• Brandweek, Tuesday, December 8, 2009 10:45 AM

The reason customer service at retail is so poor, according to a new survey by consulting firm The SALT & Pepper Group, has a lot to do with what sales associates don't do, rather that what they do do. In more than 25% of interactions measured, employees failed to see a service opportunity that was at hand or ignored the customer, Alex Palmer reports. Only 53% offered a store greeting, for example.

"Associates started to struggle in situations where customers needed advice," says Rick Miller, consulting analyst at The SALT & Pepper Group. "Most of them really weren't comfortable asking questions to get the information they needed."

The index measured 1,027 interactions in 73 different retail stores over a four-month period measuring 39 separate kinds of service, from the store greeting to merchandise returns or exchanges. Overall, service scored only 48.2 out of a possible 100. Nearly 90% of stores scored well on "average wait time," but one wonders if that's a reflection of less traffic in hard times.

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