Tim Ellis

Review of Creature

RESPONSE TO OWNER BELOW THIS -

RESPONSE TO OWNER BELOW THIS -

My family went in the other day and were met with a stony faced manager (?) who was happy to denigrate other pet shop competition and generally be negative about everything in terms of the questions being asked. My son was after a fish and the manager said the tank was not big enough. So why not offer another fish then?! The whole experience was negative - it was if we are intruding on his privacy by going in there. We miss Sebastien the French guy - he was great, helpful and everything customer service should be. The shop was updated and refurbed a few years ago partly through BBC funding - now they need to up their game on the customer front.

RE OWNER's RESPONSE

Thank you for your response - may I say 90 per cent of your content is a total whitewash as it ignores the main grievance and concentrates on a very small part of the conversation that was never the issue or never in debate.

Firstly, I do not appreciate the inference that somehow we as customers would be negligent enough to use an unsuitable/unfiltered tank for a fish. The issue was NEVER about our resistance to your advice on the fish/ suitability and filtering of tank, nor your care standards or expertise.

Please do not rewrite history about the incident. I think you know in your heart of hearts about how you handled us as customers but of course you need to use this tool as a PR exercise..

The issue was the customer experience at Creature Company. Unfortunately, the customer will always walk away dissatisfied when he or she is on the end of a sullen attitude and a person who feels the need to denigrate the competition in such a sweeping manner.

May I ask whether you think it is a professional stand to castigate your rivals to a customer? If so, I would be very very worried about YOUR business ethics.

It is more likely to make us purchase elsewhere.

The (excellent) competition have, crucially, shown a fantastic attitude as well as total credibility and compassion with the same quality of advice. You cannot fake that. This was at total odds with your description of the rival organisation as purely commercial with no second thought for animal welfare.

My son had called you several days before to enquire and was rather perturbed by a perceived hostility that he felt deeply on the telephone at the time. Subsequently, he said he was too scared to make further calls; children pick up on things.

I do like the idea of a high street shop without the apparent "big game" culture of other stores, but what has to change is the definite negative and disinterested attitude.

Perhaps you can learn from this and shift your focus on softening the spiky approach to customers and other companies who happen to take custom from you but are no less caring or professional.

So that there is no further misunderstanding, may I confirm that "the chain" we saw is not the commercial monster you tried to make out AND has the most excellent ethical standards with a consistently friendly and helpful approach to boot.

PS: in respect to 'not coming to an agreement', I'd like to clarify that all your energies were so passionately negative, you forgot to push a positive alternative sale which you now belatedly offer.