. but back room has to be scanned in before it is even stored, otherwise again like stocking the sales floor, you won't know where it goes.
With anywhere in the store, you're never allows to just place an item anywhere, you scan it, it tells you where to put it.
As for sales floor placement, you are required to scan in your stock to get the aisle and shelf location to know where to place it while stocking. Many stockers do complain saying this does slow down the process, but this is what makes placement accurate.
And as for the beeping manager handheld, that is true. It will not allow them to do more work until the request is answered.
Would it help if I held my handheld like a phone and pretend I'm calling them ?
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A few weeks ago I was at Staples and decided to buy something after the sales guy said their computer showed the item was in stock, in fact they had 3 of them he said, so off he went to the stock room to get one for me.......turned out they didn't have any at all, despite what their computer said.
This would be called conditioning the customer, but it is lying.
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It will not give you a location number unless it says there is an item., because the back room team has to also scan the item into a location number. There isn't anything to look for without these numbers because frankly, you literally wouldn't have anywhere to start. .
Would it help if I held my handheld like a phone and pretend I'm calling them ?
It's not technically lying if you actually make eye contact with the manager (in my example) ..
The Walmart system assumes that nobody - no person - ever makes a mistake. Just out of curiosity if the system inventory says zero items for a Widget - therefore no location - how long would it take to discover that there is in fact a Widget on the shelves? Of course in 99.999% of the cases the system works fine. I'm just saying sometimes you need to provide 'The Show'. Send the message to the back room you can look the customer in the eye and truthfully tell them you've sent the message. Tell them that if there is no response in 10 minutes then there are no items in the back. This is also the truth. Just neglect to mention that the original message to the back room is routed directly to the trash. Sometimes - the customer just wants to see that they are being handled 'special'.
You don't have to hold your handheld like a phone just expand on how annoying the alert is for the manager. Again the customer just wants to know that someone is paying attention. A little exaggeration - like on a resume - is not lying. It's just adding some sizzle to the steak.
As Muddy Waters once said to Randy Bachman . (to paraphrase) Even when you're good you can't just play the hard notes - you gotta show the audience how hard it is to play those notes.
It's the same note the only difference is in the face, eh?
It will still give you the shelf location number so that way you know where to stock the items should you get more, just no back room location number. - which we do use to check the shelf anyway.
When I worked at Target, we had a similar system, and of course, you could wind up with that exact scenario you described - system says no locations, but there are some in the backroom because someone screwed up. These inaccuracies were fixed in one of two ways:
1. When there was nothing more important to do (aka, morning and afternoon of most weekdays not in November and December), you would go down an aisle, scan each location, and then scan every item in that location. The system's record for that location gets replaced with whatever you just scanned. This provided management with accuracy metrics to tell us how poorly we were doing, because with retail management, if you're not 100% accurate, you're 0% accurate. 99.999999% just isn't good enough.
2. When doing pulls (batch jobs the system would generate to replenish the sales floor), the handheld gizmo would direct you to a location, you'd first scan the location label to make sure you're in the right spot. Then you start scanning everything in that location. When the scanner beeps several times, that means whatever you scanned needs to come out of the backroom to go on the floor. If you removed all of an item from a location, I think you hit X to remove it from the system. Remember when I said you scan everything until it beeps? If anything you scanned prior to the beep wasn't in the location in the system, it was added, so that also resolved some inaccuracies. But anything not scanned wasn't removed from the location in case you got a hole in one - the first item you scanned being the one that beeped.
Customers would get pissed, and understandably so, when a sales floor clerk checked the system and it said we had more in the back, but because someone screwed up, we didn't. And when it said we didn't have any in back, there really was no way to go back there and see. Stockroom aisles were arranged by departments, but that was it, each item didn't have it's own predetermined location like on the floor. Items that got scanned in went where there was room, and would then get shoved behind other items. It would be impossible to double check.
Sounds to me like the problem is with your poor customer service. If you act like an ass, you're probably going to get treated like an ass. Consider it a life lesson.
A large percentage of stores don't scan every flavor/type/whatever. They do scan based on price, and then reorder based on what they PHYSICALLY see on the shelf.
Good for yours that you're properly tracking inventory. But it's one of the largest retailers in the world. Things are probably going to operate a little different then people are used to.
If you know the stock levels of every item, you either retain almost no backup stock or you have very few products.
Either that, or the employees they are interacting with are so stupid that they don't trust them to properly operate the technology.....
Hey look. Someone who gets it.
A few weeks ago I was at Staples and decided to buy something after the sales guy said their computer showed the item was in stock, in fact they had 3 of them he said, so off he went to the stock room to get one for me.......turned out they didn't have any at all, despite what their computer said.
Happened to a buddy of mine recently. Best Buy online said they had the game in stock and he drove quite a way to buy it. Turns out they didn't have any in stock.
I think the responsibility lays on the company. If you're going to implement a system that keeps track of product that a customer has access to, it should be perfect. Otherwise, don't use it.
Tell that to Microcenter. An employee there told me if online says one in stock assume there are none. At least with them you can reserve it online and you'll get a message saying if they actually have it or not.
Once I was at Best Buy trying to get a nice laptop at a really good price. The sales guy told me "you can't get this without the bundle". The bundle was about $200 more and included some AV software, mouse/keyboard set, and some other software crap that I didn't need. The sales guy explained that the bundle was already attached to the last two laptops in the stock room and couldn't be separated as the bundled software was already pre-installed. I asked for the manager, before I was able to even ask the manager anything, the sales guy basically put the words in his mouth and the manager repeated the same thing. They were obviously BSing me.
So I just said okay nevermind. As soon as they left, I whipped out my phone and scanned the bar code and ordered the laptop without any bundle as a pickup. Went to my car and waited, 15 minutes later I get the "your pick up is ready" text, then I go in to receive the laptop that the sales guy and manager swore I couldn't get without the bundle. As I'm walking out the same sales guy says "you got a differ laptop", I said nope and explained what I just did ......... The angry expression on his face was priceless.
So I just said okay nevermind. As soon as they left, I whipped out my phone and scanned the bar code and ordered the laptop without any bundle as a pickup. Went to my car and waited, 15 minutes later I get the "your pick up is ready" text, then I go in to receive the laptop that the sales guy and manager swore I couldn't get without the bundle. As I'm walking out the same sales guy says "you got a differ laptop", I said nope and explained what I just did ......... The angry expression on his face was priceless.
Speaking of Walmart, last weekend my girlfriend was looking for a Moster High comforter for her niece's birthday. She was on Walmart's website and it said they were out of stock for our local store so we were going to head to target. Ends up, we swing in to Walmart since we were passing anyways and guess what they had in stock? The Monster High comforter that their website inventory said they were out of.
And the OP wonders why people second guess a sales associate when they check the computer and it says they don't have something?
And the OP wonders why people second guess a sales associate when they check the computer and it says they don't have something?
Or it could be that they have come across way to many lazy people who will do the scan, see that it is in stock and tell them, nah sorry not in stock. So the customer goes on their way and asks another person if something is in stock. They do the same thing, and load and behold it is in stock, and a few minutes later AFTER the person goes to the back, retrieves the item and brings it out to them. Happens way to often.
How many times has someone told you it is out of stock, and when they do go to the back, they find one. Happens probably more than we imagine. Hence the distrust of the person and probably the technology.