Starting again...twice

Has it really been since July. Well, suffice to say a lot's gone on and there's a lot to catch up on, not the least of which has been leading the judging for this year's Silver Inkwell Awards for the DC Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

I've realized that perhaps I need to split posts though. So I'll alternate, one personal and one communications. Perhaps at some point I'll split them into two separate blogs. For tonight, though let me start with a blog post on the personal side.

Customer service, done well and done badly, is a bit of a issue of interest for me. Never ceases to amaze me how a company will kill its own sales with lousy customer service, and sadly amazes me when you find one that does it right. Here is my experience this past week, recounted in a letter to Sears corporate, as their customer service drove a loyal customer away and how their store employees got me back. Bear with me...

To:
W. Bruce Johnson, Interim Chief Executive Officer and President
Kevin R. Holt, Executive Vice President, Store Operations
Stuart C. Reed, Senior Vice President and President, Home Services
Corwin M. Yulinsky, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Customer Insight

Sears Holdings Corporation
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Cc to:
Roger Smith, Store General Manager
Rob Held, District Manager
12000 Fair Oaks Mall
Fairfax, VA 22033

Dear Sirs:

I’m an odd creature, I realize, but I actually believe it’s important to communicate with a company when it does poorly and when it does well. I think now, given the state of our economy, it’s more important than ever. And so I write you to tell you why Sears customer relations lost you a loyal customer, and how your store manager and store employees won me back despite that. I’m going to explain in detail, so bear with me. I hope you’ll pay more attention to how you lost me than how you won me back, but reward the store employees nonetheless.

We scheduled through 1-800-4MY-HOME for a technician come to the house November 4 to repair a leak at the back of our Kenmore refrigerator. The man who came was not very communicative. I did learn that he is from Poland. Beyond that his English was not good enough, I suppose, for him to feel comfortable with conversation.

I showed him where the leak was. He went to work, though in a different place on the back of the fridge. Eventually he informed me he fixed it, saying he’d cleared some clog. He pointed to a place far from where I’d shown him. Knowing that water travels, I gave him the benefit of the doubt as a professional. I did have the chance to ask him about the icemaker that had not worked for some time (it would have to be replaced and that would be expensive) and a broken door bracket that also could not be repaired (just glue or tape it back on). He did inform me that the unit (which came with the house when we bought it) was 20 years old. I paid him $197 by check and he left.

Two hours later, I had a puddle under my refrigerator again. I called 1-800-4MY-HOME again. They said they’d schedule another technician in about another week. I told them that after talking to my wife, we’d decided that we would prefer to have the $197 refunded and that we would take that to Sears to buy a new Kenmore refrigerator. Can’t argue with a refrigerator that lasts 20 years, right?

They told me that they could only refund me $127, that $70 was a non-refundable trip charge. I argued that I paid $197 for a repair that did not get done and was not inclined eat that AND buy a new refrigerator. The man was adamant that it couldn’t be done. I suggested that even a gift card toward a new fridge for $70 would bring me back into Sears. No, that couldn’t be done. Additionally, in order to get that $127 refund, I was told I had to call the billing department the next day at 10 a.m. I asked why the billing department couldn’t be told to call me. Why was I being made to jump through hoops to get resolution on a repair that didn’t get done? Why wasn’t I being sold a refrigerator? Sorry, that’s just how it has to happen.

So the next day, around 10 a.m. I called Sears billing department. I had to explain the entire situation though they asked for my home phone number to pull up my record. If they had a record then I shouldn’t have had to go through it all. And this person said that in order to get authorization for the refund, she’d have to talk with her manager. I asked this person to take my cell phone number because I was no longer at home but at work. I was put on hold for 15 minutes. Then the line was dropped. I waited for the call back. 10 minutes later it still hadn’t come. I called back and had to go through the whole thing again with someone else. And that person told me she’d have to get authorization from her manager. I asked how much this would be for. She said it would be for $127, that the $70 was non-refundable. I suggested that if that was the case, why not send me a gift card for $70. I said I would be happy to buy another Sears refrigerator, but I was not happy to have to go through all this for a partial refund. She said they had no way to do that. I asked to speak to her manager and I asked her as well to take my cell phone number, that I was at work. I was put on hold again. Another 15 minutes of that obnoxious, aggravating hold music. I’m getting angrier and losing any interest in doing business with Sears.

Her manager, "Cynthia", ID#54161 (please feel free to cc this to her as well), came on the line and asked me to go through it all for her. I’m now explaining the situation for the fourth time. She tells me the same thing nine ways -- "We're refunding $127 of the total $197 charge for the failed repair, we're not refunding $70 because we did send a technician (whether he did the repair or not). I kept telling her I understand the “trip charge” is non-refundable, but what are you going to do to make this right and help me go back to Sears. She said they were refunding the full amount of the repair, $127. I told her that no, the full amount of the repair for me was $197. So I’m getting a partial refund and no incentive to go back to Sears. She made no effort to go beyond "policy" and keep me in a Sears store.

