October 11, 2006
Retail’s Believe It or Not: Part 1
Commentary by George Anderson
You know what they say about real life being stranger than fiction. Traveling around to retail stores over the last several months has provided me with a number of those “you’ve got to be kidding me” moments.
Employee Relations
There was that time I was on the checkout line at a Trader Joe’s and the person ahead of me was buying some items before heading off to work at one of the big box retailers. Being nosey by occupation, I listened to the conversation that took place.
The big box associate wanted to know what it was like to work at Trader Joe’s?
After the TJ’s crew-member told her what the starting wage was (evidently higher than the big box associate was being paid after more than a year on the job), the no contribution retirement plan, health benefits, product discount, etc., you could see the blood drain from her face.
She then went on about how awful it was to work at the big box (I believe she used the term degrading) and how badly she wanted out. She paid her bill and walked right over to the Captain’s Desk to apply for a job.
Cultural Sensitivity
On another occasion, I stopped in at a national consumer electronics store in a strip mall to pick up a few odds and ends for cell phones carried by various members of Clan Anderson.
The visit was uneventful at first, with a smiling store employee quickly finding what I needed and bringing the items to the checkout counter.
When it came time to pay, the electronic touch-screen gave me the option of conducting the transaction in Spanish or English.
As I proceeded to navigate my way through the transaction without saying a word, the employee felt the need to inform me in very strong (even vulgar) terms what a disgrace it was that there was an option for Spanish at all.
“Why don’t they learn to speak (expletive) English in the first place? There should be a (expletive) law. You don’t speak English, you can’t live here. Period.”
As someone with a strong Libertarian streak, I’m inclined to support people who speak their minds even when I don’t agree with them. In this particular instance, however, whether I agreed with the employee or not wasn’t the least bit relevant. This worker didn’t know me from Adam or the Ants. What if I was offended by the comment? What would make someone working in an area with large Latino populations nearby say something like that to a complete stranger?
There was something positive that came out of the buying trip. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him what I do for living and the likelihood that our encounter
would get broad exposure through RetailWire. As the ad campaign goes, the moment was “priceless.”
Discussion Question: Do you have retail moments (negative or positive) that left you shaking your head?
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Several times, dealing with several different pharmacies, I’ve been surprised by the inconsistency of etiquette. Some pharmacies refuse to call the doctor to request a renewal or to ask for special prescription forms to be completed. Some pharmacies promptly offer to call the doctor before I ask for assistance. The best customer service anticipates your needs. The worst customer service won’t respond even when asked directly.
Another, unrelated customer service finding: some retailers won’t allow their staff to disclose the name or office address of the CEO. Some proudly give out that information when asked. Sometimes I write letters (complimentary as well as otherwise) to CEO’s about my experiences with their companies. It’s amazing that some people are forbidden to give out publicly available information, yet others in the same business are proud to do it.
Even more ironic: I sent a letter to the head of my Citibank division about the best customer service experience I’ve ever had, beyond anything I’ve experienced at a retail store, bank, or any other business. A local branch employee (not the manager, not an officer) stopped a $20,000 forged check theft from my account and remained after hours, on her own time, to talk to the police. The division head never received the letter because she was fired the same day. I got a thanks from someone in India, though.
Two experiences stand out in my mind. Having the good fortune to live in the Northwest Arkansas market in Wal-Mart’s backyard, we are entitled to be early adapters to test store formats. The newest incarnation of Sam’s Club is a welcome site to any small business owner. The look and feel (including an updated logo) reminded me of an upscale Costco on the West coast…not to mention the produce, meat, and bakery improvements. I was blown away that in the center of the bakery was a glass “box” where cake decorators worked on their creations right in front of the shopping traffic. I was inspired to send a friend who is getting married over to the department to at least give Sam’s Club a fair shake for the single most important cake she will ever buy (and this person would never in a million years buy her wedding cake at a big box retailer).
Second, I stopped at a Best Buy in Lansing, Michigan last week to buy a cable that would connect my iPod’s headphone jack to the rental car’s audio port so that I could listen to my music through the vehicle’s sound system. I went back to the iPod accessories and saw that the cable I was looking for was out of stock and had a retail price of $8.95. I then went to an associate to see if any back stock was possibly in the rear warehouse. The associate clicked away and said there was not any on hand, but that I could drive twenty-six miles to a store that did have one. I explained that this was a very basic cable and that any neighborhood Radio Shack would probably have it. I also asked if I could use any other cable versus the one that was not on the shelf. He replied with a flat “No way…iPod’s are special and require their own accessories.” Thus, on a whim I swung back through the audio accessories (non-iPod) and found the exact cable sans-iPod accessory packaging fully instock with a retail price of $3.95. Do the math…and ponder the power of the iPod brand!
