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I was forced to take piano lessons as a kid.

So that sucked.

Picking up on that concept, in terms of the ‘that sucked’ factor, the past year or so has thrown a couple of service experiences my way that I think are worth yammering on about:

1. Waiting 15 minutes to order a beer
2. Questioning why scrambled eggs take over an hour to get to your plate
3. Being told what to order, where to sit, and being afraid to suggest otherwise
4. Waiting for wine gums…that never came
5. Feeling like I was at a public camp site waiting in line to use the single men’s washroom at a lounge

And, adding number 6 to the list - waiting over five minutes while trying to make a walk-in purchase of a product at a hair salon (Toni & Guy on Alberni)…twice.

What’s kind of ironic is that there slogan  - Great Hair, Great Service, Everytime. is at most, half true (at least, in my case it is).

Now, before you start swinging for the fences, don’t get me wrong, I have no idea how well they cut hair.  Probably very well…they’ve got an espresso machine and it looks really cool.  Full points.  Not really interested in checking out that side of things…I stay true to my own at Do Hair Studio.

What I am interested in, and what I come there for is their Bedhead product.  It works, it smells nice, and it isn’t that expensive.

But who cares?  That’s not what I’m on about.

Instead, its the fact that on two occasions - once in December and once earlier this month - I dropped into the Toni & Guy store at 1088 Alberni to purchase the product.  On the first visit, I had to wait while the receptionist opened all of the boxes, and I mean ALL of the boxes, from their latest shipment as they hadn’t been upacked.  Unfortunate in that it took some time, but I was OK with it (ish).

On the second visit, I simply walked in, grabbed a bottle, and slapped it down at the till.  Then, I was asked for my name, my last name, my first name, etc in an attempt to locate my name in the system.  I smiled and tried to be polite while and handed them the cash to pay (read: so I could leave), but they kept looking.  Bad move.  The ensuing two or three minutes returned the similar result - nothing.

Concept that I was confused at here:

• customer is in front of you
• customer has cash
• customer wants to purchase product
• customer should be rung into the till and set on her/his way

If I really wanted to be ‘in their system’ I would have mentioned it and given her the information.  Instead, I was in a bit of a rush and handed her the cash to move on.  Hope next time they pick up on these cues.

darren