Background:

Everyone’s favourite Friday night - a trip to Currys to buy a new washing machine to replace the one you killed with a stray 10p piece. Currys was the first retailer we thought of, offering a fantastic selection at their new megastore in Chester.

Having not been to Currys for a number of years, I was extremely interested to see if they had learnt any lessons from the likes of Apple. Would the Currys colleagues be simply sales people, or would they be product experts and advocates? I desperately hoped they’d be the latter.

A quick glance on the Dixons Retail Group website revealed that the group has a ‘Customer Plan’ in place, driving their transformation strategy. On paper, it sounds great – I was looking forward to seeing how it was delivered in reality.

The Experience:

The only good thing about shopping on a Friday night is that it’s quiet, and as we entered the store, I started to feel confident that we’d experience great service – if they couldn’t’ deliver what they promised when we were the only people in there, what would it be like during peak time on a Saturday afternoon?

Walking into the store, the sheer breadth of product range was overwhelming and impressive. Each area was well presented and distinct. We headed upstairs to the kitchen section, and were greeted with a muted ‘hello’ from the two team members who seemed far more interested in arranging their plans for later that evening than in serving their customers.

My wife and I were faced with a fantastic choice of approximately 40 machines, but no discernible information to help us decide where we should start. After some toeing and froing, it became apparent that the machines were ordered according to price, and so we moved to the section that had machines in the £250-£350 bracket that we had in our heads.

Advice, knowledge and passion was clearly not forthcoming from the Currys employees, as we made our decision purely on gut feel and then had to approach them to try and pay for the machine. We saw no sign that they were “interested in working out what’s right for me” as promised.

Once we had engaged the colleague, she was very polite – calm and efficient, processing the order quickly.

We then moved onto the part of the purchase I was least looking forward to – the extended warranty hard sell. Fortunately whilst our girl recommended it, she didn’t overly push it. Although her insistence that if we’d taken out their Whatever Happens cover on our previous machine we would never have had to buy another washer ever again was enthusiastic, I personally just didn’t believe it, and it concerned me that the staff seemed to be making up stories to suit their own requirements, just like the PPI bankers.

We paid for a specific delivery and installation time, and the washing machine duly turned up bang on time. All was fine and dandy, until the delivery driver informed my wife (who was home alone) that he couldn’t fit our machine, as it would breach health and safety. “Why?” she asked. “We can’t deal with anything electrical”, he said. After a verbal arm wrestle, the driver’s colleague appeared and fortunately took a much more conciliatory line. And within, quite literally, 5 minutes, the machine was installed and working. A quite baffling approach to his job from the driver, and a sure fire way to p*ss off your customers on what had been an otherwise pleasant part of the customer experience.

Overall, within 5 days of the washing machine breaking, we had a new one fitted and working, courtesy of Currys. But, with no genuine experience to talk of, I wonder whether we’d simply buy online, securing the same machine cheaper, next time?

Alignment:

As Currys doesn’t publish its brand vision and values, it’s hard to know for certain how aligned they are. However, there are some clear gaps in the ‘foundation’ or ‘hygiene’ values of electrical products service.

Whilst the staff were pleasant throughout the in store experience, they clearly had no passion for their work or the products they were selling, a complete contradiction of the ‘Customer Plan’ they’d detailed. Perhaps Currys needs to create a genuine vision for the business, and engage all colleagues in it – showing how their role in delivering the brand is crucial to the future success of the business.

Similarly, it seems essential that the delivery drivers understand that they're playing a critical role in the delivery of the Currys brand. At such a personal interaction – entering our home – the driver was rude and unhelpful, values that I’m sure Currys doesn’t want to be associated with.

It seems to me that Currys needs to work out what it stands for, and give customers a genuine reason to visit its physical stores; otherwise they’ll just end up buying on price. Maybe they need to take a leaf out of Apple’s book and reverse traditional commission structures, developing teams of genuine product advocates. Why not employ Mums in the kitchen area – in the way that B&Q employs retired gents: employ people who genuinely love keeping their home clean and tidy to advise on the best washing machine, not 21 year olds who probably take their washing home to Mum anyway.

Rather than aiming to deliver ‘great’ customer service, surely the most base aim of a retailer, perhaps Currys needs to define and align to a set of values that can truly differentiate its experience from that of the competition. Otherwise, we’ll all be buying purely on price.