Toys R Us lost an opportunity to win a new customer. I don’t usually shop there, but was given a gift in the wrong color with no receipt. I went to return the item for a different color but was not allowed to conduct that simple transaction without a receipt. The box had a bar code that was clearly from Toys R Us.
We called customer service while we were in the store and were only further alienated. My husband finally walked back in the store, past the service counter, exchanged the toy and walked out. Their new receipt policy isn’t doing anything to help their turn around efforts. Where is the technology to help retailers protect their business without treating good customers like criminals?
I was once turned away from a Citibank branch ATM on 32nd Street in NYC, which I had been using for 3 weeks, because of a private “Grand Opening” celebration.
Although not an example of an employee issue, my favorite customer service problem is shelving issues.
This may sound a little strange, but I hate it when retailers have their shelf position too low above certain products, making it virtually impossible to get the product off the shelf. I’m sure this seems to be a good solution to the availability issue, but on occasion, I have had to get a store employee to help, or even left the store unable to actually get the product I want to buy off the shelf!
Why?!
As a retail store manager — in the business for over 6 years — to me, it is important to represent the “other side” of these situations…the nightmare customer. I can think of two situations where two of my associates were shaken by the treatment they received from customers.
After one employee was working with a customer, pinning her pants for alterations, locating items in other stores, the customer asked her when she was expecting her baby. The associate was not pregnant and highly offended. She handled the situation very professionally and did not show how hurt she was. But where are we as a society that some people believe they can ask the most personal of questions?
Another situation that comes to mind was a return for an item from 2 years ago, without a receipt. In retail, especially apparel, the depreciation rate is incredibly fast so this item was not worth much. Our policy is to return the item for the current price with a store credit. This customer was incredulous that an item could be now less than half of what she paid. She then went on to yell at the associate “you’re STEALING from me!” She continued to disrupt business for another 20 minutes before finally accepting the store credit. I find it highly degrading to scream at someone who simply wants to do a good job.
Alas, it’s the nature of the service industry….
It is not surprising that we have these twilight zone moments especially when you read the views of the associates as can be found on sites like http://retailsucks.com/ (please don’t edit this out Mr/Ms Moderator). The point that matters here is that customers and associates now have the web as a soapbox – it won’t be long before GPS enabled phones will enable Location-based complaints (and reviews.) This issue becomes even more complicated when some of the complaints are planted by the competition. The idea of catching an issue within the news cycle is common place these days due to what is called the CNN effect – perhaps retailers need to have an equivalent skill (and policies) to deal with the Web effect (the email sent to the friends of the dissed shopper.) Oh did I tell you about why I will never shop XXXX again….
Unfortunately, there are usually more stories about poor retail service, rude associates and UNfriendly customer policies than positive stories. As an old-timer in this business, it seems that we’ve been fighting these problems forever. As I see it, many retailers place a great deal of emphasis on getting customers into their stores with aggressive marketing and far too little emphasis on the experience customers have in the store with their associates and their policies. Hopefully, one of these days we will hear more positive stories than negative ones.
One personal favorite involves a certain chain pharmacy that has stores on every corner in these parts. Several years ago, I changed my medical insurance carrier. I phoned in a prescription renewal for an inexpensive generic medication that I take daily. The copay was $15.00 for the 30 day supply specified by the plan and the pills were already packaged and tagged when I walked up to the counter.
On a whim, I asked the pharmacist to look up the cash price of the drug. Turns out, a 90-day supply of the same medication cost $21 at the pharmacy. The pharmacist acted surprised, but cordially checked the physician’s prescription and saw that it indeed authorized a 90-day supply of this maintainance medication. I had to wait a few minutes, but the larger prescription was filled at the better cash price.
Encouraged by this, I checked into mail-order pricing from the same chain, and learned that I could order a 6-month supply for less than $30, an even lower unit price. For the next renewal, I asked my doc to change the prescription accordingly.
Net savings by shopping smart and bypassing my insurer’s prescription drug plan: 2 x $30 = $60 per year versus 12 x $15 = $180 per year. I cut my costs by two-thirds. Not to mention all the paperwork savings at the pharmacy.
