Staples
“the office Superstore” emailed me a rebate last week as part of their
rewards program. The email suggested that I could use it online for my
next purchase. And therein lies a story. Badly needing some mailing
labels I proceeded to make a purchase at staples.com. I opted for the
“no charge for shipping offer” if I picked up my purchase at the local
Staples store since the alternative was for Staples to ship the labels
to me for an additional $17.00 charge. The shipping charges would be
more than the cost of the labels. The purchase confirmation clearly
indicated that the labels would be ready for pick up at the store the
next day. No other instructions about timing or pick up procedures were
included in the confirmation. Perfect.
On
the way to work the next day I stopped by Staples to pick up my labels.
First you need to flag down a manager to pick up your staples.com
purchase. After a short time waiting at the customer service/instant
printing counter along comes a very nice young man assistant manager.
After asking my name he then started typing on the computer. He then
went back to the locked store room and came back empty handed. “Did you
get an email?” he asked. “Yes” I replied and showed him my copy.
“Well we haven’t got our delivery yet. You will have to come back when
it comes in.” “Don’t you carry these labels in stock, right here in
the store?” I asked lightbulb clearly going on. More typing on the
computer. “Yes we do” he answered. “Well can’t I just take one of them
off the shelf?” “I don’t know” he answered. “Let me check.” He then
put in a call to what I later found out was the general manager. Five
minutes later the general manager called back. “No can do” he said.
“You have to come back when the delivery comes in.”
So
here is the situation. I am in the store. They have the product I
ordered and paid for. There is no information on my confirmation that
there is a special time when I could pick it up. I really didn’t want
to come back to the store to pick up something that they already had in
stock. I also learned a long time ago that you should never take the
first no for an answer. Especially considering the sign at the entrance
of the store, signed by the general manager, pledging that my customer
satisfaction was his number one priority.
“Can
I speak to the general manager please?” Thinking that maybe he could
solve the problem . “Well he is talking to another manager.” “Perhaps
you can pull him away for a minute.”
Five
minutes later general manager arrived. I explained the situation.
More typing on the computer. Another visit to the locked store room.
And then the general manager said something to me that you should never
tell a customer.
“You
have to come back even if we have it in stock right now. I am not
going to take one off the shelf for you. That’s our policy.”
Back
in March 2012 I posted a link from our blog to the Inc.com site of an
article written by Ron Barley titled The 5 Worst Things You Can Say to a
Customer.
From that article:
'That’s our policy.'
I’d
wager that even as you read those words, you flashed-back to a past
personal experience in which someone spoke them as if they were a magic
wand that would miraculously make you go away. But, of course, you
didn’t go away. You just became more frustrated, and more convinced that
particular company had little interest in your eventual satisfaction.
In
seminars, I call it “TOP,” and it is a phrase that is less than
useless. It is destructive. TOP is the customer service equivalent to
“That’s tough” or “You’re out of luck.” It’s primary purpose is to shut
down a conversation. TOP only accelerates the transformation of current
customers into a former customers, and was undoubtedly crafted by
someone completely oblivious to the value of customer retention. Even
worse, for some customers it’s a declaration of war. Every
dispute-gone-viral tracked by my firm has involved some version of that
terrible text.
Whenever
someone tries TOP on me, I respond with a carefully crafted policy
statement of my own, “Your internal policy decisions have nothing to do
with my expectations of customer satisfaction.” And that’s the point,
customers should not accept contract verbiage as an excuse for a
less-than-promised product or service. “That’s our policy” might save a
current sale, though all future business will likely be lost.
I
did have to come back later that day to pick up my mailing labels.
Even more interesting is that Staples shipped my mailing labels from
their warehouse, already in stock in their store via UPS, in a large box
securely stored in their locked storeroom that only managers have
access to, which means that a customer has to wait to pick up their
purchases, because their managers might be busy talking to other
managers about important Staples stuff.
Ron Sargent CEO of Staples writes on their website “we've
known for years that a focus on results includes a focus on Staples
Soul. Soul is our desire to be a leader in environmental sustainability,
business ethics, diversity and community engagement.”
“Environment.
We generate business and environmental benefits — for ourselves, our
customers and our communities — by leading the way in sustainable
business practices. We focus on offering more sustainable products and
services, providing easy customer recycling solutions, and operating our
business in an environmentally efficient way.”
What is the definition of insanity?
This
situation would never have happened in your small business. It was a
vivid reminder to me that small businesses who figure out how to stand
out in world against so many larger, wealthier rivals almost always find
the answer is superior customer service. We don’t just give lipservice
to customer service. We are nimble. We run circles around the big
guys. We don’t pretend to have good customer service. We live it. We
fix very fixable customer service issues on a daily basis making our
customers feel good about doing business with us while Staples loses
future business by setting bizarre policies and pay lip service to
environmental causes..
I recently ran across an interesting report of what I call an IRS audit failure. The
TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) recently
found that IRS audits have led to a substantial number of recommended
adjustments to items reported on S corporation returns. The number one
adjustment is a failure for the stockholder employee to take a
reasonable salary. However, the number of audits closed with no
recommended adjustments (no-change) is very high for returns selected by
the Discriminant Index Function system. In other words the IRS is
auditing returns that don’t need to be audited. 62 percent of S
corporation returns audited based on the Discrimination Index Function
system last year were closed as no change and compliant taxpayers are
being burdened by unnecessary audits.
Don Fuener will be out of the office August 21 and August 23 to August 30, 2012.
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