Halfords Bike Monkeys

[Andy B]

andy, could you email that exact statement to our customer services department you would make my day! that's pretty much how most of us feel. unfortunately its not our store managers fault really. they have seen their wage budgets cut by 2/3rds at least. this also means they are forced to use the cheapest staff to cover a shift, which can lead to poorly motivated 'monkeys'

The managers hands are tied as you say, it's those higher up the chain that cause the problems.

If you have the MD's address I'd happily take a dump in his letterbox as well

 

[legrandefromage]

hi all, i used to work for halfords, and yep the majority of the time its a joke but a few of us do know ower stuff.

but dont want to sound funny but it does suprise me that people go in to the shop and expect the same service as a boutique-bike shop selling boutique names as van nicholas, litespeed, foes and ellsworth.

what were you expecting to get? the same service as you would from a core bike shop?!?!

if you go to aldi you get stuff at a bargin, if you go to harrords you get great service! next time dont be so cheap and go to a real bike shop. lol.
hope you got your bike fixed though.

safe travels

When Halfrauds has a £2k Saracen road bike on display, one would at least expect £2k expertese and service.

 

[hoegaardenadds1]

was going to make a big comment about this thread but cant be harrissed any more. halfords is shit, shop somewhere else.

 

[Russell]

i am sure all staff would love to spend an hour with each customer, but with the pressures we are under it is just not feasible.

You see, you lost me there. Customer service is about what you do when you're with the customer, not how long you spend with them. The girl DrC initially saw should have said "Sorry, I'm not cycle trained, would you mind waiting for a colleague to come help you?". 5-10 mins for the guy that knew what he was talking about to come over and sort the problem, DrC leaves a happy chap and posts a "Halfords sorted me out" thread on Retrobike.co.uk

Of course, if there were no cycle trained people in the store at the time, then that comes down to the manager being crap at doing his staff rota.

I was a retail manager in a much more pressured environment than Halfords and spent a lot of time developing a streamlined sales procedure that increased conversion rates and reduced transaction time but at the same time, increased customer satisfaction.

Its up to Halfords management to ensure that the right staff are in the right place at the right time and that they have the knowledge and skills to do their job. Its also up to the management to make other (less skilled) staff aware that actually, its better to be honest and ask a customer if they'd mind waiting for 10 mins for a qualified colleague rather than send them out of the store with incorrect/defective goods.

 

[hoegaardenadds1]

if they've got any staff to train

 

[Russell]

if they've got any staff to train

I'm assuming that Halfords managers have staffing budgets? I appreciate that they have made job cuts recently but I believe that it equated to less than one staff member per two stores?

Participation in cycling is on the increase, as a manager at Halfords (you) need to recognise this and allocate (your) resources appropriately. If it means taking the guy off the car audio dept to run the tills in the cycle dept which in turn frees up the trained cycle guy to do what he's paid to do, then thats what needs to happen.

 

[hoegaardenadds1]

as a retail manager you know as well as i that in an ideal world this would work. but who then sells the stereos? then you have sickness and holidays to contend with. and deliveries to bring in. all whilst taking 30% more than last year and with a 15% base wage cost cut. we sell on average 60 bikes per week and 80% are built. all by the bike hut staff. we also book on average 20 hours worth of repairs(and turn away ten times more!)