Mobile Mayhem

Diva loves having a smart phone and all the conveniences that come with it. Case in point: a few weeks ago, Diva made an unexpected stop at a local Gap store during one of her holiday shopping marathons. She actually found a few items on sale that would make perfect gifts and proceeded to the checkout line, wishing that she'd remembered to print out that $10 coupon she received in her e-mail from Gap several days earlier. Diva's only hope was that the store would accept the coupon via mobile phone (plenty of other stores do, so this was not a long stretch). Here is what went down:

Diva: (Standing at the register, Diva shows the sales associate her phone screen.) Do you accept e-mail coupons via smart phone?

Sales Associate: Ummm, I don't know, let me check. (Looks slightly exasperated, as if a partial eye roll is on the verge at any moment. Turns to coworker at other register.) Ummmmm, like, John, can we use coupons off phones?

Coworker John: Yea, definitely. Just have her expand it so you can see the code and type in the number.

Sales Associate: Okay, yea, just like, expand it (mimes the technique used for zooming on an iPhone with his fingers, which Diva does not find helpful since she has a Blackberry).

Diva: (Tries to zoom in, accidentally clicks a link that navigates away from the coupon, but quickly goes back and zooms in properly, then hands phone over to cashier.) Sorry about that, here it is zoomed in, is that close enough?

Sales Associate: Uhhhhhh, yea. (Starts to type code in, then places one hand on his hip and cocks head over his shoulder to another coworker.) Jamie, this is exactly what I was talking about.

Diva: (Stands in shock, cannot believe this employee is copping such an attitude and clearly talking smack about Diva right in front of her.) Excuse me???? (Glares at employee with dagger eyes, then shoots an "are you serious"-look at the coworker/supervisor to cashier's left. [Diva has younger siblings and knows the fastest way to retribution is always through an authority figure.])

Sales Associate: (Gets reprimanded by his coworker/supervisor and is told to "knock it off." Then completes the transaction, hands Diva her merchandise in a bag.) Have a great holiday!

Diva: (Still fuming, only offers up a death stare.)

And, scene!

The moral of this ridiculously long story: mobile marketing is convenient and great, but if your sales staff is not trained on how to implement it at the store level, than it really does more harm than good. While Diva loves a smart phone, she does not love a snippy, untrained sales associate giving her attitude. Period.

--The Diva

Comments

[RetailDesignDiva]

Thank RetailDoctor! Sometimes big companies can forget about the store-level--here's hoping 2012 sees improved employee training for digital initiatives :)

--Jessie

[TheRetailDoctor]

Great story Heather. Well, not great but you get my point. The one we most forget about in all the rush to offer all things digitally is the employee who ultimately has to make a decision on the fly at the one point in a transaction we seriously don't want to wait: the checkout.

This lack of thinking through the digital marketing so in vogue leads to a worse experience than simply saying, "I'm sorry we don't."