I am very interested in a programme scheduled to air tonight with Mary Portas (the Queen of Shops) regarding customer service.  As a provider of customer service training we at GA Training are always interested to find out what is really going on out there in the world and this programme should therefore be well worth watching.

People will know Mary from her “Queen of Shops” programme that was aired fairly recently where she went into small shops and tried to help them turn their business around.  Mary met with a great deal of hostility and resistance from the majority of people she tried to help but most were turned around eventually.  This approach was very much focused internally on the business to start with and often included a return to traditional values.

For this new series Mary is going the whole hog, wearing a wig and mystery shopping to see how she is treated.  I have only seen snippets of the results but readers of this blog will know that overall I believe the customer service standards in this country to be quite low so I am not expecting anything other than generally poor service.

The first show tonight I believe is a pilot and Mary’s focus will be on so called fast-fashion outlets.  Hopefully the series will be successful and will become a regular on our screens.  I applaud Mary for her efforts to a) bring people’s attention to levels of service and b) help business owners understand the vital importance of providing excellent service.

Love her or hate her it will no doubt as always be an interesting watch as she certainly pulls no punches generally.  I just hope she stops at a wig and does not try to don a fake moustache too!!

I will watch tonight with interest and share further thoughts tomorrow.