I believe there is no end to the stories of lousy customer service. In fact, I have another one to tell, and it’s only one of many. This blog could be devoted to tales of customer no-service and never run out of material. We all wonder why in this economy would a company take a chance on losing what few customers are actually buying by not improving customer service, don’t we? It’s a mystery to be sure.
My experience was with the paper supplies company Xpedex. They’re pretty big, and the store here in Salt Lake City evidently doesn’t care how it does business. I went there the other day with a fair size order for envelopes after having been told on the phone that yes, sure, absolutely they had what I needed. Well, not exactly.
The store was fairly crowded, and since I had never been here before I wandered around looking for the envelopes I needed. It struck me after ten minutes there was not one sales person to help the customers. No one to be seen anywhere. Finally I saw someone! I quickly grabbed him and explained what I was looking for as promised by whoever I spoke to on the phone.
He had no idea what I was talking about. We walked over to the general area of the envelopes. As I continued to explain my needs, he was looking over the shelves as if he was seeing them for the first time. He would grab a box here and there and ask me if that was what I meant. Now, I was pretty clear on the sizes and colors and he could read the boxes as well as I could, yet he kept handing me the wrong ones.
This went on for a while. Finally he said what I had suspected, that he really didn’t know much about envelopes. So why didn’t he get someone else to help me right away? I have no idea. And now I had wasted more time than I had to give that afternoon, so through clenched teeth I muttered thanks and then left that store as fast as I could.
I wrote to Xpedex that evening about my experience. Have I heard back? I think you know the answer. Will I ever shop at Xpedex again? Are you kidding?
Recent reports say that the recession, while technically over, is still weighing heavily on the minds of consumers. They’re not spending very much right now and it’s expected that will continue. Every business in America, large and small, should be making sure the customer experience is fantastic in every way. This is no time to be complacent. But some businesses will never get that and they’ll be the first to complain about how it’s the economy, not them, that’s to blame. Natural selection will take care of that and we’ll never miss them.
By the way, I found my envelopes at Paper Plus. Great customer service and they helped me find exactly what I needed. Yes, I’ll be back.
|
