Self-Check-Out

Part 4

We try to consolidate and only do grocery shopping twice a month to save money by not purchasing more than we need.  We go to the super center where we can expediently obtain everything we need in one convenient stop.  This is a story about our last adventure of shopping.  We had a long list of items so we used the rest rooms before we got started.  Both the men and the women’s rest rooms needed serious attention.  This was early in the day on a Saturday morning. 

It took us over an hour to locate everything we needed.  A lot of this had to do with the fact that a lot of the shelves were not stocked (confectioner’s sugar, razor blades, mozzarella cheese, to list a few) and we had to ask or wait for someone to bring them out from the warehouse.  I consider this a bit unusual for mid-morning on a Saturday. 

As we made our way to the check out lines, we saw that there were five out of twenty registers opened.  We proceeded to one of the self-check-out registers.  I prefer to bag my own groceries, so it worked out well.  We spent another forty-five minutes or so, scanning, waiting for the attendant to push buttons when the computer voice instructed us to “please place item in the bagging area,” and bagging and loading the groceries back into the cart. 

We had four items left which were price match items.  This meant the attendant was needed.  We pushed the call button and a few minutes later a young woman came to assist us.  The first two items were carrots and cucumbers and she did the price override and put them in the bag.  The next item was sweet potatoes.  When she put them on the scale something malfunctioned.  She pounded the buttons and then put her hands on the scale and rested with her head down, for several minutes. 

We weren’t sure if she was having a nervous breakdown or just crying.  Finally I asked her what the problem was.  She began to push buttons again and said something inaudible and again with her head down, and hands resting on the scale, not talking, not doing anything for several minutes.  She did this one more time before a patron in need of assistance with her self-check-out came over and asked for her help.  As the cashier went to assist the other patron, she screamed, “Bobby!” right in front of us to help.

Ten minutes passed and finally “Bobby" A.K.A. Jerry Garcia, the store manager showed up.  Okay, it really wasn’t Jerry, but he had a long, gray braid and I could have sworn he was wearing a tie-dye tee shirt.  He started pounding on the buttons and plugged some gadget into the scanner.  After pressing buttons for a couple of minutes, he told the cashier she would have to re-scan everything.  He never spoke to us once.  We had been in the store for two hours and fifteen minutes at this point.  She called us over to a little quick check out and says, “Pass me the stuff and I’ll scan it.”

Excuse me, but you’ve got to be joking?  Pass you the stuff?  Are you serious?

Apparently they couldn’t override the computer to get the items we had already scanned into the system to go over to her register.  It was as if we were starting over with our check out as they all needed to be rescanned in order for us to check out.  Instead of going to a regular register and putting the groceries on a belt and scanning them in a neat and orderly fashion, we stood at this little quick check out passing one item at a time out of the bags to the cashier to scan and repacking into the bags.  We had 107 items. 

While she was scanning the items there was a young man standing their conversing with her and making comments about the items we were purchasing the whole time.  At the end, there was no apology for the inconvenience.   It was quite the adventure.

© Crackerberries 2013

Customer Service

What qualifies as good customer service?  Have we become so slack that we tend to settle for mediocrity because that is the world we live in now?

Life is a leaf of paper white

Whereon each one of us may write

His word or two, and then comes night.

Great begin! though thou have time

But for a line, be that sublime—

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

~ James Russell Lowell     

I am not settling for less than best anymore, and to prove my point I just refused a shipment from JCPenney that included merchandise I really wanted.  Another shipment was scheduled today, and refused that one also.

Do you know it takes ten good comments to offset one bad comment made from a customer?  Too many people that experience bad customer service brush it off and don’t say anything about it.  They settle for whatever service they get, and accept it as “that’s the way things are now, and we can’t do anything about it”.  Yes, we can.  Don’t settle for it.  Do something about it.  It’s the way things are because you let them become that way.

Customer Service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.  A series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction.  Depending on the service provided, a customer service experience can greatly change the customer’s perception (in a good way or a bad way) of the organization.

Before purchasing my items, JCPenney promised me free shipping on my order, if I included a promo code.  Great!  Free shipping is always nice.  This is an excellent promotion to enhance my level of customer satisfaction.  I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t expect it, so it was an added pleasure to my experience.

After I placed my order, I received a confirmation email stating that all of my items I ordered were in stock, and they would be delivered at my home in 4-7 business days.  Great!  Free shipping and my items would arrive no later than a week out, another endorsement that I did not ask for or expect to boost my experience.

Five days later I received an email that included shipping information and a tracking number.  I tracked packages.  My merchandise was schedule to arrive no later than end of business day July 30^th and July 31^st respectively.  I was confused because the confirmation email indicated 4-7 business days not 9-10 business days.

My first email, the day after my shipment should have arrived, I pointed out the tracking information that I researched, and I expressed my dissatisfaction in the delivery time.  I also indicated that I would be refusing the order, and I expected reimbursement on my credit card immediately.

The response came more than eight hours later from Kendra, a customer care team member.  She informed me that my order was placed on July 21^st which was a non-business day  (do keep in mind that if you go into a JCPenney retail store on a Saturday, it is business as usual, just don’t make the mistake thinking it’s the same on-line).  She gave me tracking numbers, and told me the delivery dates — information which I indicated I had.

My second email in response to Kendra included a copy of the original confirmation as well as my dissatisfaction of service being amplified because she had not addressed the delivery issue and she had my order date incorrect.

The response, again, was more than eight hours later, this time from Ellen, another customer care team member.  Ellen was very kind in apologizing for the incorrect information being submitted.  However, Ellen addressed me as Mr. Johnson, and at the end of offering me a 15% discount off my order for my inconvenience, there was part of an email that had been copied and pasted from someone named Savannah.  Imagine my annoyance!

My third email in response to Ellen expressed my gratitude for getting back to me.  I asked what good she thought it was trying to make amends with someone who had previously experienced an error, and they didn’t have the correct name of the customer.  I conveyed that 15% was hardly worth the time I had put in researching the incident, and emailing back and forth, but I would consider 50%.  I also expressed that anything less I would refuse the order, and share my experience with everyone I knew.

This time the response came in less than two hours.  Debbie, another customer care team member, used my correct name, apologized for the delay, the error in the name and indicated that she understood my frustration.  Unfortunately a 25% discount was all she could offer.

My final email was to say thanks, but no thanks and to inform them that I will not ever do business with JCP again.  How much is a customer worth?  What does a bad customer experience do for your business? 

Some people might think I’m being unreasonable, and I should have accepted the 25% discount.  JC Penney promoted the free shipping.  JCPenney endorsed the in-home delivery of 4-7 business days.  They should not promote activities they cannot adhere to.  I did not ask for these services, and from my experience, they set the customer up to be disappointed.

I know that it is not the fault of the customer care team members who make $8.50 an hour to read a Customer Service Manual to find out how to respond to customers.  I don’t blame them.  

However, my experience would have been better if 1) JCP didn’t promise something they couldn’t control (why they ship from Starks, NV by way of San Pablo, CA to Lexington, SC is beyond me, 2) one customer care team member should have handled the issue from beginning to end, and, finally 3) a customer care team member manager should have followed up in the end to make one final attempt at making amends.

© Crackerberries 2012