Canadian Tire Never Disappoints Me ….

Posted in November 7, 2009 ¬ 11:37 pmh.Brian J. Anderson29 Comments »

…. in disappointing me.

Canadian Tire delivers the most frustrating shopping experience – and does so consistently. I go only when I need something badly and because they are close and seem to have a large inventory. But where this stuff is located is another matter entirely.

Quest for the (safety) Vest
‘Cycled down to a nearby store with the intention of becoming more noticeable to Toronto motorists. Upon entering, an earnest red-faced fellow asked what I was looking for and directed me to aisle #50. I conducted a thorough investigation and failed to locate any vests.

After spending more time looking for assistance, I find a kid standing up at a desk in Sports who said with authority, “Hardware, aisle #66.” On the way there, I met Guy #1 who fairly flagged me down. I told him what I didn’t find. After depositing a woman in an aisle, he marched me back to #50 in determined fashion. On the way, he uttered a famous Canadian Tire line I’ve heard before, “It should be there….unless they’ve moved it.”

It’s not there and I can see he’s a little flustered.

Lost in (Lots of) Space
We move back now to aisle #66 and it’s not there either; nothing even resembling safety vests was present. What was there? Leather tool pouches – rows and rows of them. Another kid meets up with us and he walked us both over to aisle #71 but there were no vests there either, although it appeared that this area was where they were kept.

Famous Canadian Tire comment #2
“Sorry, maybe better check back next week.” Sure kid, I’d love to come back here where my satisfaction level with you clowns is about 2 / 100 plus ‘wouldn’t you think a safety vest is kinda’ important? Like next week might be too long a time to wait? These were rhetorical questions, of course. It wasn’t their fault; it was the store’s, it was the corporation’s fault.

Guy #1 suggests (overpriced) reflective safety tap and I bought it just because I was bound for Danforth Ave (Toronto) which was a northward climb up a considerable hill.

And so my latest adventure in a Canadian Tire store drew to a close on another discordant note.

What Needs to Be Done?
Blasting away the rot that translates into continuous customer-level stock disorganization would take considerable time. However, what Canadian Tire needs to do straight away is:

1) Spend some money and get some inventory software that provides product information and situate it on kiosks which will placed all over their stores. This will allow your store personnel to keep the shelves stocked and to answer any questions customer may have.

2) Stock duplicate items in different places throughout the store in alignment with how people think. Some people associate safety vests with hunting (Guy #1); others with construction. What I was looking for was one for cycling. Same item, different uses and therefore it should be in different areas and found in the kiosks.

3) Make sure the kiosk software has been amply tested for User-friendliness so that its use doesn’t add to people’s frustration.

4) Stop trumpeting the fact that your company is 100-something years old. No one cares. What I care about and what most people care about is finding and buying something they want – quickly.

5) Wake up to the fact that it’s a buyer’s market now – and it always will be. Therefore, stop with your push selling over the airwaves and start with boosting your service methodologies because that’s what will definitely lead to cross selling opportunities. There’s a subtle psychological shift going on and you Canadian Tire executives need to be wise to it.

Specifically, you need to stop smashing people over the head with your traditional advertising approach. If you focus on increasing customer satisfaction inside your stores, people will be in a great mood and then you can use the kiosk or sales personnel to suggest additions. A happy customer buys more gear and pay the store people some commission – a team-based one – for additional sales.

Now get to it!

Marketing: the old way vs. the new, , , ,

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