Wal-Mart has found that it gets a lot of calls on its toll-free phone customer service number related to orders placed on the company's website. That is something Wal-Mart wants to stop and the company now is directing consumers to its online "self-help" feature to assist shoppers in tracking orders and answering other questions that may have previously been handled over the phone by a person.
The new effort is part of what Wal-Mart calls its "Customer Contact Reduction" program. Amy Colella, a Wal-Mart spokesperson, told The New York Times last month that the decision to discontinue the phone service was taken because "a significant number of calls" the company received were "related to order tracking." Wal-Mart felt that it could handle those queries more efficiently through the use of its new online tools.
Others question whether the perception of Wal-Mart's move as being customer unfriendly might override the fact that its online tools are effective in addressing shoppers' questions.
Brad Cleveland, president of the International Customer Management Institute, told the Times, "One of the primary expectations is be accessible in whatever channel, whether it's Web-based services, or the phone, or through e-mail."
"Wal-Mart is trying to save money in a vacuum," said Mr. Cleveland. "It costs money to handle customer contact. The question is, 'What value is there in that longer term, in the ability to keep a strong focus on what your customers are saying?'"
Bruce Temkin, an analyst at Forrester Research, also questioned the wisdom of Wal-Mart's move.
"Our research shows if you ask consumers, even online consumers, what channels they prefer, there's an overwhelming bias for preferring to talk to a human being with any customer service issue," he told Computerworld. "To turn a blind eye to the enormous preference that consumers have, I think, is a big mistake."
Mr. Temkin said Wal-Mart stores are likely to be the ones getting calls about online orders now that the company is taking away the phone option for website orders.
"Those people will call whatever number they find, and they'll be frustrated because the answers aren't easy to find," Mr. Temkin said. "And there are the other people who don't even try to find answers online and they'll just want to call up and they'll be equally frustrated. So what's going to happen is that the other 800-number is going to be getting a lot of frustrated callers, and the reality is that with frustrated callers, average handle times go up. I wouldn't want to be a customer rep on that other 800 number."
Discussion Questions: Companies such as Netflix have recently added phone options to improve the perception of customer service levels. Is Wal-Mart's discontinuation of phone service for online orders going to negatively affect the view of its customer service or are most shoppers who buy from websites used to automated tools?