The goal of the Saturday Service article is to provide insight into what my experience is as a consumer and how it can be used to better improve your service.  It’s Wednesday morning and I decide to stop in at the local pharmacy to mail a package and to also purchase a few items.  It’s fairly quiet in the store since it’s the AM and they usually don’t get busier till after lunch.  I can see the woman from cosmetics is in her part of the store and the pharmacist is behind his counter.  I take my items up to the cash and find no one there.  However, the office door behind the cash is open and the the manager on duty is busy at her desk.  I continue to wait as 30 seconds has now gone by and I cough to break the silence of the store.  No response.  The 1 minute mark approaches and the manager emerges from the office.  She greets me nicely, processes my transaction, collects my payment and I’m off.

This is not the first time this has happened to me and out of convenience I continue to use this pharmacy.  However, convenience aside this is the type of behaviour that will drive customers away.  The payment process requires the attendant to be present and engaged.  In this case, she was engaged but was not present to help me right away.  Because of this happening on more than one occasion it has changed my buying habit to only visit this pharmacy in the PM when there are more staff on hand.

The solution: the customer comes first and any other activity needs to be stopped so they feel their business is important.