Customer Service Redux

By: Lee Distad

Last week, John Thomson, the Associate Publisher of Marketnews & here’s how! Magazines wrote a fantastic blog post entitled “Customer Service – Doesn’t Everyone Behave Like This?” about his refreshingly positive experience in an American retail store. In addition to thanking him for writing it, I wanted to expand on his thesis a little with my own opinions.

One of my old mentors in big box retail liked to say to us “retail is easy: you’re selling stuff to people!” In his mind, anything and everything from operations to merchandising needed to address that core principle, otherwise it was a hindrance to doing business rather than a help.

Yet amazingly, as retailers we often find ourselves shackled in chains of our own making. All of us, at some point in our careers have either created or blindly followed unfriendly policies without really thinking it through. Less than 5% of customers are “problem customers” who either steal, swindle or abuse return policies (“renters” as we used to call them), yet often retailers create policies intended to foil that 5% while inadvertently alienating the 95% of customers that we want to keep.

I’m certainly not advocating that when you have a genuine problem customer you should indulge them, but what’s important is that in a customer service situation you have a clear picture of who and what you’re dealing with, right now, and make a decision that’s in both yours and the customer’s best interest, at that time. A little creativity and goodwill will take you a long way in building lasting relationships with your clients.

Oftentimes, little details that we think are a good idea are in fact bad ones. A few years ago, on a trip to Victoria, we stopped in at a little boutique in the Inner Harbour whose name escapes me but it was a toy store with a year-round Christmas theme: mid-summer and there were Christmas decorations everywhere! Since my wife is absolutely bonkers about Christmas, of course we had to check it out!

Years in retail have left me really hard to impress when it comes to merchandising, but this store was beautiful; too beautiful in fact. All over the store mixed in with every single display were little 5x7 hand-written note cards with exquisite penmanship forbidding and admonishing against touching anything, and with a snotty tone to boot: “don’t touch the displays;” “please keep your children off of the rocking horses;” “absolutely do not touch or fold the tags on the Beanie Babies.” You get the picture. Never mind that I wasn’t inclined to do any of the above in the first place, the warnings everywhere made me feel like a four year old being scolded to be on my best behaviour.

I get that the proprietors take pains to make their store a work of art, but honestly, if you don’t want anyone to touch anything ever, open up a toy museum and put everything behind glass. The reality of the situation is that instead of the load of cash I anticipated having to spend following my wife around the store, we didn’t spend a dime. As they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and theirs wasn’t positive. Since the customers are the ones who make our paycheques, care needs to ensure that our relationship with them is not only profitable, but enjoyable.

Retail Nightmares

Have you ever had a bad retail experience? It's unfortunate, but I'll bet that most everyone has, albeit some worse than others. Just look back to any old copy of Marketnews magazine, when the Secret Shopper was a regular column, and you'll see that the occasional bad retail experience is nothing new.

I had my own retail nightmare this weekend while holiday shopping, and thought I'd share it with you.

I proceeded to the checkout at a retailer (who shall remain un-named) with a few items that I was ready to purchase. There were two young teenage guys working the counter, and although the experience was a tad odd, I didn't really think much of it...until I got home and noticed that one item was missing. Coincidentally, an item that a young, teenage boy might covet. In hindsight, I realized what I believe to have happened:

When I arrived at check-out, one guy asked the other if he could ring this purchase in. That sounded a bit odd: why would you ask your co-worker to let you ring in a transaction? Especially when they both looked like they really weren't keen on working . In fact, one said something in small talk to the effect that it was "one of those days". I smirked, and told him I knew what he meant.

After I had paid, I heard something drop to the floor behind the counter. He looked down, then looked in my bag and said "let me make sure everything's in here", then said "yep", and handed it over with the obligatory "have a nice day". When I analyze the less than two-minute experience, I realize that I should have been more suspicious and re-checked my bags. Needless to say, it was very upsetting to find out, once I arrived home, that one particular item was missing.

Normally, although frustrated, I would have understood that accidents happen, especially during the busy holiday season. But given the circumstances and my suspicisions, I was livid. This was very likely no accident. I called the store and spoke with the manager, reciting to him what I believe went down. He was very nice about it, and said if I returned to the store, they'd gladly give me a fresh, new copy of the item in question. There was one problem: the mall I went to was very much out of my way: I had made the trek because I needed to visit a specific store, and wasn't prepared to trek back there for an item that I already paid for. He said there was no way I could pick it up at another location. After some discussion, he finally agreed to courier the product to me. I commend the way my complaint was handled; but I won't be writing any letters of thanks until the courier package actually arrives.

Meanwhile, I told the manager that, aside from the retrieval of my item, I thought it was also important to notify him of my suspicisions. After all, I'd want it to be brought to my attention if I could have thieves on my team! Innocent until proven guilty, as they say; but you won't know for sure unless you do something about it.

The moral of the story: if you ever have a feeling that something just isn't right, like you've been over-charged, or might be missing an item, don't hesitate to investigate before leaving the store. It isn't necessary to hold up a line while going over your receipt with a fine-tooth comb; but at least step to the side and run a quick check. This way, you can pop back in line if you spot a discrepancy and have it dealt with immediately.

As for me, I'm awaiting my courier package, and have faith that the manager will not go back on his word. If he doesn't, I'll certainly be giving him a call to thank him; and to find out whether he was able to track down the missing item in question. If he does go back on his word, well, I might just find myself on this particular retailer's customer nightmare story list!