I saw a very interesting customer service interaction in a major chain store the other day that I have to share. The woman ahead of me bought many items. The clerk handed her back a small shopping bag with all the items unappealingly squeezed in—almost bursting the bag. When the woman asked for a larger bag, the clerk refused saying, Sorry I can only give you a bag that fits your items with no space or I could lose my job. The woman became annoyed (as I would have) and said, 'If I give you $5 dollars can I have a bigger bag?' At that point everyone in line joined the conversation and a larger bag was finally supplied.
When it was my turn, I asked the clerk why she could lose her job. She said the store was having theft problems and the way she was instructed to deal with it was to make sure that bags had no room to stuff extra mechandise.
Hmm, well that's one way to handle it—punish the customers who buy a lot. Make sure to think through your solutions to service problems, lest they have the opposite effect.
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Mack, Great idea and thanks for your great blog! They should use this problem as an opportunity to do more for the good customer, not restrict their privileges. If they saw the look on their customer's face when they told her she couldn't get a full size shopping bag to accommodate all the items she bought, they would have gotten the irony right away.
Posted by: Stephanie Diamond | February 17, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Instead of passing the problem along to the customer, why not add a benefit that also solves the problem? What if the store started having someone follow the customer to their car and offer to put their items in their car for them? Customers that weren't stealing anything would see this as an added benefit, while those that were thinking about stealing would probably think twice if they knew they would be escorted to their cars.
Posted by: Mack Collier | February 17, 2008 at 01:59 PM
Richard, Thanks for the comment, you have a very interesting blog. I agree that the word of mouth on this won't be good. If they watched this practice in action, they would have immediately seen how detrimental it was for their biggest customers.
Posted by: Stephanie Diamond | February 12, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Richard, Thanks for the comment, you have a very interesting blog. I agree that the word of mouth on this won't be good. If they watched this practice in action, they would have immediately seen how detrimental it was for their biggest customers.
Posted by: Stephanie Diamond | February 12, 2008 at 01:01 PM
This could actually have a snowball effect on other customers going to this store. The woman could tell her friends of her negative experience and her friends would tell their friends.
Can you imagine the magnitude of negative comments towards this store?
Thanks,
Richard Rinyai
www.theprofessionalassistant.net
Posted by: Richard Rinyai | February 12, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Great article.
Your readers might want to try www.Measuredup.com a leading customer service review website where people share reviews with other users and with companies. Companies that are involved with and value customer service read Measuredup to keep up on what people are saying and to be able to improve customer service.
It is free and easy to use.
Posted by: Marc | February 12, 2008 at 10:15 AM