Okay, it’s not a proud moment when you say you’ve shopped at Walmart. Where I am, though, it’s a compromise I make when needing a few items without driving too far – it’s 5 minutes from here. This morning I was there doing a quick shopping visit and upon checkout, the keypad first asked me, “Was your cashier friendly?” Well, as a matter of fact she didn’t even say hello and didn’t acknowledge me whatsoever; I actually tried to catch her eye several times before answering…no luck. She was friendly with the customer ahead of me, but as I set my items on the conveyor belt and kept glancing her way, it was obvious I was not going to get to take part in her “jovial” disposition. (Okay, that was a swipe, I’m sorry.)

Here's Your Raspberry!

Oh, back to the keypad. I found it funny that this question is posed ahead of you actually paying. To me, it seems they are really after that first impression and second impression be doomed! If she actually engaged me in some chit chat and gave me the customary, “Did you find everything you needed?”, I might not have answered the way I did, which was, “No.” In fact, it worked out because she exhibited the same dismal service from start to finish. Exactly 10 words did she spare me. “Is that it?” “Here’s your receipt. Have a good day.” Right. Well at least she didn’t dampen my mood.

I wonder what the higher-ups at Walmart do with that data and if they come down on an employee if they have a bunch of “No” responses during the course of a day? My other question is why don’t they have these throughout the store? The deli counter person was even worse, but I had no keypad to ask me my opinion of her service. What if I was still fuming over her and misplaced my frustration with the cashier? (Not the case, but what if?)  If you’re going to talk about customer service and act like you are tracking it, track it everywhere and be diligent about how you follow through. Put customer service cards throughout your store and encourage customers to honestly give you feedback. When you have this information, it’s like gold; it tells you where you can improve and lets you inside your customer’s head. Once there, you will find out exactly how to make them want to come and shop again there.

I’m skipping Walmart next time and driving the extra few minutes to another store. I’ll hold onto their name, because I might have to blog about my experience there, good or bad.

This surprised me and hits me on a couple levels. As part of my membership with my local Chamber of Commerce, they offer us discounts they negotiate in a B2B flyer. One such offer was from a national office supply company. I sent an email to the one listed on the sheet and never (after waiting 2 weeks) received an email or call. I sent it again, same result. I decided maybe the email was incorrect, so notified the Chamber, who then called the company and passed on my information. Another two days passed and finally I get a call from one of their reps. He goes on to tell me I need to complete a credit application and once that’s out of the way, we’ll get on with the business of ordering. Mind you, I’ve been in business for many years and this is the first time I’ve been asked for this,but I play along. Another day passes, all looks great he says, but then an email comes, the contents basically boil down to, “Because you are a home-based, we cannot deliver to you.” What? Okay, I get supplies and packages from all over the country, but their warehouse in Denver can’t get to my home office? They could ship my orders with one of the overnight carriers, but wouldn’t deliver to me otherwise. I now don’t need to worry about ever doing business with them or or promoting them to any of my colleagues. To think it took a month to get this all figured out!

Do yourself a favor, don’t limit yourself on the way to serve a client, no matter their size or location. Make it a policy to serve them and think of the best and easiest way to do so. As was said in the movie Glen Gary, Glen Ross,”A guy doesn’t come on the lot lest he wants to buy .” Whether you have to deliver to their office or their home office shouldn’t matter in the least.

Ever call a place of business and get a totally disinterested party on the other line? I want to scream – they sound lethargic or basically like they could give a rat’s patuddy if you’re calling. Nothing could be worse than this as an initial call to a place you want to do business with. Some people will just hang up and move on, but some like me hope wrongly that things will get better.

Yesterday I made a call to a local company that I’m considering using for printing projects. Instead of being happy to help me, I am hurriedly placed on hold for a couple minutes by the rude attendant. I give them the benefit of the doubt, but really, shouldn’t I matter? Any way, after finally being picked up again by “Miss Happy”, I’m routed to what I hope will be a live, warm body, but instead, is a cold, boring voicemail box. That was yesterday morning, still no callback. Do you think I want to do business with such unresponsive people?
How can you prevent this scenario in your business? First, just please, get someone nice to answer the phone! ASK if I want to go to voicemail and if I do, make sure I am called back.

In this case, I have moved on. I cannot afford to deal with a business like this. Wait, maybe they need my help!

