This is a complaint about customer service at Searsin the Oshawa Center, but I believe it is a company wide issue. The wait times to checkout are unacceptably slow. There have been several occurances similar to my rediculous experience today. I believe it is systematic and solvable so please continue reading.
1. The departmentalization of your cashiers is counter-productive because they seem unable to deal with many items from other departments. It should not matter what products are brought to a cashier station, the employee there should be able to quickly process the purchase. For instance, the bedding department should be able to handle a purchase of jewelry and be easily able to deal discounts and clearance or sale prices. However, most of the time, the cashiers seem uninformed about discounts and it often takes overly long to pay for products. Your ofganizational system may work for slow periods, but any time business picks up, there are huge delays at processing checkouts. I find it hard to believe that with technology and barcodes, that your products are not fully computerized and relatively easy to track price changes due to sales, clearances etc...
2. Having 1 or 2 cashiers in 8 different locations scattered around the store causes a second problem in efficiency when there are lots of people needing to be processed. I understand Sears is a "department" store but I believe that the scattering of payment locations around the store makes it more difficult for customers to be dealt with quickly and efficiently. It is impossible for me to determine which cashier has the shortest lineup if I can not see at least a fair percentage of the lineups in one spot. You should eliminate cashier positions in the various departments and have larger numbers near the exits.
3. Processing applications for Sears cards at the checkouts causes huge delays for waiting paying customers. This policy effectively compounds the problems described above. Again, this may work in slow periods but if the store is busy or there are no other service reps available at that checkout location, and there are other customers in line waiting to pay for their items, those customers are caught waiting for an even more unaccaptably long time. I understand that Sears makes lots of profit off of its credit department, however, from an annoyed customers point of view it would be far less frustrating if I was not kept waiting while people fill in application forms. A separate station specifically for this process may also aleviate the wait times for other paying customers.
I realize that I am just another complaint for you to deal with, but honestly, the younger generation (non-seniors) are now used to faster more efficient service. I strongly recommend you invest some thought and money into re-structuring your store. You are running the danger of alienating a whole generation of shoppers with your out of date methodologies.
I hope you manage to survive in todays competitive market. Its not just about meeting the demands of the baby boomers, and catering to what they are comfortable with.
I am not planning any further purchases at your stores until I see signs of renovation, reorganization and revitalization. I hope you don't take this the wrong way. It is time for Sears to step up or fade into obscurity.
As a sign of good faith, I would like to receive confirmation of receipt of this email before Dec 15 2011, and a detailed reply by the end of January 2012 outlining any current plans Sears Canada has to deal with these issues. Alternatively, I would appreciate some sort of explanation why Sears Canada is unable or unwilling to work on these weaknesses (also by end of Jan 2012). The timeline has a certain logic: is nearly 3 months from now, and several weeks after the Christmas rush finishes. This should allow plenty of time for someone in a position of responsibility to open a discussion amongst senior admin and get the ball rolling.
Sincerely,
Kevin Hicks
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