A terrible/awesome customer service experience.

Yah, I know. That doesn't make any sense. Bear with me.

First, a little history. For those of you who don't know, I've been doing mystery shopping for 4 1/2 years now. I mostly do restaurant and movie theater stuff, but I write detailed reports about the customer service wherever I'm "shopping", and because of this little hobby, I have become pretty sensitive to BAD customer service. I don't tolerate it. Ever. 

 

So, I will now share with you the email I sent to corporate so I don't have to rewrite the whole thing. Here goes:

 

 "To Whom It May Concern,

I went to the Kohls store on 4200 Towne Center Drive in Louisville, KY yesterday my two children. I had a very negative experience with the cashier that I wanted to share in case it would help with improving customer service.

I was at the register and had a 'pick a day' coupon that I had already redeemed, but that was still in the date range on the card, and asked if I could still use it. The attendant told me that the policy was that I could only use it on one day, which I knew, but I had thought it was worth a shot. I then handed her an item that I had decided I would only buy if I could use my coupon, and told her that I would not be purchasing that item today, but would come back when I had another coupon, but to go ahead with my other items. She then offered to let me use another promotion that she could give me so that I could still buy the item that I had decided to set aside for another day. This was very nice of her, and I wanted to make sure to mention that, so that it wasn't just a one-sided hate-mail on this person.

The transaction continues, and I can't find the baby socks that I had come in specifically to buy, so as I was trying to tell her that I would need to go find more socks, she started yelling at someone on the other end of her ear piece. I didn't know this at first, and was very surprised that she would yell at me. I realized that she wasn't talking to me, and began to say again that I would need to go find the socks that I had come in for. Again, she started yelling something about breaks and time off into her ear piece (this makes me assume that she was some kind of shift manager) This time, I was really getting annoyed. Then she did it a third time. At this point, I just began to walk away in the direction of the kids section to find more socks, and she yelled after me asking where I was going. I turned around and told her that I had been trying to tell her that I needed to go get more socks. There was no one in line after me, and it wasn't a matter of holding up the line. She very rudely told me that I'd need to suspend my transaction and come get the suspend receipt, and when I went to get it, I just decided it wasn't worth it. I didn't need to buy those items from that store that day. I put the receipt on the counter and walked out of the store. She yelled after me, but I just kept walking.

There are a lot of places to shop these days, and I can honestly say that because of this experience, I will not be going back to the Kohls on Town Center Drive.

Thanks for listening,

Laura Brown"

 

So, I sent this email to the Kohls feedback email I had found on their website, and within 4 hours, I had a reply from them:

"Dear Ms. Brown:

Thank you for contacting us regarding your recent shopping experience at Kohl's Springhurst location. Your email has been forwarded to the Executive Management Team. I have requested that a member of the management team contact you in the next five business days.

I am very sorry to read about your disappointing shopping experience at Kohl's. At Kohl's, we want our customers to 'Expect Great Things' and it appears that we have fallen short during your visit. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. My hope is that one day you will allow us another opportunity to provide you with the excellence in customer service that you deserve.

We appreciate the time you took to contact us and look forward to serving you again. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
(her name)"

I was totally impressed by how fast they got back, and how it sounded like the email was hand written (not just an auto response) by an actual person. 

At 8:30 the next morning, I was contacted by the store manager. He went through my email and told me all the things that he saw that she did wrong. He especially pointed out that even though she did give tell me I could use a coupon, she should have just taken my coupon right away because it was their policy to do so, and not given me hassle about it, and that she was terribly rude about the ear piece conversation. He asked me to not give up on his store, and that if I would come back, he would let me get all the items I had intended to buy and he would ring them up for free himself. 

Not only did this store manager make up for what happened, but he made up for it within 24 hours of me HAVING the bad experience. I walked out of that store empty handed at 7pm yesterday, and I checked out all the items I had intended to buy FOR FREE today at 1:30pm.


So, here's to companies that care enough to MAKE IT RIGHT. People are sometimes off their game, and that woman was off her game, but I was so impressed with how the situation was rectified, that I will probably never shop at any other Kohls store if I can help it.


The end. :)