CLICKS - stuck in a BAD SERVICE rut

Dear Consumers,

Clicks CEO

           Below is what I wrote in April 2012 under the heading Clicks Humpty Dumpty stock situation. But judging by this week's Sunday Times it is as Humpty Dumpty as ever. 
              It's odd the way some of these big companies can't change course once they are programmed to do something, even it is clearly bad for business. 
          Clicks, headed by CEO David Kneale started with health, home and beauty stores, but when it added pharmacies it seems to have forgotten that these require pharmacists. And as there is a great shortages of these qualified people Clicks is constantly rubbing its customers up the wrong way.
           Add to that the general poor service.

               This is what appeared in this week's Consumer Forum in the Sunday Times. The problems its readers had at the pharmacies mirrored my experiences of more that a year ago, although it's Healthbasics supply problem has improved.
           The second item headed And poor service at others refers to the Long Beach Mall branch which is in my area. I don't go there very often now but when I do I have found the service virtually non-existent.

            My wife and I now get our medication from the family owned Sun Valley Pharmacy which is in the same mall. Its motto is: A Passion for Caring and the service there is everything that Clicks is not.

            Through the Sunday Times Clicks assures readers that the issues will be addressed with the urgency they deserve.
                   I find this very hard to believe. My bet is that in another year nothing much will have changed particularly at the pharmacies.
                    Clicks had a 13.6% increase in turnover to R17.5 - billion in the year to August 2013. So no wonder it doesn't worry too much about giving bad service.
              But if it goes on like this:
              All Kneale's staff and all his men
              Won't put Clicks together again.

April 2012
Dear Consumers,

         It’s your Consumer Watchdog here and this time he was wide awake with all his senses on full alert. In the numerous gaps on the shelves he was able to get a whiff of what had been there, but even his keen nose was unable to establish how long ago this was.

         As he walked down the isles in the Clicks stores his tail was not wagging happily; it was drooping pathetically. You see us sniffer hounds have to have our daily vitamins for our coat to remain glossy and to be able to do our job properly.

         Alright he couldn’t check all the 590 stores across Southern Africa that include Musica and The Body Shop that are in the Group  and you might say that two in Cape Town are not a fair sample.

But they turned out to be just the tip of what the Group admitted had been a huge stock headache.

Things had not been clicking in the stores that include 280 retails pharmacies, which is the largest chain of this kind in South Africa.

         Funny how I got wind of this many months ago when I complained to  David Kneale that I couldn’t get any salmon oil capsules at the Long Beach Mall branch. He rectified this by having the branch manager deliver some to my house.

         But it seems the much wider problem of too many missing items went unchecked. Even Healthbasics, which is Clicks’ own vitamin brand, was often not there.

         In one isle alone in the Long Beach branch, which is not very big, I counted over 200 gaps on the shelves. And a lot of them had Out of Stock stickers on them for you shoppers, who are too stupid to realise what empty means.

When I continued to complain at my local branch the staff would shrug their shoulders as if to say We get the flack for something over which we have no control.

         This time I not only went to the Long Beach branch but I also visited the one at Constantia Village, which is in a very upmarket area and could be the busiest mall in the country. It was the same story there.

         So your Watchdog, who is always mindfully of the interests of the consumer, sent another barking email to David in his ivory tower at head office. He did what too many CEO’s do when they are contacted directly; he passed the buck to Amanda Graham, his head of merchandising.

         Don’t you think it would have been a far better public relations exercise if David had personally answered my email complaint?     

        We’ve had a torrid time with our private label (Healthbasics) and we’ve let the customer down, Amanda told me. They had moved to different suppliers twice in the last year and this had led to out of stocks for long periods of time, a situation which we are still experiencing.

         That’s pretty Humpty Dumpty don’t you think? If they had got nothing else right you would have thought that a large Group like Clicks that is quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange would have made sure of getting adequate stocks of its own brand wouldn’t  you?

         Their lack of stock had been particularly bad in the vitamins and supplements section, Amanda went on. This was also due to unanticipated demand.

Humpty Dumpty is everywhere.

         The steps that are being taken to rectify the situation include, of all things, providing additional space. Would it be too much to ask for them to first make sure that the existing space is always full?

         I would like to take this opportunity to again apologise for the inconvenience you and your readers have experienced, were Amanda Graham’s commendable parting words.

         We’ll have to see if a real improvement actually materialises. But one thing is certain your Consumer Watchdog will continue doing his rounds; sniffing here and there and looking to ensure you consumers get the best service possible.

         NEWS FLASH: It’s 11.00 am, Sunday and I have just been to the Long Beach branch to collect chronic medication (that keeps you alive) for myself and my wife only to find that Humpty Dumpty had taken over the dispensary. It was securely fenced off because the duty pharmacist had not pitched. And we couldn’t get our medication anywhere else because Clicks have our scripts.
        NEWS FLASH 2: It's 11.00 am, Wednesday 2 May and the pharmacy is once again fenced off. What about people who need medication urgently but can't get it because Clicks have their scripts?

         So if the posts on my blog cease you’ll know why.
         Yours faithfully (like all dogs),

         Jon, the Consumer Watchdog with an excellent sense of smell, provided he can always get the necessary vitamins.

First National, the don't care bank

Dear Michael Jordaan Chief Executive of First National Bank,

         It’s me again. Sorry to harp on about it, but the undertaking given by your bank to put more staff into one of your ailing branches hasn’t materialised.

It was nearly six months ago that Barry de Witt, your CEO of Branch Banking told me, We have arranged to increase staff numbers (see Big, Bad, Bad First National Bank).
This was at the Long Beach Mall branch in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs.

         Surely if this had been done your clients wouldn’t still be putting nasty messages in that Give us your thoughts book that you have at the branch.