She refused to allow me to speak with her manager (her “superiors have granted her the authority to make all decisions”). Cynthia explained to me that there is no way to communicate my frustration beyond her or with her by e-mail so I don't lose more time from my own job. I suggested that I could go on Sears.com and find an e-mail address for customer service; her response was that she wouldn’t know, that she’d never been on Sears.com! She tells me the only option I have is to write a letter and mail it (welcome to 2008) to this Hoffman Estates address. You and I both know that letter would never be addressed internally, I’d never get a response, and you all would hope that with the passage of time, I'd have forgotten about it.

So I tell Cynthia to process that $127 refund (it’ll get to me in about 2 weeks, supposedly). I told her I was going to Best Buy. I’m telling her that Sears is losing an opportunity to sell me a 20 cubic foot or more refrigerator/freezer plus service plan because it wants to stand on charging me $70 for sending a technician who didn't do the repair he was sent to do and for the resultant 3 hours of "customer service" I've endured mostly on hold. I don't know what profit Sears makes on that $70 trip charge versus the profit on a brand new large refrigerator and service plan, but it makes no sense to me that I should be made to jump through hoops to get a partial refund on a repair that wasn't done. It also makes no sense to me that your customer service has no ability to connect with the sales end of your operation to direct dissatisfied customers back into Sears products.

Interestingly, I get a automated phone call that night from Sears customer service asking me to participate in a customer satisfaction survey following my recent service visit. I went through the survey scoring Sears consistently 1s and 2s on a scale of 1-5 (poor to excellent). It allows me to leave a recorded message. I do so explaining the situation in detail and including my phone number and e-mail address. To date, I’ve received no response.

That night, I also go online and find the customer service e-mail channel. I leave a detailed message including my contact information. Following is the automated response I got:

We appreciate you sharing your experience on Sears.com, look for a responce [sic] within 24 hours. Your feedback will help us make our site easier and more rewarding to use.

Thanks again!

That was Wednesday of last week. To date, I’ve had no response (check your spelling above).

Finally, Saturday arrives and my wife and I have the opportunity to go shopping for a refrigerator. We can’t wait much longer; we’ve been mopping up water on our wood floor 4 times a day, moving the fridge back and forth to do so. But before we go I decide to try one more time. This time I try calling customer service at 1-800-549-4505 from Sears.com. I go through the whole story again. This gentleman tells me all the same things over again. Corporate policy is that the trip charge is non-refundable and they have no way to give me anything good toward the purchase of a new unit in the store. Actually, he tells me “We are trying to give you something to get you back into Sears. We’re giving you $127.” I said no, that is a partial refund on a repair that did not get done. That is not an enticement to go shop at Sears. It’s an invitation to take my business elsewhere. That was my fifth and final attempt to let Sears sell me a refrigerator.

We go to Lowes. We go to Best Buy. We settle on the Whirlpool model at Lowes and are going to head back there to purchase but I suggest that I’d like to make sure that the manager of the local Sears store understands that he’s losing a sale because his own company screwed him out of it.

When we enter the store, there are ten sales associates standing around the appliance section waiting for business. Al Burrelle asks me how he can help. I tell him I want to speak to the manager. He asks me politely what it is I’m looking for, and I tell him politely I’m looking for the manager. He explains it would be helpful for him to be able to explain what the issue is, so I recount my story. He apologizes and immediately retrieves Roger Smith, general manager for the store.

Roger patiently listens to my explanation. I tell him that I’m not really there to buy, I have a model selected at a price I’m happy with at Lowe’s but I want him to understand that Sears customer service lost him the business. He is calm but understandably not happy, saying that “quite frankly, excuse my language, that’s bullsh*t.” He asks if I’ll let him try to make good on the situation. I tell him I’m not inclined. He says he understands but that he’d really like the opportunity to fix things. He says he’ll start by taking $70 off the top of any unit we purchase. I apologize but tell him that while I appreciate the gesture, I think I have more than decent enough price on a unit at Lowes. He asks to see the model and says he’ll match the price and give the $70 off on a comparable unit, then corrects himself and takes me to look at a Whirlpool unit that actually costs $200 more, but still offers me the same deal.

At that point, sales associate Paul Camden is helping out and helps us compare the Kenmore version. I won’t tell you the entire discussion, but suffice to say that Paul showed far more knowledge about the product than anyone at Lowes or Best Buy. We settled on the Kenmore. Using the Sears card, we got an additional 15% (I believe) off. We purchased the 5 year service plan. I promised Roger that as much as I had tried to communicate my dissatisfaction with Sears and bent over backward to let Sears sell me a refrigerator, that I would also communicate that only when I spoke to Al, Roger, and Paul did I find anyone interested in doing so and that they did so ably.

Sears made little, if anything, on the sale of that refrigerator, though you’ll make the full amount on the protection plan. Sears would have made the entire profit on the unit had the customer service department been able to service a customer. While I’m happy with the treatment Roger and his team gave me in the store, I’m sad to say, I’ll still hesitate to deal with Sears on anything that might require me to deal with customer service at any point. That is through no fault of the store or its knowledgeable employees. It is entirely because of the gap that exists between your customer service department and real customer service. They lack any connection with the sales that are the life blood of your company.

So there it is. Do with it as you will. If you won’t cherish your customer, cherish Al Burrelle, Paul Camden and Roger Smith who are working against your customer service department to keep you in business. I’ve done more than my part.

Sincerely,

Michael Clendenin