Do you stand behind your employees?A friend shared the following email that she sent to the individual responsible for Customer Service at Danier Leather in Toronto.
I am taking a few moments to email you about the poor customer service I received today at approximately 12.30 pm in your Eaton Centre store.
I had gone in on my lunch hour to purchase a pair of gloves. Once I found the pair that I wanted to purchase I stood in line for a cashier. I was pleased to find out that if I surrendered my email today I would be able to take advantage of the 20% discount being offered.
For a while there was only one cashier, so the line was long and slow. Then a second person started serving, however I had already stood in line for approximately 10 minutes.
That is perhaps not a long time on a usual occasion, however due to illness in my office, we were short staffed so I was anxious to get back to the office.
I approached a sales associate and asked if I might be able to get her to hold the gloves and I would be back in just after 5 pm. She took the gloves from me and asked my name to which I gave her the information, and then the store manager came over and told the staff member (disregarding me standing there) that she could not hold the gloves. No apology was offered by either person.
I don’t know why, if this was the policy, that this staff member had not been informed. My contention is that she had already accepted my request, and that in good faith and good customer service, in this instance, the store manager should have obliged.
So you not only lost a sale today, but also my email address on your mailing list.
I am not looking for any special treatment, but I wanted you to be aware that your company has left a bad impression on a long time customer.
My Perspective: Clearly this store manager is neither customer-focused or a very strong leader. The lessons learned by this employee — who seemed to have been prepared to put the customer first — is that all future decisions should be made in the absence of any regard for customer satisfaction.
Secondly, they learned that in future, anything that is not standard operating procedure require approval from the store manager.
Both of these attitudes are a death knell for a customer service business. Regardless of your employee decision, if it’s good for the customer and doesn’t harm the company, stand behind their decision. Then if they need coaching, take them aside and provide that direction at a separate time.
Not only did they lose a customer that day — but the lessons learned by the sales associate will surely cost many more lost sales in the days to come.
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Dear Bill,
First and foremost I would like to apologize for the experience you had in our Eaton Centre location. This is certainly not the way we strive to do business.
At Danier we monitor the internet for customer service issues and always address proactively; I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. It is important to hear from our customers for our growth and improvement.
In regards to your concerns, it is true that we do have a no hold policy; however, the manager should have waived the policy as you had already been informed by the associate that we could hold the item for you. I would like to apologize personally on the behalf of Danier for how you were treated in the store. I will be sure, to follow-up with the District Manager for the Eaton Centre location.
If you are interested, I would be more than happy to assist you in locating the pair of gloves, as well as honour the discount that was instore. Could you kindly advise the style of the gloves and the size you require? Upon receiving this information I will look into availability and make arrangements with you to have it shipped to the location of your choice OR sent directly to your home or work; whichever option is most convenient.
We look forward to serving you for all your leather/suede garment and accessory needs going forward. Please let me know, if you wish for me to locate this item for you, I can be reached via email at clafleur@danier.com or phone 1-866-9danier ext. 427.
Thanks for your comment. It’s great to see that Danier is monitoring social media for customer commentary. As you noted via your direct email to me, this situation was experienced by a friend earlier in the season and at your request I have forwarded your contact information along to them. Given your initiative, I am confident that you will successfully recover from this situation. Best wishes
Hi Bill,
Thank you for your response and for forwarding my contact information along to your friend; it is greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Christine
Christine – I agree with Bill that it’s wonderful seeing your company monitor the social web for situations like this. Kudos to you and your team for getting back in the game and taking care of a customer.
Well done!