In the Week 14 entry of Diary of the Happiness Employee on Earth we are introduced to the the 3 A’s:
- Acknowledge
- Accept responsibility
- Act
And that’s exactly what Staples did when my recent customer experience was less than “EASY.”
You see at Staples online you cannot use two forms of payment. So if your gift card is less than the amount of your total purchase you’re out of luck. Yep, hardly making a customer experience EASY. So I decided to call for help.
The long and short of it was that while staring at a gift card that read it could be used online the CSR (Customer Service Representative) told me that gift cards cannot be used online. And while telling her what I was looking at and asking to speak to someone in the US she proceeded to raise her voice, tell me I don’t need to talk to anyone in the US, AND I cannot use my gift card online.
WTF! I know the Staples organization. And trust me, yelling is not in their CSR training.
So after my twitter rants to Staples I went to the store where the staff were friendly, apologetic for my experience, gave me the online sale prices, took my staples gift card, and even honored the ONLINE ONLY coupon. I also got reminded how much I like going to the office supply store. You never know what fun you might find. Woo-Hoo. New purple pen.
But I was still annoyed at how I was treated. Amazing how things can eat at you for way too long. So I went for a cup of coffee, relaxed and wrote an email to someone I know high up the food chain at Staples.
Well it seems my email made its way to various departments; even to the President’s office. Now don’t get too excited, the President didn’t call. The president’s Office in big companies is a very high level of Customer Service employee who has a better understanding of the business and how to calm a storm.
The person who called me was great. She acknowledged the system issues. acknowledged my experience WAS less than EASY, accepted responsibility by apologizing for my inconvenience and the way in which the CSR handled the call and Acted. She already knew where the call was handled and that the proper review and training was already in the works. 24 hours later. She knew of the technical issue and let me know that the IT folks have been wrestling with this for quite some time and the I should expect to see a change in the payment end of things in Q3.
But here is what was great about my call. By living up to the 3 A’s, which she might not even know about, we were able to have a healthy conversation. We were able to laugh when I made the comment “big company like Staples can’t figure this one out?” (Yes, I had the same gift card scenario almost two years ago; without being yelled at and a solution on the phone.) And it’s the 3 A’s that keeps me as a loyal customer. Okay, the laugh probably weighed most heavily for me.
Keep up the great work Staples. It was really EASY for me to write nice things about you.
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Want to learn more about the 3 A’s? Could your team use some customer service techniques that actually focus on the employee experience first? Rich DiGirolamo focuses on the employee experience when creating a great customer experience. Contact Rich today to learn more.