WHSmith at centre of social media spat
One of RTIH’s fave retail-related Twitter accounts is @WHS_Carpet.
This regularly flags up examples of WHSmith’s tired stores, rubbish promotions and general crapness, gaining almost 27,000 followers in the process. Not everyone is a fan, however.
On Friday, an account by the name of Support our high streets went on the attack. “I’ve read through the Whsmith accounts - by their records they employ near 15,000 people. I would love to know how you would feel if this business went under. Your continued aggression is hurting all high street businesses through the country- not helping,” it announced.
“As we have repeatedly stated, we actually loved WHS and would love to see it restored to its former glory rather than suffering death by a thousand cuts, understaffing and a head office who only care about shareholders and not about employees or customers,” @WHS_Carpet replied.
But Support our high streets wasn’t done there. It also took exception to @WHS_Carpet criticising another underperforming High Street stalwart, Boots. “Look at boots - closing stores and you post a significant amount of negativity towards them as well,” it declared.
“Yep. Our six critical Boots tweets > decade of underinvestment + unparalleled competition,” @WHS_Carpet responded.
Possibly hopped up on sugar after taking advantage of one of WHSmith’s famous chocolate bar deals, Support our high streets then attempted to unmask the person behind the account, claiming they worked in WHSmith’s Heathrow Airport branch. People on social media be crazy, right?
But we digress. Back to WHSmith…Whatever your take on the @WHS_Carpet account (harmless fun or mean and damaging?), the retailer has undoubtedly become something of a national joke. It was, for instance, recently voted the worst High Street store in a Which? survey of more than 7,700 shoppers.
It was criticised for poor value for money, poor in-store experience and service, and for its stores being "cramped and messy". Its customer score of 50% put it below Homebase on 53% and Sports Direct on 54%.
WHSmith, however, said the research was "neither statistically relevant nor meaningful relative to our loyal customer base. Every week we serve three million customers in our 600 UK High Street stores and have maintained our presence on the High Street where many other retailers are closing stores. We work hard to improve customer experiences and continue to invest in new and existing stores."
A text book example of how not to respond to shopper feedback, in our humble opinion.