Or, the Customer is always right. We're just never certain how they might be right, are we?
I swore when OfficeMax announced they were moving the corporate headquarters out of Cleveland that I wouldn’t shop there again. I was already out of work in a recession and I saw more competition coming from the Information Technology folks they would put on the streets, looking for work. I half-heartedly tried a boycott which went nowhere.
Today the Sunday OfficeMax ad caught my eye. Wireless stereo headphones for free with the purchase of ink cartridges I had run out of on Friday.
My sister-in-law was bringing a CD player to the bedside of my father-in-law in the Cardiac Surgery ICU while he regains strength for bypass surgery following a heart attack. She had already complained about the headset wire being to short and complicating things for the nursing staff. I would kill two birds with one stone and pass along the wireless headset for my father-in-law to use.
Retail folks sometimes forget that
the value for the customer is not written on the sales tag. For the sake of my story, I’ll assign numbers to the stores and letters to the employees of note. My wife and I went to Store #1 and quickly found the Brother cartridges after being greeted at the door and pointed in the right direction, not that cartridges in that store are hard to find. However, there were no headsets close by and we thought they were probably waiting at the register.
After lingering over the clearance items until my wife was clearly annoyed we headed for the register.
At the register, we asked about the special promotion. The cashier was uncertain but knew they weren’t with her and called on her headset to see if anyone knew. We'll call her C for Cashier. Then we stepped aside to let the next person check out.
Before C the cashier started on the second party behind us I asked if she had an answer. And she called again. At some point she told us J was looking into it. Patrons were checked out, a second register was opened by assistant manager B and then they were done. At some point after that I asked my wife to stay put while I went looking for J.
I think I found J on the way back to the register and we went back to discuss the next step because he hadn’t found anything on the last truck that arrived. C, A (or was it assistant manager B?), and J conferred and punched some codes into the POS system. Apparently it wasn’t the last truck/trailer but the one that arrived Friday that held the item of interest. No other store in the area had made any more progress had made any more progress than they.
If you’re making an effort,
the customers appreciate seeing you sweating for their sakes.We were told J would go out to look at that merchandise. It occurred to me that my wife could take the car and do a little more of the shopping we intended. So off she went and I took up a position sitting on a checkout counter. At no time was I offered a chair. At no time was it suggested that it was store policy not to allow persons to sit on a counter as a matter of hygiene. Assistant Manager A finally came over and asked me to get down to speak with her I believe.
She said no progress had been made and she could offer me a rain check. I told her about this being the first time I had set my foot in the door since OfficeMax announced leaving. I told her about my father-in-law and I didn’t believe a rain check was going to cut it. I suggested she substitute another product. I also suggested she discuss the matter with the other assistant manager.
When B came over I offered to go over to Best Buy or Microcenter and return with a receipt from wherever I could find a similar item. Not acceptable, I was told. Or words to that affect. It was polite.
The customer may sometimes request to speak to the person who can say ‘Yes’, rather than continue with the person who has to say ‘No’. My wife and I were previously told the store manager was on vacation. I asked B to get in touch with a full-blown manager. I was told how difficult this would be on a Sunday. (And by golly she was right. No one called back during the remaining time I was in the store). B went to make a call and came back to tell me she needed to get one thing done and would make a second call.
I moseyed up to see if I had missed anything in the Tech department. Nope. No wireless stereo headphones of any sort there.
My memory has played games with the timeline. I know J and I were examining the shelves at the same time at one point. Interacting with four parties can be confusing.
I came up to where B was looking at something and inquired further. She went back to telling me about normally getting merchandise two-three weeks ahead. This has always been the litany at Store #1 since OfficeMax got past 100 stores I think. Apparently more than 5 years with SAP systems haven’t improved things. Certainly not at the front-end.
You never can tell what the customer knows and expects.Fortunately I have my CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management) and I suggested I might know as much about that kind of thing as she did. She thought I would be sympathetic. My first career position was at GE Lighting and my achievements there were in order entry and distribution. I had worked on IT contracts for Cole’s Eyewear group and Things Remembered and dealt with their POS systems as well.
I grew up when my family owned a grocery store and after that my father worked for Robert Hurwitz (an OfficeMax founder) at Howard Nickman, Inc. and PhD, Inc. As my father tells it, Hurwitz made promises to my father that he never kept. My father might have retired a much more fortunate man if he had.
The customer knows what they see. And what they don’t see.I suggested that since they knew they weren’t going to finish unpacking, they could at least have staged the boxes on the floor (I noticed a lot of empty peg hooks in places, by the way). And they hadn’t placed any signs on the door indicating that there would be a problem servicing some customers.
Is there nothing better to say than,
“If you continue to be loud, I’ll have to ask you to leave and contact the police if you won’t.”?I had become loud. I can thank my immediate lineage for a temper and my poor hearing for the rest. And I think I hit a nerve. So we danced around whether I would have to leave the store. I tried not to get loud. It’s just how all disagreeable conversations in my family work and what I resort to when I’m getting the brush-off.
B returned to the front office. I took up a seat on a third check-out.
J came by with a plastic storage unit and left it at the second counter. “J. Aren’t you supposed to be looking for the headset?” I asked. He remarked something about following B’s direction on that.
Only the customer knows where it is (or will be the) most convenient place to shop.J left. It was quiet. A came over to counter 2. When she turned to walk away, I said I hadn’t caught her name. I asked about contacting more stores in the area, thinking about getting more information to cast a wider net. I did speak softly. A was upset about going over something she had already told me about in general. Stores 2, 3, and 4 didn’t have any. 4 I exclaimed. That’s not close. Those aren’t the closest stores. And although she might have mentioned 5 in the list I asked about 5. Before I could go on to store #1342 B was moving to the phone and calling that store.
Yes. Vindication. Over an hour to get the service I used to get in fifteen minutes.#1342 has one and will hold it for me. My wife had returned. She bought the TV stand she wants from what she found at Best Buy.
Always ask for the business rewards card.We checked out. No one asked if I or my wife had an OfficeMax MaxPerks account. We each have one. Mine, buried in a desk drawer. Hers for teacher rewards.
I dropped my wife at the hospital.
I ran over to #1342. The headset was at the checkout. The clerk didn’t know anything about the promotion. No matter. The supervisor is in earshot of us and picked up where the conversation left off.
A Small Redeeming VirtueWhen I got home I realized something. I had purchased two qualifying multi-packs. I examined the ad carefully. I was entitled to two wireless stereo headsets. I called Store #1 and B answered the phone. This was me inquiring. Wasn’t I due two wireless headsets for my two multi-packs? B told me she was opening tomorrow and would call me as soon as she had one in hand.
Ironies and Prospects for the Future
The headset padding is minimal. The sound a bit tinny, but remember my hearing is less than excellent.
The headset made its way to my father-in-law this evening. He can’t use it because the ICU is flooded with electronic noise. I guess I’ll get it back sometime.
By the way, the latch on the bottom of the transmitter is so weak it keeps popping open when batteries are installed. I used a rubber band to shut it from the first time I closed the case of the transmitter.
I think I will return to being a very infrequent customer of OfficeMax. Or maybe I'll just keep doing my shopping at store #1342.
Copyright 2007 Harlan R. Cohen MBA,CPIM
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