Customer Complaints

Customer complaints are a given in retail. They are a daily occurrence in any retail store with enough customer traffic. The sad thing is, it doesn't matter how hard you work at satisfying customers, someone is going to find a reason to be unhappy.

A legitimate complaint from a customer is actually quite helpful. You can learn a lot from hearing your weaknesses from a customer's point of view. There are things that we walk by in the store everyday and don't even notice, because we are used to it. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes, from a new perspective to show you what is really going on.

On the other hand, the customer that complains just because things aren't the way they want them or they had to pay more than they felt was fair for some item, is a customer that I don't really need. This is the same person that starts their complaint with, "I spend thousands of dollars in your store every week/month/year." My response is typically, "Really? Wow." But inside, I'm thinking, "Whatever. I've never seen you before in my life, and after working 10-12 hours a day, six days a week for years in this store, you think I would have noticed you spending all that money." This is also the complainer that is likely to use profanity. Nothing nicer than the church secretary dropping an "F-Bomb" on me because she usually only pays $XX for an item. And when I say church secretary, there is a specific reason I use that example. It is pretty well known that church people are some of the worst to deal with. They are chronic complainers, hateful to most everyone, exceedingly cheap (not frugal, cheap), and generally difficult to assist without mocking their employment/representation of a church. I am a regular church attender and born again Christian, but if I weren't the witness these people provide would not compel me to learn more about Jesus.

We do like to have fun with the really hateful complainers that are just beyond ridiculous. We also are able to anticipate these people. On Black Friday each year we take bets on how long after we open the doors before a customer uses some form of the "F-word" on me. Last year was a new record of 20 seconds. That's right, the fifth man through the door used it twice in his first statement to me. It didn't stop at that. He kept on and on and on. I finally just walked off and worked my way through a crowd of people that actually came to buy something. Since I was no longer there he turned to someone dressed somewhat similar to my employees, but was actually a customer and hurled some lovely profanity at him. Nice, huh? The customer is always right? I don't think so.

I started all this to write about how I respond to customer complaints and how customers react to my response. After this many years, I'm pretty quick with a solution to just about any problem, but only if it is my problem. If it is something the customer is responsible for/caused, I feel no need to provide a solution beyond pointing them to someone else that can fix their problem. Maybe contacting a manufacturer or seeking out a repair service. There are times a customer doesn't want a problem fixed, just want to vent their frustration and then tell you they are never shopping at your store again. I deal with this occasionally and I listen to the complaint. I respond with sympathy and a sincere pledge to look into it and fix what I can so no other customers face those same frustrations. This will sometimes win the customer back, sometimes not. Some people say you should give a gift card or offer a discount to an upset customer, but what does this solve? Sometimes it gets them out of the store and allows a situation to cool off, but usually it just trains them to kick the hell out of the manager and they will get something for free. Not the precedent or the type of training I want to provide.

So, if you want to complain here are some guidelines:
1. Be polite, kind, courteous.
2. Be specific, but don't make judgements about the employees other than how you felt.
3. Be realistic about what you expect. Not everyone is Snow White and chipper/happy/joyous every minute of everyday. Are you super happy every minute you are at work? Neither is ever cashier/stocker/salesman.
4. Tell the manager what you want. Don't make us guess, because if we offer you nothing but an apology you will be even madder if what you really wanted was a discount or some special treatment.
5. Be polite, kind, courteous. I repeated this because most people skip this step.

I have many times wanted to ask customers that are complaining as loudly and rudely as possible how they would handle the situation at their retail store. I know they don't manage a retail store, because they would never act like that to another manager.