         Here are some of the latest ones and I’ll include some of the ones I mentioned before just to refresh you memory.

         11/9/2012 - Liz Goate` wrote 'You have no staff available. You might as well close the branch down.'

         Liz owns the Lighthouse property management business, which involves having separate bank accounts for the properties on her books. And she told me this incredible story of what happened on this occasion when she went in to open another account.

         The man at inquiries was jumping around having apparently bumped the funny bone in his elbow and he claimed he couldn’t write. There was nobody else to help her so she told him she would wait, assuming that the pain would soon wear off.

         But the not so funny experience for her was that our manly FNB staffer still couldn’t write half and hour later. He must have been a soccer player.

        'I was surprised you could read my writing because I was so furious,' she told me. 'I have a huge number of accounts at that branch.'

         22/8/2012 - Veronique said of the service 'It’s up to SHIT!!! I pay a lot of money for your services. There are 2 people in your bank.'

         She is I assume a well healed client who expects the best service because she was previously with RMB Private Bank. As you  know this is the part of the FNB group that deals with wealth management and that kind of thing.

         She described the change as being 'disappointing.'

         9/7/2012 - K.Govender commented 'More tellers are needed. We are always waiting up to 30 min in the queue. The manager is of no help and is rude.'

         3/7/2012 - Rob Holding’s indictment was 'Always waiting at the tellers. Worst service of any FNB I’ve been to.'

         Wendy Fortune, who does the banking for the Photo First shop in the Mall, wrote, 'Most times when I come for change you don’t have any. Unacceptable for a bank not to have change. I had to go the Standard bank who could help.'

         She told me that FNB had now sorted out this problem for her.

         Tom Cooper’s complaint was, 'Find more competent technicians to service the ATMs. All three have similar defects on the screen.' And on the other side of the page there was this entry, 'Branch response. Technicians do not inspect ATMs once they have repaired them.'

         While I was looking through this classic book of how not to run a business the manager came up to me and assured me that all these comments no longer applied as they would shortly be getting more staff.

         Haven’t I heard that somewhere before? Last time when Barry said much the same thing I wrote that only time will tell whether things will improve or if the branch will remain a monument to BAD, BAD Service.

        Well this monument can’t be changed, it seems. It’s cast in stone.

         Your distressed Consumer Watchdog,

         Jon  
P.S. Barry told me the staff compliment was increased by three, but then there were two resignations and they are in the process of replacing them. 'The rest of your comments are noted and we will address them,' he added.
 

Big,Bad,Bad First National Bank

Dear Michael Jordaan, Chief Executive of First National Bank,

         The scary thing is that if it has been allowed to go on for so long at one of your 700 odd branches could it also be this bad at some of the others?

         A cancer like this could eventually destroy your entire empire.

         Have you or any of your executives ever been to the Long Beach Mall branch in Cape Town and looked at the Give us your thoughts book in which clients give you feedback about the standard of your service?

         The one there now only goes back as far as August last year thank goodness because that’s more than shocking enough.

The majority of what’s there is a terrible indictment of FNB’s management.

But the worst part is that it has been allowed to fester away for years without anybody doing a thing about it.

         If I was you I would remove this record of the Worst Service I have ever experienced. All it’s doing is telling everybody who cares to look how FNB’s management has failed dismally.

         I hate to say I told you so, but I did more than two years ago. And I even wrote about it on my blog. If you remember yours was the Bad of Good and Bad Banks (December 2010).

         Here are some of the hair-raising extracts from this litany of how not to run a business of any kind.

         26/8/11 Once again no service. Only 2 tellers. It’s Friday. The worst service in FNB – Brian Mitchell.

         26/8/11 Easily the worst FNB branch in the country. This is my second complaint about service. Nobody cares – Brad Bell.

         2/9/11 This is the worst service I have ever experienced in a bank – Rob Dent.

         21/10/11 Have never had feedback re shocking service here – Lynn Jenkine.

  

         These are followed by other anonymous ones just as damaging.

         "Rather close the branch."

         "Who’s reading our comments and is not doing anything about them?  Definitely changing banks soon."

         "Goodbye. Hello Capitec (bank)."

         "Welcome to 3^rd World Banking."

         "Where ever I am in this bank everybody around me is upset and angry – no service."
         Then there is the one that is perhaps the most telling of all. It was possibly written by somebody who works at the branch.

         "It’s not the teller’s fault. It’s all the supervisors and senior people’s fault. One supervisor ran away."

         Whoever wrote that can say that again. The senior people are entirely to blame.

         Heads should roll don’t you think Michael? The question is whose?

         Last week my wife Gayle went to the branch to pay money into our daughter’s account. She walked out on three days because the queues were so long and finally paid the money in after a half an hour wait. There was only one teller and it was Saturday morning!

         As you know when I told you about my wife’s experience you asked Barry de Witt your CEO of Branch Banking to investigate and contact me. All he did was to get the poor woman who was only appointed the branch manager two months ago to phone me.

         "Talk about running for cover in the face of the enemy and passing the buck," I then told you. "Evidently Barry didn't have the courage to contact me," my email went on. "Your manager is powerless to do anything about the situation if you and top management are not prepared to do anything.

         "In the same Mall there is Absa, Nedbank and Standard and I have been into all of them and I have never once had the same bad experience as my wife and I have had at the FNB branch."

         Soon afterwards Barry phoned to say he was looking into it. About time wouldn’t you say after three or perhaps more years of horrible service that everybody in your bank should have been aware of?

         He followed this with an email saying, "We have arranged to increase staff numbers." He didn’t say by how many so only time will tell whether things will improve or if the branch will remain as a monument to BAD, BAD Service.

         Regards,

         Jon, the Consumer Watchdog with dogged determination.