I often wonder if the postage rate hikes are a national secret? Today, the postal rate increased one cent, and while that’s not a lot of money, it’s a lot of hassle. I went on Google News and it’s not even a top story of the day, even though it will impact a lot of people. I was in the post office a couple days ago to drop some  special mail and decided to also purchase a book of stamps and asked to see the selection – it was only then that I knew the rates were going up on the 12th of May (that makes perfect sense, right?!) If I’d have not asked to purchase stamps, it was pretty likely I wouldn’t have been told about the hike and get this, the only notice in the place was on window you would see when leaving! Couldn’t they have let people know in a bigger way? Consider this poster who just today wrote, ” Friday I purchased three rolls of 41 cent stamps (thats 100 stamps each). We are a not-for-profit organization and send out newsletters each month. Sure would have been nice for the post office to advise me of the increase!!! Now I have to go buy 300 1 cent stamps.. Thanks alot!!” How pathetic.

Do yourself a favor, if you’re moving your prices up on something your customer uses all the time, do them the courtesy of letting them know so they’re prepared. Also, if you’re in a business that is being used less and less, make sure your rate hike makes sense in every way. I think it’s consumers that are becoming disgruntled at this point. Oh and note my carrier: would you please stop giving me mail from people that 2 blocks away that have the same house number, but live on a different-named street. I’m sure your sorting work is really tough, but after 4 years, one would think you’d catch on. Thanks….

One of the worst pharmacy experiences of my life happened just this week. My daughter is an avid and active hockey player, so it really came as a surprise when this week the doctor said she had pneumonia. I’m guessing all the playing, getting heated up, then chilled, over and over got to her lungs. Any way, off to the pharmacy we go. Before I left the doctor’s office, I asked them to phone in the prescriptions, as this pharmacy is notoriously slow. We arrived to pick these things up about 20 minutes later, to which the very misguided tech behind the counter replies, “These will be ready later this evening, can you come back?” What? I looked at him squarely in the eye and said, “She has PNEUMONIA.” He knew right away I was not leaving. He assured me they’d be ready in 15 minutes. There was no one even here, why should this take another 15 minutes, when 20 had already passed when the doctor’s office called them in?

Having been a pharmacy tech during college, I know the meds routine- verify if insurance covers and at what level, pull, check, label, dispense. Most of this is even computerized now, so the actual pulling of the meds off the shelf is the hardest part. None of her prescriptions required any counting of pills or mixing (all scripts here were blister packages and an inhaler, plus a bottle of syrup that you pour into a bottle that is clearly marked!) I would love to say it’s rocket science, but it’s not, but these folks surely want to make it seem so. Things must be watched carefully to be sure, but if you have a competent pharmacist overseeing everything, this process can be quick and accurate. Not so with this place.

We waited and waited and waited and more patrons piled into the store. We ended up being there one and one half hours while this drama unfolded. There was incompetence at every turn – I witnessed a strung out Oxycodone abuser who was trying to get a refill on a drug they dispensed just a day or so before, I watched elderly people go nearly ignored while waiting for refills they were told over the phone were ready for pick up, the “drive through” lane had people dinging for service repeatedly. It was a truly pathetic experience.

I gleaned this from the experience: if you ail, make reservations for your prescriptions, otherwise you might be waiting a long time to get them. How this large pharmacy chain stays in business with this atrocious level of service is a mystery to me.

One gripe I have that seems to repeat itself nearly every time I go grocery shopping; at checkout the clerk will often ask, “Did you find everything you needed?”, to which I usually reply “Almost everything.” I do this on purpose and only once has someone stopped and said “Oh, what didn’t you find?” On this particular day, I scoured the store for an item I know the competitor store carries, but they’re a couple miles further drive. My fault. Any way, I mentioned at the checkout that this item was nowhere to be found, yet “So and so carries it, why don’t you?” “I dunno.” Great, what an utterly unhelpful exchange. Right here, I have given this business an opportunity to earn me as a repeat, loyal customer, but they’re too lazy or disinterested to care. Don’t they have a mechanism in place to see if they can get what I want? The item is no big deal for them, they carry the brand, but just not this particular product.

Lesson: if the customer says what they want and you have the ability to give it to them, why don’t you just do it? Why risk losing your customer for no reason at all?

I will be shopping at the competitor from now on for the majority of my items, using these guys only for a back up for my quickie purchases. Bank on it.