If you’re paying more than $1000 for some fancy new clothes you might expect store staff to fawn over you – or at the very least help ensure you get the right size.
But a customer service fail at an Australian retail icon this week has highlighted how some of the biggest brands are frustrating shoppers.
“It was not what I expected,” said Queenslander Gary Mortimer of his shopping trip to David Jones in Brisbane.
Professor Mortimer, who is a marketing expert at Queensland University of Technology, documented his less than ideal shopping experience on Twitter.
“Respectfully, I’ve been wandering around David Jones Brisbane CBD for 10 minutes with a $1000 MJ Bale suit – just looking for a team member.”
In his uploaded video he wandered around the floor only to find the MJ Bale concession as well as concession after concession, and register after register, devoid of staff.
David Jones told news.com.au that “clearly in this instance we have not achieved customer expectations,” and said it had apologised to the customer.
MJ Bale said it was “appalled to say the least,” at the customer service fail.
The retail expert told news.com.au that he was at the Queens Plaza store about 2pm on Wednesday. Stopping by the stand of high end Australian brand MJ Bale he said there was no staff member there to help him pick the right suit.
After 10 minutes at the concession, and after finding a suit, he then walked around the shop floor for another 10 minutes to try and locate someone – anyone – to help with sizing and direct him to the change room.
‘Not what I expected at David Jones’ flagship’
“Maybe 15-20 minutes isn’t too bad – but what was surprising was the lack of staff in many of the concessions in the menswear department,” Prof Mortimer said.
“It’s definitely a ‘price versus expectation’ situation. If you’re buying a higher-quality product, you expect higher levels of quality service.
“This is not what I would have expected to experience at a David Jones CBD flagship store.”
Prof Mortimer said the challenge for department stores was more of the floor space was being given over to concessions, not run by the store itself, meaning the customer experience could be wildly different depending on what brand you were purchasing.
“It’s those brands that are responsible for staffing, inventory and service.”
But Prof Mortimer said it was more than that. Service in department stores could also vary depending on what branch of the same chain you were in.
“I had quite the opposite experience at David Jones’ Sydney Elizabeth Street store earlier in the week,” he said.
The Sydney CBD store is David Jones’ undoubted Australian flagship.
A recent refit cost a whopping $400 million with the 12 storey retail behemoth featuring an entire floor dedicated to shoes, a top end food hall, multiple eateries and exclusive brands like Loewe and Balenciaga.
“There was plenty of staff there and great service too,” he said.
The brand is the same but the challenge for David Jones – and other stores – is that there is often a very different shopping experience between their flagship branches and smaller, suburban outlets.
“We have been investing in service training nationally and have seen improvements in customer satisfaction levels,” a David Jones spokesman told news.com.au.
“We have met with Mr Mortimer and taken his feedback and apologised directly. David Jones remains committed to improving its instore and online experiences.”
A MJ Bale spokeswoman said the lack of staff wasn’t up to scratch.
“MJ Bale prides itself on our exceptional customer service, and we’re appalled, to say the least.
“We will endeavour to make sure this never happens again.”
Certainly Australian department stores have gone through torrid times with the rise of online and increasingly price conscious shoppers.
David Jones has been owned by the South African firm Woolworths Holdings – no connection to the supermarket of the same name – which bought the chain in 2014 for more than $2 billion.
But in December 2022, it agreed to sell DJs for what is thought to be just $100 million to private equity firm Anchorage Capital. The sale price was only a quarter of the cost of the Sydney CBD store refurbishment.
However, the overall value of David Jones has been diminished by hundreds of millions of dollars after Woolworths Holdings either sold off – and rented back – many DJs stores or didn’t include them in the sale to Anchorage.
Over the past two years David Jones has closed suburban stores in Brisbane’s Toowong and Upper Mt Gravatt, while Myer recently announced it would exit its flagship store just up the Queen Street Mall from David Jones.
Yet both David Jones and Myer have done better of late. In March, DJs said sales were up 13.6 per cent in the first two months of 2023 while concessions, like MJ Bale, soared by 32 per cent. It said CBD stores were busy with customers as people shrugged off the last of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in January, Myer said it recorded its best result in nearly 20 years under CEO John King with profits for the half year up 104 per cent and sales rising by 37.9 per cent.
The balance sheet is looking better but is that coming at the expense of in store customer service?