It’s a store designer’s dream, but despite some customer gadgets, Nike Town London is style over substance.

A quick trip to buy some running shorts on Bank Holiday Monday turned into a masterclass in poor customer service at Oxford Circus’ Nike Town. While the store look great, it won the Retail Design of the Year at the World Retail Congress earlier this month, it certainly scores no bonus points for the way it treats customers.

Clever customer technology is all well and good, but it is no replacement for good old customer service.

Much of the first floor of this Mecca to sportswear is given over to clothing and footwear for runners. And to prove that Nike is serious about its running credentials, this area is set up with computers where you can use special runners’ software tools it has created and a treadmill with gait analysis equipment (to make sure you buy the right pair of trainers for how you run).

All this looks promising, and as someone who writes about innovation and technology it is heartening to see that someone at Nike has thought about how customers can get the most out of the products that they buy there.

But what is the point of this if you then treat customers with little more than contempt?

Having found what I wanted to purchase I was left to queue for more than 10 minutes at unattended changing rooms before a member of staff told me not to queue there, and to go to some other changing rooms on the other side of the store. Eventually I was able to try on my choice.

There is a customer service desk near the running products, but no tills, so I headed up to the second floor looking for somewhere to pay. Again though there were many staff members milling around, only one was serving. After another long wait I got to the front of the queue only to be told that there was a problem with the till the assistant was trying to use, and I should go downstairs.

So back down to the ground floor, more queues and finally one pair of running shorts successfully purchased. The whole process had taken around half an hour, the staff were rude and there was no apology. When it takes this long to get the most basic service why would anyone want to hang around to soak up the Nike “experience”?

Some 9,000 runners had taken to the streets of central London that same morning to compete in a 10 kilometre race – including one young man who broke a British record that had stood for 25 years. Nike should forget about the gadgets and focus on some basic staff training if it wants to properly service this passionate, and growing, customer segment.

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