What’s your favourite major Australian electrical store? Apparently we’re happiest with our experience at the Good Guys and RetraVision: 88.8 per cent to 88.2 per cent, respectively, according to Roy Morgan stats for the last quarter. So what about Harvey Norman and Dick Smith?
Roy Morgan says The Good Guys grabbed top spot because it’s the only dedicated electrical retailer to show any improvement for customer satisfaction.
As you can see in the graph below, Betta Electrical dramatically lifted its game over Christmas, but has dropped off since then. And Dick Smith satisfaction remains flat at around 83 per cent, possibly due to re-branding of Tandy Stores to Dick Smith.
As for Harvey Norman, 86 per cent of customers that bought from there in the last four weeks were “very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with the store for the period from April 2010 – March 2011 (the same window used for the data below). Harvey Norman is tracked under Electrical/Furniture and frustratingly, is listed separately to the Electrical only store data.
Dan Miller
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:47 AMI’ve all ways liked the good guys. I find their staff well trained and knowledgeable. Unlike other stores like Harvey Norman and JB HiFi.
CGB
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:52 AMhi always go to JB Hifi for tech as they always are happy to help you with any silly question you may have and are always competitive for pricing.. and if they dont have something they can get it fast
Luke
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:59 AMThe only issue i have with the Good Guys is the soul crushingly long wait to get served by a salesman.
I have had good experience with The Good Guys, i bought a cheap 42′ plasma TV from them, it was the biggest and cheapest TV for my budget at the time and the salesman said the pros and cons of the TV set. The pros were that it was 100htz motion and although not full HD it accepted a full 1080p HD signal and the cons were that it suffered from i think they called it a candle lit effect where if a high contrast image is on the screen are a while it will stay on the screen for a little while but fades after about 10 minutes.
The thing i find really good is that the salesman told me the potential negatives about the TV and not just the positives trying to get a sale, but its the small positive things that makes people come back and shop there again.
feral
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 12:03 PMI cannot say anything nice about Retravision, they’ve pissed me off more than once. Have had best price negotiation success and service at Hardly Normal.
benm
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 4:13 PMI’ve gotta agree. The TV salesman in the Retravision near me was ridiculously rude. I wish every day that I didn’t buy from him but with a wife and 2 kids under 3 in tow at the time I was pressed for time.
Vote 1 for The Good Guys.
TSH
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 12:06 PMJB’s slipped recently in QOS. Strange that they’re not on that graph.
Stephen
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 12:38 PMMy most recent experience with JB was in waiting for the Acer Iconia A500 with 3G to come out.
I’d done a heap of research and knew exactly what I wanted. Impressively, the girl at JB’s tablets section (in their Woden ACT store) knew just as much as I did and was enormously enthusiastic in her job.
If you’re selling tech, you pretty much need to live it and this salesperson clearly did.
Sean
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 12:42 PMI cant say anything good about any of them really. We have Dick Smith and Retravision here… None of which are of any use to you if you have something slightly technical. If any of you remember the iPhone 4 video some american kid made with the “its got the wifis” comment – thats about as much as these guys know.
I can travel 4hrs north to a WOW or 3 hours east to JB, HN, Good Guys and a bigger Dick Smith – and none of them are much better. Walk through the door and theres someone hounding you to help which usually you dont want straight away. Then when you do want to talk to someone after having had a look at some options yourself, they ignore you.
As a gadget/tech/geeky person – i generally have an idea about the product, the features I want and why its better/worse than another brand/model and I feel its quite p!$$ poor that these stores dont appear to be training their staff to know the basics(at least!!) of the items they sell in their department.
In saying that – I have had some great experience with my local IT store who are more site support IT but have some retail gear(mobos,PSU,RAM, HDD etc) that comes in handy a lot. I can even contact the owner directly for advice and help.
Ruen
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 12:53 PMI unfortunately can’t rate any experience I’ve had with The Good Guys because well. . . it appears The Good Guys are everywhere else in Australia except here. . .
Virus__
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 1:01 PMThe only real choice for tech in my area is JB Hi-Fi.
Since Harvey Norman are over price, Clive Anthony’s range is limited even if they’re the same company as JB, Retravision are mainly white goods, The Good Guys are rude to their customers and their range is more so dedicated to white goods as well, Dick Smith are useless as well I might add with their limited range.
I don’t see how some stores here make a positive cash flow, we just had Sanity close after 3 years of competing with JB Hi-Fi.
Dougal
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 9:51 PMHarvey Norman (or His wife’s Domayne) bought out Clive Peters.
CY
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 2:01 PMWhat about Bing Lee? They’re an electronic retailer too….
Hamish
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 2:06 PMThey’re NSW only – All others are national.
BenDTU
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 2:24 PMJB’s staff range from “I want you to buy this because I think it’s awesome” to “I hate my job and want you to go away”
cayal
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 3:46 PMI hate salespeople like that.
The other day I was at JB and this guy was hyping up Star Wars Kinect as being awesome because it’s Star Wars therefore it’s awesome.
Felt like telling him, Never mind the fact you’ve never played Star Wars Kinect since it isn’t out, you’re selling someone an item based on what you like, not what they like.
Daniel
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 2:44 PMHonestly I treat most brick and mortar stores like display homes for tech now. I’ll go into Harvey Norman or DSE to have a hands on with some tech I’m looking to buy to make sure it fits my hands, works as I expect but at the end of the day I don’t purchase from them.
