Customer service

“Here you are”, it was what a got with my change and a receipt...no eye contact, no hi or good afternoon. These was my experience on a division one Walmart close home.  Being a manager, I felt terrible, thinking, I probably was not the only one receiving this treatment. My concern was confirmed when she took the items in the conveyor of the next customer and in a few minute she was giving the receipt with a “here you are”.   I bet she has the best “ items scan per minutes” . But she failed as the last line of defense for customer service in the store.

Often, you receive the same experience when you call the store. We do not have a program to train and assign friendly people to answer the store phone.

The opposite happen again and again on the Nugget grocery store near by.

The price is a lot higher than Walmart  (no doubts about it), but its customer service has no comparison.

I have a son, who was born with a lot of complications physically and mentally... one of his joys in life is to be around people. So, after work or on my days off, 

He wants to go to “Nugget “.

Since our first visit at the store, the associates will stop and say “Hi”, and take time to offer him a cookie or a sample of the Chinese food. Now, Even the cashiers has learn his name and acknowledge him everything time with a smile, a “ thank you for choosing us” and a final “see you tomorrow “. I only buy a “purifier” juice or a snack, but he believes he has to come back tomorrow to meet these friendly people again.

Yesterday, in the “neighborhood Market “ Walmart store in town.

My son and I met a cashier who put our items in our own recycling plastic bags, and thank  us for being there.  I knew every cashier in the store, so I told her:

“You are a new cashier in this store” , she smile and told us it was her first week. So, I told her to continue doing exactly what she did with us. 

I belief that the volume Walmart moves, make managers push our associates to do tasks with more sense of urgency...we want our shelves to be full, and that is our priority so customer service fill like an interruption.

Lately, this priority have being changing, but until the manager lead by example and rewards positive customer service, we will not see a big difference and customer will go to other retails to pay more but receive a better experience.