I've had two recent experiences in JB HiFi stores in different cities, and they got me thinking...

Are they the 'New Bunning's' when it comes to a reputation of a 'lack of service' as a weakness in their business model, and will this prove a recipe for disaster in the coming battles for consumers against an online entrant like Amazon?

To be clear, I am no "Amazon is coming....arrrggghhh!!!!!!!!!!...what are we going to do???", type of person.

I remember my days back while at Retail Food Group (one of the countries largest franchisors), where as the franchisor of Donut King, the feeling in the place at times felt like one of impending doom or 'batten down the hatches and get on war footing', because Krispy Kreme was coming to 'take our market away!'

Well of course, in fact, quite the opposite happened.

Back to JB Hi-Fi Today

On both occasions in my recent visits to different JB stores in different states, I stood there looking at tech for long periods of time (several minutes) without a person even close to looking like they were able, or indeed even wanted to help me.

At the first location, I got frustrated and went to the payment counter to ask for some help with a product in the department.

They announced three times over the store PA (and it was not busy) for help for a customer. I waited for about 6-7 mins at the counter and decided I wouldn't bother waiting and told them I was going to Harvey Norman a few mins away to buy it.

Harvey Norman, were marginally better, but not much.

I put that JB experience down to the fact that I might have been just unlucky due to timing, or staff etc, and I didn't think much of it.

Remember Masters v Bunnings - The Customer Service Angle?

You may think it's not the best example seeing how Bunnings so easily fended off and won that battle for the consumer. However, one of the key entries to that market by Masters was around the lack of service at Bunnings. The fact you can walk around for so long and never get any help. We all had a story about how we went down to Bunnings and couldn't find 'that thing' and couldn't find anyone to help either!

Yes, Bunnings was often renowned for a lack of service, yet the Masters new entrant found it simply didn't have enough of this and other factors balanced in its favour, along with a whole range of broader issues to ultimately survive in the market.

I believe we generally forgive JB Hi-Fi mostly up till now as we feel we are getting a good 'deal', yet with the impending entry into the market of Amazon, will we still be as forgiving?

Forgiving for low responsiveness, combined with a product knowledge and skill set that is confined to a couple of key categories that try's to stretch across multiple categories or departments?

My Second JB Hi-Fi Visit In Another State

On the second and most recent occasion, I stood at an area for several minutes, and nobody even came near me on a quiet Saturday morning with many more staff than customers in the store. I gave all the body language signals of searching for something and not finding it, and coming back to the same spot and looking again and again.

Yes, I agree, you might say - "Why didn't you just ask for help?".

This is true, I could have done that.

But this small sample of my own customer experience, and on both occasions knowing what I wanted and being ready to buy, it really got me thinking about JB's store model right now. Especially now and how it relates to the online shopping wave that is seemingly about to hit them head on.

That service has actually been pretty consistent with my experiences over a longer period as well at JB stores.

In JB Hi-Fi who do you ask for help?

Who identifies, or is seen as having any particular expertise in something? The TV area probably does, the Mac area, possibly, but what else?

Where is the expertise to make me want to keep coming in-store when the experience appears to be significantly falling below expectation?

Is it becoming a supermarket style retail experience where you just mostly look after yourself and try to find someone if you need to? I wonder if this is in the plan, or it's just happening all on its own accord.

I wonder if it has an identity crisis on where it will fit in 6 - 12 months. It's about to positioned whether it likes it or not by Amazon in the eyes of the consumer.

The more I look and think about it, I think this business has some serious gaps in it's service and service / product expertise model.

Gaps that I believe will not stand it in good stead going forward in the very near future if it doesn't act.

Ball is totally in your court JB!