The rare occasions I do purchase in store I’ve found JB HIFI and The Good Guys extremely good to work with. Otherwise I use online stores and get most stuff delivered (I don’t drive).
A recent experience with Harris Technology and their ecommerce system was so laughable it’s unlikely I’ll ever purchase from them again:
http://www.dawnstar.id.au/geek/harris-technology-ecommerce-wrong/
Conor
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 4:05 PMI’d probably be pissed if I was dealing with a self-described “steampunk geek” as well.
snerd
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 11:03 AMIrrelevant, and you know it.
JimmmyMick
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 11:06 AMConor: is that because the afore-mentioned steampunk geek knows more about security systems, payment systems, and the tech he’s trying to purchase from you than you do?
Or just that he called you on your 1990s business practices?
snerd
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 11:14 AMFoolish person, jamming carbon copies onto various spikes is a foolproof, fraud-resistant document and purchase tracking system.
Conor
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 5:29 PMuh, no. it’s because he calls himself a steampunk geek. but keep trying to invent flaws in an argument that don’t exist, it’s working out great for you.
Jordaan Mylonas
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 3:00 PMFormer (as of this year) Dick Smith employee here. In each of the stored I worked in around Brisbane (about 1/2 dozen separate stores), with the exception of the seemingly mandatory drop-kick 16year old, all of the staff try their hardest to serve customers honestly and professionally.
Unfortunately, the budgets given to stores just kept dropping, and there’d usually only be enough for 2 people on throughout the day, maybe 3 on a busy day. 2-3 people to do all of the management, stock, customer service, phone calls.
Former DSE Employee
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 3:50 PMI disagree, I worked at many stores, no one working at any store knew anything and the customers with any technical questions were pawned off to me (who actually knew the difference between Wi-Fi and 3G).
And what happens, the one that knew stuff, got the most sales, was laid-off cause DS was running out of money.
Thats why they fail.
Anon DSE 3IC
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 10:59 PMThe wages issue is pretty much just the motions for busy parts of the year (EoFY, Xmas and other special occasions like Mothers/Fathers day), and after being through it 3 and a half years, I’ve seen it all, medium and small stores. When a catalogue is JUST a catalogue, belts will be tightened and it’s up to your manager to roster accordingly. And if you think your local store is understaffed, LET US KNOW!
I can tell you, how you approach the staff as a customer often affects how they treat you. Yes, we will hassle you when you come in, we wouldn’t be doing our job otherwise. If we’re busy, be patient, we will get to you, throwing a hissy fit and leaving the stock lying around just makes it harder for us to make the next customer’s experience a good one and will bring down the overall quality of the store. And definitely be mindful of the purpose of your visit. Losing patience with a new or unknowledgeable staff member is not helpful, either ask for someone else and let the staff member observe or work it through with them so they get the concept.
Compliment when appropriate, do it through Dick Smith’s website and we do get it down the line that we did a good job. Likewise, complaints that are constructive are more likely to be responded well to.
As Nick R mentions below, commission is fairly low compared to some of our competitors which some of my former co-workers now work for. They generally also tend to charge a higher baseline for their wares. I treat my customers like I’d like to be treated, am truthful about quantities and qualities, I handle issues in store where I can and won’t fob you off for spare parts or warranty repairs.
Finally, and this goes for any service-based store, if you get a dick salesman, don’t be afraid to give the sale to someone else working there. I’ve worked with bully salesmen and they are by far not an asset to any business.
Nick R
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 3:26 PMCurrent Dick Smith employee, former Clive Peeters. I have to say the mentality in a work place really affects the way people are served.
Clive Peeters was all about competing for the sale, if the sale wasn’t worth it alot of staff would just move on to the next customer.
Dick Smith has so little actual commission on a product (almost at nothing) that the staff are helping you because they can, not because they get anything out of it.
food for thought in customer service differences.
Current DS employee
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 9:36 PMI’m loving that DS advertises “we’re doing deals!”
But everytime our store does a deal (Even if its green) we get a phone call from the Area manager threatening the duty manager that was on that day for allowing a product to be marked down.
Same with “Talk to the Techxperts” with a slogan like that we shouldn’t be surprised that customers come in to us to chat. And most of the staff are happy to help out.
We’ve been told it’s five minutes with a customer or you charge them a mobile techxpert.
Alex
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:56 PMAustralian consumers are fed rubbish by shitty money hungry business. Most places I walk into the staff have absolutely no idea how to give decent customer service.
Before we all jump the gun I don’t think its the staffs fault they are told to jump in line and sell like crazy or are so worn out slash treated like bird droppings that they don’t care.
I challenge you to think of one great experience, blew you out of the water, buying an electrical good / has an amazing buying atmosphere with easy of use for products / staff bending over backwards to help because they want to be there.
noko
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 10:59 AMThe Good Guys near our place has a Australian female worker who knows how to speak filipino. Turns out she has an eidetic memory and learned the language purely by listening to her filipino friend. Needless to say I was dumbfounded when she just suddenly started speaking to me in my language when I was about to buy the Sony TV deal with the free PS3.
Apart from the excellent customer service, the fact that she can speak my language and get me crazy discounts ($2100 TV deal to $1500), Good Guys are really really good, guys.