I've been spending a lot of time in Hobby Lobby lately. My husband and I just bought our first home so your location in Modesto, CA is usually the first place I'll go to for anything I need...or don't need and just really really want because it's pretty. Whenever I need baking supplies, birthday cards, gift bags, or something cute to put on my walls I'll make a trip all the way out to Hobby Lobby from my home in Manteca.
What keeps me coming back to Hobby Lobby versus stopping at Tj Maxx, Homegoods, or Pier One is the outstanding customer service I'm always provided with. Whenever I'm looking for something or ready to check out, the employees are more than happy to assist me with whatever I need and keep a smile on their face. However, your management system in your Modesto, California store could probably use some serious adjusting.
Last night after dinner, my husband and I went to Hobby Lobby to grab a couple shadow boxes, look at curtains, and grab a few other random things for our house. He was looking for a specific kind of hook, and since the store is so large he was having a hard time locating them. A gentlemen then stopped and asked if we needed any help. My husband explained what he was looking for the best he could. The employee cracked a few jokes and talked with us while we looked, which was honestly a treat; good customer service is hard to come by these days, but Hobby Lobby is always great.
The employee helping us looked for the hook where he thought it would he, and since it wasn't there, he told us to hang tight for a second so he could go ask someone. He came back after no more than a minute and grabbed my husband while I looked around at all of the things I wanted to buy. My husband came back to where I was at with exactly what he needed and mentioned how nice this employee was. I agreed, but while we were talking, a loud, shrill voice echoing throughout the isles of your store caught our attention.
It was the manager, who we identified as being named Connie, yelling at the gentleman that was just helping us. "Yeah but it should not take you 3 hours to sweep. It's 7:30pm and you still need to do the rest of this side of the store and the restrooms!" She yelled.
"Yeah I'm really sorry. I've been helping customers as I go along..." he started, but wasn't able to finish before night manager Connie cut him off and said, "Yeah well sometimes you just need to tell customers "'its over there"' " and made a gesture with her hand to indicate she was pointing instead of taking the customer to the item they're looking for. The employee, clearly embarrassed, apologized and continued sweeping.
Here is my problem with this:
1) This awful woman was yelling SO loud at this employee that everyone stopped what they were doing (including customers) and looked at what was going on. Public humiliation over sweeping a floor isn't a very professional management technique, wouldn't you say?
2) She screamed at him for helping customers (us) which made us feel terrible.
3) She screamed at him for helping customers and then proceeded to tell him that helping us is basically less important than sweeping the floor.
4) She was so loud that my husband and I interjected and told her the employee was helping us, to which she replied, "okay" and walked away.
5)You NEVER just point and tell a customer "It's over there" and point. Customer service is always supposed to come first when you work in retail or food service, but Connie is completely convinced that getting the bathroom swept is more important than having happy shoppers than come back to your store time and time again.
Every employee I asked about this manager, Connie, seemed extremely uncomfortable to be giving me any information about her which tells me your employees are afraid of her and I can see why; she's awful.
Just because Connie's plastic name tag says "Manager" on it does not give her the right to publicly embarrass and scream at her employees for helping your paying customers. Sweeping the floor should not be a priority over helping me. She clearly needs to be humbled and sent to a training class or two about how to properly run a team in a retail store. However, like I said before, the other employees at your store in Modesto, California are always great. They go above and beyond to help me and I do appreciate it. The customer service at this store is what keeps me coming back and I'd like to keep it that way. read more