Imagine spending several hours with your child in one of those hip, trendy, music-blaring fashion stores, picking out endless layered outfits for camp, only to be told at the register that there is a cap on the number of purchases an individual can make, and, unfortunately, you’re over the limit. Or, imagine you purchased a phone several months ago and it just doesn’t work. You write, you call, you threaten to involve your lawyer and the media….and still the store won’t take the phone back because it violates store policy on the return of electronics.

The clothing store is concerned about individuals purchasing large amounts of merchandise for resale. The electronics division of the department store won’t take back anything electroinc that was purchased more than six months ago. On the surface, these policies don’t seem overly unfiar. But when store policies violate everything that seems right and fair to the customer, who’s wrong? Is it the store, for setting up seemingly inflexible, stringent policies or is it the customer for having unreasonable expectations? Complaints like these are at the core of the customer experience, and stores who make it exceedingly difficult for their customers to return unwanted items are losing those customers.

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According to the STORES Top 100 Retailers ranking, the most successful retailers in the industry are constantly reinventing themselves to stay one step ahead of the competition. Susan Reda, Executive Editor of STORES, the official magazine of the National Retail Federation, states, “It’s not enough anymore for retailers to carry the same merchandise as their competition. From their own brand of food to an exclusive line of tools, today’s retailers will get ahead by differentiating their merchandise and offering products that consumers cannot find anywhere else.”

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This week brings the much-anticipated retail report, “Getting it Right at Retail”, released by Carlson Marketing and the Peppers & Roger Group, Minneapolis. After surveying approximately 1200 customers about their experiences with retail chains, the results may surprise you.

Topping the list is Barnes & Noble, where customers still value the pleasure of relaxing in the café with a cup o’ joe and a good hardcover book. Closely behind in spots 2 and 3, respectively, are Hallmark and Bath & Body Works. And the surprise? The names that dot the bottom of the list: WalMart, AutoZone and Macy’s.

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Did you ever have a customer experience that went so badly in one store but so well in another? Did it make you wonder where the disconnect was? How could two stores selling the same basic merchandise do such different jobs in customer satisfaction? And did you tell your friends afterwards? One woman had such an experience, and the results are truly telling when it comes to providing stellar service.
It seems this young woman was waiting in line at a well-known department store and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of three people in front of her. One woman was complaining about her experience with an equally well-known car dealership. While at the dealership, she commented to the manager that she would like to look at cars without a salesperson popping up in front of her every 10 seconds. His response was, “That’s our policy.” Upon which, the woman walked out. She then went to another well known dealer, where she had a similar experience. The gentleman in the group then commented on a dealership he went to recently. He questioned his logic in going there because of their astoundingly bad TV commercials. Once there, he had an equally bad experience. However, he did find a car he liked and he purchased it. To his surprise, he got a call from the salesman shortly thereafter, asking him to bring the car back to renegotiate the price, because they had made an error in the price. That gave everyone in the group a good laugh. And it caused the 3rd person in the group to comment she was not surprised this had happened, since their commercials were so badly done.

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