All of which begs the questions: Why does the plan charge so much more than the cash price? Why does it require monthly refills (and charges) for maintainance meds? Why wouldn’t the Wa… oops, that chain pharmacist… automatically suggest the money saving alternatives to his/her customer? The answer appears to be that the prescription drug plans and pharmacies are systematically overcharging consumers on inexpensive meds – perhaps to subsidize the costs of supplying more expensive ones?
The moral of the story is, before you hand over your prescription plan card, demand to know the cash prices of the drug you are purchasing. The pharmacist is not likely to volunteer this information. But the answer will sometimes surprise you.
Having represented retailers in legal matters for over 20 years, my surprises tend to come from situations where I must help the retailer out of challenging situations. Still, one of my more interesting moments was helping work through a customer complaint situation. It seems the customer was unhappy with how the store associate was handling a particular situation. The customer asked to see the store manager. The store associate apparently felt the customer’s complaint had more to do with her working circumstances, etc., than with her conduct. So, she told the customer that the Store Manager wasn’t available as he was “having sex with another store associate in the back room.” The kicker was that actually was the situation.
I really enjoy a small hardware retailer in Michigan because every time I go into the store they offer advice and service. When I am checking out they ask if everything was to my satisfaction.
I will pay the extra money to get what I need and to complete a job. The alternative is to buy the wrong product or use it incorrectly. I don’t know much about home repair. The last few times I visited a big box home repair store I just couldn’t find any help.
My 1st thought is the “special occasions/party section I visited at H-E-B recently. This “store within a store” will customize and design the perfect party plan, and then fill all your needs from the cake to the decorations, color scheme, etc. For a minute, I forgot I was in a Supermarket and the “party planner” was better than many party stores I have used.
I’m also very impressed with the new United Supermarkets format in Colleyville TX. and especially with the “upstairs” housewares department. You feel like you’re in a specialty housewares and home decor retail outlet, and the people working that area really know how to assist with home decorating. I guess ceramic roosters are a big kitchen decor “must have” because they had sold out of the $1000 bigger roosters…In a supermarket?
Finally, Home Depot continues to amaze me with the “you can do it, we can help” tag line. I was in self check out, since they only had one line open with a real live cashier, and when I had a problem with (3) items price scanning differently than the shelf sale price, I asked for assistance and got the reply, I’m sorry but this isn’t my area to work! How about changing the tag line to “you can do it, good luck”?
One of the fundamental rules of any retail organization should be: “Make it easy for the customer to hand over her money when she’s ready to pay.” Most retailers, especially big boxes, have put a lot of design and study into the process of speeding checkout, although we all have horror stories about lack of sales associates in department stores without centralized checkout.
But the biggest, most consistent offenders in my experience are restaurants. Maybe I’m abnormally impatient, but waiter-service restaurants (including high-end ones) have a lot to learn about “closing the deal.” To get somebody’s attention in order to get the check and process the payment should not require having to wave one’s arms madly, stand up to leave, and so on. Better training and execution would help save a lot of repeat business.
I have only one moment to share — when I watched the clerk in a local supermarket changing the sell by dates on products in the meat department.
When I asked her what she thought she was doing, she replied indignantly “I’m allowed to do this!”
I was standing at the counter of an incredibly clean branded collision repair facility. I waited patiently for the person in the glass walled office with mahogany furniture finished to get off the phone. After about 5 minutes, he leans over, cups the phone and hollers “I’ll be right with ya.”
Not impressed…but the place was so darn clean!
Eventually he gets off the phone and grills me on the nature of the collision. After berating me for having made a claim with my insurance company he proceeds to explain how the process works – in a very condescending manner. Even though the insurance company had to be contacted (by law), he suggested that I should not have done this!
Now the car was a beater not worth more than the gas it took to get to the facility. However, I have several vehicles that possibly could utilize his services in future. At this point he hadn’t seen the vehicle and had no idea what “lifetime customer value” I represented.
After seeing the vehicle, he states “rough estimate about $1500 but I’ll call you in two-three days after I send everything to the insurance company.” He confirms my number and I’m on my way. Well, 14 days later I still don’t get a call from him. Eventually I called the insurance company who confirmed that they had received the estimate about a week prior.
To this date….no call from the shop even though they know that I know that the estimate has been submitted.
I wonder if he thinks I will ever show up with the beater – or any other car for that matter!
On a side note….doesn’t it bug you that some companies state “we will not be undersold”? What does that really mean? Is there a possibility of being OVERsold? Who determines the degree of underselling?