Promises need to be kept

In all the excitement of Britain’s first coalition government in ages, not much has been said about the extent to which compromising on a coalition agenda has meant that they have both abandoned key election promises.

Having been swayed by the various dramas of the election, in the end I made my choice based on policies. Those who voted for policies now shelved by the coalition must be feeling a bit cheated. Nobody sane expects a politician entirely to keep their word, but wholesale abandonment of key parts of a manifesto within days of an election is surely too much.

In retail, we can’t afford to behave like this. If we advertise something and customers come into our stores in response, then we’d better be able to deliver. If not, we risk negative goodwill - and perhaps the customer vowing never to come to us again.

The most common example is a great offer that runs out of stock. Occasionally unavoidable but more commonly caused by a lack of confidence, or putting stock risk before customer satisfaction. Customers may forgive something being sold out if it is clear that there is limited supply, or if they’ve left it late to come in. But they are entitled to be angry if it happens right at the beginning of the promotion.

I think the worst sin, though, is the ad campaign that is simply out of step with the reality of the stores. At its simplest, there are the campaigns that promise the cheapest prices, or price matching, when that simply isn’t true. I experienced this myself years ago when I was buying a household fan and to my great surprise found it cheaper in Selfridges than in a rival with a very well known price promise. I haven’t stopped shopping in the rival, but I haven’t believed the price promise, its key marketing message, ever since. It was probably a very rare exception but the damage was done.

Equally dangerous is presenting an image based on newer, smart stores when much of the estate is tired or in need of refurbishment. Or talking about a range proposition that can only be fitted into the larger stores. In any of these cases, we are setting the customer up for disappointment and risking a long-term loss of goodwill for the chance of a short-term sales boost.

Sometimes you don’t even have to advertise. Some brands have such a clear image that they make promises in themselves. I would never try to open Hamleys stores around Britain because I know I couldn’t afford to reproduce the experience of the Regent Street flagship. Customers who knew what the Hamleys brand stood for were therefore likely to be let down.

So as a retailer you should be very careful what you promise and make sure you can deliver. Unlike the politicians, we face re-election every week as customers make new choices. If we’ve let them down, we are throwing them into the arms of the opposition.

Simon Burke is chairman of Majestic Wine and Superquinn