CNA

CNA is one of the oldest retail brands in South Africa, which should be wonderful. It's a sad story in recent times, though, having lost its Central News Agency identity and, with that and corporate ownership, direction.

Ten years ago it was bought by massive retail group Edcon - in turn now internationally owned with emphasis on financial return - where it is clearly at the bottom of their list of priorities.

CNA isn't sure what business it is in (magazines, stationery, books, computer supplies, games, music, photographs, toys, ignoring customers?), but it is in every centre around the country, with over 200 stores.

These stores have a responsibility to the South African consumer community. They owe us a pleasant and uplifting experience. Well designed stores as well. It is their duty as a retail brand with such pervasive presence, and as part of the bigger Edcon group.

Conversely, what they are delivering now is mostly a miserable experience for customers, which is more than remiss. It's effectively criminal.

Eastgate's bad attitude

I visit two stores near me regularly. The smaller of the two, at Bedford Centre, does not stock the airfreight version of my favourite international music magazine, so I always buy that at the bigger store in Eastgate Mall. Staff there (and at Bedford Centre) do not offer help and will walk past you even when you are trying to get help.

I don't go to the Eastgate store for the pleasure of it, it's a quick in and out. The aisles are badly designed, cluttered and too narrow, so the place becomes congested as soon as there are a few people in it. The payment point is a long tunnel of -point-of-sale items and then a counter of dour faced cashiers more interested in talking among themselves than even greeting people waiting like cattle to pay.

A few months back, I made my monthly visit and by the time I was at the till, I was feeling irritated by the whole place, as I often do. (Just observe how you feel as you enter then wait in one of those tunnels). The women at the till did not greet me and kept talking to one another. I said that I did not want a packet and did not have a shopper card. The cashier then turned to me and said, "Shopper card?"

I confronted her for not being present, not acknowledging and greeting me, and not listening, to which she went quiet. When I confronted that, she called the next customer.

I called the manager, who wasn't on duty (in all these encounters, he has never once been in the shop). I got a junior supervisor, who empathised with me, saying that she would have wanted to slap the cashier had she been treated that way. She undertook to address the problem, with management and the cashier, and get back to me.

A month later, I was there for my magazine again, having heard nothing but ready to hand over more money. I got the same cashier, who, knowing me from the last encounter (plus a copy of my book I gave the staff there sometime earlier), greeted me by saying, "Shopper card?"

Was this:

• an uncanny co-incidence
• a matter of routine
• a terrified act
• an aggressive act
• a sense of humour
• a cry for help
• simple bitchiness?

It certainly wasn't good service, even if she had forgotten me, as she later claimed to the then on-duty junior supervisor (someone different this time, to whom I was expected to explain everything again).

I stared at her in disbelief. She took my money and called the next customer, who was itching to get out of that queue. When I continued to confronted her, she ignored me while her colleague (to whom she had been talking before I rudely interrupted them) looked me up and down scornfully.

It's interesting how customers are treated as if we are in the wrong when we ask for basic human decency and some respect for our patronage.

I insisted that the junior supervisor on duty and the cashier meet me right where I was standing in the front of the store. Eventually, with much resistance from them and some movement from me, we stood in the middle of the shop, under the security cameras, where the supervisor 'handled the situation' by asking for both sides of the story, like a prefect at school. A ridiculous and childish situation.

The cashier made her case with folded arms, saying she did not recognise me and that when she asked if I had a shopper card, I just stared at her. I explained that she knew me very well, then said loudly, "The problem here is simple, your service sucks!"

A customer walking past added some dramatic synchronicity when he shouted, "Absolutely!"

Taking for granted

Two days later, I called the store because the manager still had not got back to me. He wasn't there then either.

He called me the following day, introduced himself as Vusi, and asked for 'my side of the story'. I told him to do his research first, so that he could report to me and not me to him. I explained that my side of the story would include my professional input, for which there was naturally a fee. He said that he understood but insisted I continue.

A spontaneous hour on the phone with me later (not everyone is as fortunate), he told me that the conversation had been enlightening, and that he wished I would work with Mike Kimmings (the CEO of CNA) to fix the company. (I had mentioned Mike because I know him, having done a talk to his team when he was Operations Director for Edgars, another brand in the Edcon Group)

Before Vusi had to leave the conversation to go to a meeting, he went on to list the four main points he had taken from my suggestions, telling me that he was going to implement them.

He then asked me to please go and see him the next time I was in the store. He would love to meet me, he said.

He didn't mention the cashier ever rectifying the relationship first, or payment for my consultation, or my distress at the in-store experience. He expected even more from me. Based on what? Goodwill?

Getting worse

I did visit Vusi at the store when I was there for my magazine again a few weeks later. He wasn't there (neither was the magazine. I had to extract help to find this out). When I went back a few days later, Vusi wasn't there and the rest of the staff were in a meeting in the office at the back of the store.

The cashier was among them. When she saw me, she turned and walked back into the office. The deputy manager undertook to sort out the problem and get back to me. I told him that he would not and could not, but he dismissed that. I have not heard from him since.

The security staff told me that the cashier wouldn't talk to me because I was angry. She would speak to me, they said, if I was not angry. So I calmed down because they had all the power. The security guard went to speak to the cashier but came back without her. I left.

I have heard nothing from anyone at CNA in the 12 days since. Two people have, in discussions about this Suing for Service campaign, told me about how bad CNA in general and the Eastgate branch in particular are.

Proposed Outcome

For the fee of double the CEO's annual salary (plus VAT and expenses), paid in advance, in close consultation with him entirely on my terms, we will turn the business around in 9 to 12 months.

We will run a brisk and effective transformation process within the business, which will include key staff writing a chapter of a book about their turnaround and success. I will publish the book as an in-house business tool, and use it in a re-branding excercise, repositioning and rejuvenating the brand.

The cashier who precipitated the project, along with other exemplary leaders in their fields in the business, will enjoy their first trip to Thailand as part of the process.

This will happen very publicly, with video and possibly television footage, so that customers around the country can hold the people and brand responsible for service from then on.

Look out for an all new CNA!

Please share below experiences you have had with the brand, or your comments in general, and accounts of how you are standing for service in CNA.