Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / May 9, 1985, edition 1 / Page 35
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Good Service Image Or Bankruptcy Tomorrow As a part of a marketing survey for a Delaware newspaper, I was queried by a marketing research firm to give my opinion on buying goods from several" stores in northern New Castle County, Del. The in terviewer called to my at tention the fact that I seem to be very favorably dis posed to Sears Roebuck products. This person’s comments stirred my cu riosity to understand this enchantment with Sears products. In retrospect, I have purchased many Sears pro ducts, mostly hard goods (appliances, tools, tele and so 90). In g hard goods, I iike to feel confident that their quality is good and that i will not have to undergo the “Third De gree” on adjustments for defective merchandise. My high regard for Sears’ good service and high quality merchandise became vividly clear when I visited another local re tail chain store that of fers minimal service. When I entered this store I was greeted by an elec tronic screening system and a guard. A quick scan along the aisles revealed that sales people were ii pretty scarce. I am still seething from trying to get past this store’s checkout counter. I spent about 15 minutes trying to pay for two boxes of envelopes because an untrained cashier could not give a senior citizen cou ple their special discount I finally gave up on this ca shier and moved to an other line only to have this cashier’s supervisor at tempt to pull her to bail out the old one. I was fuming because I could not be lieve that they would put an unassisted, untrained per son on a checkout line. I finally exclaimed, “No!” I further demanded that the supervisor get someone else because of the very long line everyone had al ready spent trying to get Staff Of Life Ain May 17. ine reat-nte romantic developments and dis asters of the staff members at “Life,” a popular soap opera, match the tangled lives of their TV charac ters, in “Staff of ‘Life,’" an “ABC Comedy Special airing Friday, May 17, at p.m. on WSOC TV, The staff members of a hit soap opera show get ready to leave town for a holiday weekend when Barry Cooper, the head writer, suddenly has an emergency script rewrite to deliver. He adroitly lets the other go, and per suades Joanna, his co writer and ex-wife of five months, to work late with him on revisions, there by delaying her skiing trip with her new romantic in terest. Starring are Granville Van Dusen as Berry Cooper, Anne Twomey as Joanna., “Ifead Your King Jame. Bible. Pray »• "very Day.” E>FF umy, Silk Not Included ./Tfeeft:, Wed.,Thurs. > - 1 * 1 r,r“"# ngt On Fri. & Sat. ■ I«. IMS -it,---Discount i I t «Hi|>on .Must Ammuiam Order | i Fnltl’rirr \fl.r J4|>a\s I \|>ri l \l.iIiihio ••••••• a•••••••••••• a a v "*••••••••••••••• • ••Um>rk '.iiuni.11 >. | mi American l Ary Cleaners A Laundry through the checkout. 'He acquiesced. My dander was just starting to ease when the main door electronic alarm went off on the group in front of me. Hie guard rushed toward them like a wild beast that had stalked his prey. This trying ex perience thoroughly con vinced me that purchasing hard good products from this store would be wrought with many hassles if these goods performed unsatis factorily. I found that I had to toil to keep my ill natured perception of the store’s performance from affecting my view of the quality of their name brand merchandise. I was troubled by my harsh assessment of this store until I examined its performance from a mar keting researcher s per spective. My two favorite pastimes are studying marketing research and business strategy. In this backdrop, I feel very strongly that my initial perception was correct. My feelings are supported by the works of David Mazur sky and Jacob Jacoby. They report in their article. “Forming Impressions of Merchandise and Service Quality,” that people do have some definite items they use to evaluate the quality of service. Mazur - sky and Jacoby write, “...the four most heavily accessed properties when forming service-quality impression were ‘number of salespersons per depart ment,’ ‘number of cashiers per department,’, ‘mer chandise-return policy,' and ‘number of fitting rooms.’” Most people desire good quality merchandise alot^ with good service. Mazur - sky and Jacoby further reported that there are some items that help to form a perception of qua lity merchandise in peo ples’ minds. They contin ued. “..the properties that were most heavily ac cessed when evaluating quality of merchandise were ‘brand names, ‘pic tures of stores,’ ‘interior design,’ ‘merchandise ma terial,’ and ‘price ranges. ’ ” I feel these two research Cor • Won and Woo tatwnor • Intwnwr Ooonnd • Motwdtanol • StwnpoaCarpohandSooh • Apply Pm twipini • SSTTuKV AU FOR *49.95 STEELE'S BODY & PAINT SHOP 300SpwH»Q»ohomS«._Phon* 375-1094 — Are You Tired of Your Hair --Being Short la The Back? Presents an EXCLUSIVE LINE of ADVANCED PRODUCTS to put you in the CURLS and PERMANENTS of TOMORROW. TiUUu TtlwiMv SIGNATURE LINE Willie Morrow Products Restores split ends, repairs damaged hair and adds glow and bounce to dead, dry, unruly hair. €AMJLt MAZUl 377-OM* For Appointment and Anuudng Results**. ^^JI628^aietvWeAvenuu^N^^^Jf^icnrn^^upermarket) ers offer an important lesson for retail businesses , that wish to maximize their earnings. A business must decide whether it is going to be perceived as offering high quality service or high quality merchandise or both. 1 believe that com panies electing to solely exploit low pnce as a sub stitute for good service and-or merchandise are merely painting a long term mediocre earnings scenario. If America is moving towards a service dominated society, does this portend bankruptcy for those businesses that are not perceived to be underpinned with a philo sophy of good service? High School "Athlete of the i JKirm rill Each Week In The Post . CURTIS C. 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 9, 1985, edition 1
35
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