It is believed that everyone is a consumer or customer, as we make purchases and receive certain offerings from businesses such as products and services, so that we can achieve particular goals of our own (Warren, Barsky & Mcgraw 2018, p. 529). However, the intention of attaining goals from the purchases or consumption that we made, may not always fulfil our expectations.
Regarding the sentence above, it reminded me of a bad experience which I had encountered as a consumer when I was still in my Foundation Program. It was the first month of my college life, and I was excited to buy a few sets of stylish clothing, so that I could look more like a “cool kid” in the campus. So, I decided to go to Parkson in 1 Utama Shopping Mall to choose the clothes which would make me look more mature and fashionable.
I walked into the departmental store with high hopes that I could buy clothes that would make myself look more ladylike and mature at the same time. So I walked to the retail staff and told her that I need some clothes that would make me look mature, so she picked an old-fashioned dress with 1950’s polka dots design for me. Since I’m not a fan of polka dots, and I was thinking of buying something plain and elegant, I declined her politely and said that it is not suitable for me. However, she insisted that I would look great in it, and she forced me to give it a try by pushing me into the fitting room. I was stunned that a retail staff could be so pushy, but still I tried the dress and wanted to show her how weird I could look in that dress. When I was trying the dress, I realised that the size of the dress was way too small as I couldn’t pull the zip up, so I requested to change the dress into a bigger size. However, she insisted that I did not pull the zip in the right way, so she asked me to let her pull the zip instead. I could feel that she pulled the zip very hardly and I felt breathless due to the extremely tight dress on me. Suddenly, I heard a pop sound, as the side of the dress burst open. I was shocked and have no idea what to do except having my mouth wide open. She admitted that the dress was too tight for me but she blamed me for not telling her that it’s too tight. She tried to avoid responsibility, and I was so scared that I needed to buy the dress which I completely did not like. So, I ran out of the fitting room and tried to find a managerial-leveled staff to help me, but every staff that I met had no authority to judge the situation, which they only kept on asking me to buy the dress, because they said that I was the person who ruined the dress.
I felt so helpless and I was trying to hold back the tears that came out of fear. There was no witness that the retailer staff was the culprit to the burst dress, but there was only a burst polka dots dress as the evidence. In the end, I told them that even if I do pay for the dress, I would still write a letter to the top management and post the happening of the incident on various social medias to ensure that I get the justice that I deserve. They seemed to be afraid, therefore they admitted that it’s their own fault for forcing me to wear the dress and for forcing me to pay for the dress which I didn’t ruin. At last, I walked out of Parkson with huge disappointment and anger without making any purchase, and I walked towards Isetan and Aeon to search for clothes.
There is a saying that says that “Customers are always right”, was originated in 1909 by Harry Gordon Selfridge (Kjerulf 2014). Although sometimes customers could be wrong too, but it is a really frustrating experience to be accused as doing something wrong when I was actually innocent. Therefore, I feel very angry, because it was the unprofessionalism of the retail staff, who did not respect the preferences of customers in terms of style and size, which caused the happening of the tragedy. Moreover, the other staffs who blamed me for ruining the dress without further understood how and why it happened, were another proof of unprofessionalism.
Secondly, I also feel sad for the unacceptably low level of customer service in this modern world where customer centricity is highly valued. This is because according to Diallo et al. (2018, pp. 69-70), the satisfaction of customers after receiving the products or services is crucial for the survival of the business, as customers’ satisfaction will lead to customers’ loyalty that allow the business to retain their customers.
Thirdly, I felt very disappointed in Parkson, which is why I decided to not buy from Parkson anymore, which I even asked my friends and family to boycott Parkson. Therefore, it is observed that customers’ dissatisfaction may lead to negative word of mouth which acts as an obstacle for a business to attract new customers, because the negative word of mouth would reduce the new customers’ purchase intention (Luo et al. 2018, p. 1). In this case, many of my friends started to prefer other departmental stores such as Isetan and Metrojaya as their shopping destination, which proves that word of mouth is a powerful tool that determine the success of a business.
Furthermore, after the incident, I started to perceive the brand as an inferior brand when compared with other departmental store, because the poor service quality signaled to me that Parkson was not willing to value and train their employees to increase the service quality to serve the customers better. Therefore, I perceive Parkson as a business that does not respect both their employees and customers, which is why I think that it does not deserve good sales. It is clearly seen that one little incident that caused customers’ dissatisfaction could cause the customers to turn to other competitors, which will disadvantage the business in many areas, such as customers’ loyalty, sales volume, brand image and profitability.
Lastly, I believe that the discovery of the subject Consumer Behaviour is very important for businesses to understand the intentions and decisions behind every purchase from customers. Otherwise, businesses may fail to meet or satisfy the needs and wants of customers, thereby losing potential customers and even lead the business into insolvency.
References
Diallo, MF, Diop-Sall, F, Djelassi, S & Godefroit-Winkel, D 2018, ‘How Shopping Mall Service Quality Affects Customer Loyalty Across Developing Countries: The Moderation of the Cultural Context’, Journal of International Marketing, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 69–84, accessed 15/3/2019,
<http://ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=134377815&site=eds-live>.
Kjerulf, A 2014, ‘Top 5 Reasons Why ‘The Customer Is Always Right’ Is Wrong’, Huffington Post, 15 April, accessed 15/3/2019,
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-kjerulf/top-5-reasons-customer-service_b_5145636.html>.
Luo, H, Huang, W, Chen, C, Xie, K, Fan, Y 2018, ‘An Empirical Study on the Impact of Negative Online Word-of-Mouth on Consumer’s Purchase Intention’, 2018 15th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management (ICSSSM), pp. 1-6, accessed 15/3/2019,
<http://ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edseee&AN=edseee.8465093&site=eds-live>.
Warren, C, Barsky, A & Mcgraw, AP 2018, ‘Humor, Comedy, and Consumer Behavior’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 529–552, accessed 15/3/2019,
<http://ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=131677674&site=eds-live>.
MBA 