Hell on the High Street This Christmas

Hell on the High Street This Christmas

LONDON, December 1/PRNewswire/ --

- Customers Can't get no Satisfaction!



Substandard service and a bag-full of stress - that's high
street shopping in the run up to Christmas, as revealed by a new study. Dr.
David Lewis conducted experiments to monitor stress and satisfaction levels
as customers shopped on the high street, by phone and on line. Coupled with
results from an independent survey of over 1,000 consumers commissioned by
internet and catalogue retailer Lands' End - it's official - Brits can't get
no service satisfaction!



The high street retail experience was the most stressful (41% stress
level) and disappointing with a low customer service index of just 47%
compared to 78% satisfaction when shopping by phone and 88% when shopping on
the internet.



High Street bugbears include lack of assistants, shoddy service and poor
product knowledge. Confusing store layouts make finding required items a
hassle and a lack of help and signage exacerbates the problem, leaving
customers hot under the collar.



'Alarmingly, Christmas shopping stress is increasing year on
year with outbursts of 'retail rage' on the up as customers rush around
hunting for 'must-have' products,' comments psychologist Dr David Lewis.
'We've found heart rate and blood pressure levels among some consumers
similar to combat pilots and riot police. Contributing factors include the
sheer number of shoppers and the vast number of goods available. What's more,
consumers, forced to make difficult buying decisions against a deadline, can
develop 'hypervigilance' in which poor choices are made.



And the rage doesn't stop there... over half of customers surveyed
nationwide (53%) see red when a company cannot deal with them directly, if
they have to repeat themselves and if they get shunted from one department to
the next, (23%) hate being kept waiting for information and having to queue.
(Regionalised releases available).



For telephone service, Dr Lewis found that customer
satisfaction was high at 78%, and stress levels low at (22%). However, there
is a bad service gripe, as Brits nationwide agree that having to speak to a
machine is a service no no (38%) and would much prefer talk to a real person.
Following closely behind automated services is trying to get information and
talking to assistants with little product knowledge (21%).



The experiment discovered shopping on-line to be the least
stressful (14%) and most satisfying (88% customer satisfaction rating). Cyber
shopping offers a fast, efficient and easy way to shop, so take the heat out
of the pre-Christmas dash on line. Dr Lewis offers six ways to reduce
shopping stress and avoid high street hell:



- Plan ahead and take your time.


- Organise your entire Christmas with military precision - enjoy
ticking things off that list!


- When hitting the high street, shop little and often to conserve
mental and physical energy!


- Shop off peak and take advantage of quieter times.


- Go on-line - up to two-thirds of all Christmas shopping will be
efficiently purchased on line or over the telephone this year. Looking at
a catalogue or web site and shopping from home can improve satisfaction,
and gift giving by up to 85%.



- As soon as you get home, give yourself 10 minutes of
'me-time' for every 30 minutes spent rushing around the shops.



'On-line and telephone shopping will boost retail sales this Christmas',
says Rob Galkoff, Lands' End Direct Merchants. Our customers trust us to
deliver in time for Christmas - with a last order time of midnight on 22
December - they can shop stress-free up to the last minute! Approximately
3,000 people visit landsend.co.uk each day throughout the year and our live,
24/7, call centre takes around 3,000 calls per day and on our busiest date -
around the beginning of December - calls reach nearly 6000, which means 30
items per minute are processed...that's Santa Claus Lands' End style! We're
proud of our service ethos and our customers certainly enjoy their Lands' End
shopping experience (83% rate our customer service 8/10 or higher).'



Dr David Lewis carried out the experiment - including heart
rate and blood pressure monitoring - on 100 shoppers. The independent survey,
commissioned by Lands' End and undertaken by the David Lewis Consultancy,
looked at the views of 1,000 men and women in England, Scotland and Wales.
Lifestyle, customer service centre and fashion images in j-peg format
available.



Psychologist Dr David Lewis and Rob Galkoff, Lands' End are
available for comment.



Lands' End website: www.landsend.co.uk


Lands' End free phone: 0800-61-71-61



Source: Lands End Direct Merchants

For further information, please contact: Emma Harding/Emma Bussey, Neville McCarthy Associates, tel: +44(0)20-7940-2900 Email emma@nevillemccarthy.com. Out of hours contact number: +44(0)7970-529-688


-------
Profile: intent