I am writing about a recent Customer experience during the purchase and delivery of a treadmill from Sears. The entire experience is a stark reminder of the criticality of customer service and customer experience for any business. I wish the experience was better and worthy of writing; unfortunately it was not.
Sears, as we know, is closing 188 stores and in Chapter 11. We had purchased a treadmill from Sears before, and found out that the local store would not be closing. We visited the store and the first barrier was finding an associate to answer some basic questions regarding model, price, promotions and effective date, delivery price, and removal of prior equipment from home. Once we located an associate, it was quite clear that the associate/s were not knowledgeable about some basics: e.g., the effective promotional prices and dates. We asked and were told that often there is limited communication from corporate to the stores. So, here we had front-line customer facing associates without the wherewithal to satisfactorily answer the basics.
Unable to find the answer at the store, we tracked on-line for pricing effective date, since the store said they would match the website price but didn’t know the date. We made the purchase at the store, delivery was included in the price, paid a service fee for the removal of the older treadmill, and informed the associate that the treadmill was in the basement to note in the customer file. We received a text message regarding the delivery date.
A day prior to the scheduled delivery, we received a text message indicating a 2 hour delivery window. This is standard industry practice; however, what occurred thereafter is not. We started receiving texts every couple of hours (3 times) informing us that the delivery has been postponed to next 2 hour window. This continued until late evening when we received a delivery cancellation notice for the day and a re-schedule notice. We were not told if the product was out-of-stock or unable to be shipped due to delivery issues.
This was repeated thrice: scheduled, texted promise day and time, delayed, cancelled, re-scheduled. Just imagine the time to pre-empt all other business at various points for 3 days for a promised non-delivery! We called the call center, but it did not help with any delivery confirmation. So we went to store, and an associate inquired and informed us that product was at a warehouse and would be shipped the next day. We then received a text message informing a delivery window from 10:00-12 noon the following day. We experienced incomplete communication (exactly delivered when, product availability, why delayed) and poor follow-up.
The delivery service associates arrived around 9AM the next day (11/27). One of them said, they would only leave the treadmill in the garage and nowhere else. I told him, we had asked delivery to the basement. His next counter was: “we can’t take the treadmill to the basement, if there is any bend in the stairway”. I told him there weren’t any basements I was aware of that didn’t have stairways without a bend. Finally, he went to the basement, saw the old equipment, and said, he wouldn’t remove them, unless it was disassembled. I told him, it was foldable and didn’t need disassembly, that Sears knew the model, and the removal fee has been paid. He refused, and that is when I refused to take delivery and asked them to leave. There wasn’t any level of professionalism from the delivery crew. This stresses the need for appropriate training especially for front-line customer interacting personnel.
Later during the day, we received a call asking why we had rejected delivery. We told the agent why and also that we intended to cancel the order. She profusely apologized, promised a professional delivery, and asked for another chance. We have been promised delivery/removal this week, and upon failure we will cancel the order.
This confirms the imperative need for effective and efficient customer service, at the minimum, along all customer touch-points. Lack and non-timeliness of product and pricing information, information disconnect between corporate, on-line, and stores, inappropriate system notifications and follow-up, poor delivery, and most importantly, incivil behavior at point of delivery have all stood out. No company should have this kind of customer service, more so, one in bankruptcy and trying to get out of it!
Originally published in Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com