I would say that right now in today’s economy customer service is more important than ever. That treating customers with an extra special touch gives them the incentive to come back and eat or shop or spend money in general. Being rude and impolite makes it easy to justify not spending the money and saving it instead.
I know I’m more sensitive than usual and definitely in more of a rush. But I have to admit that I’ve gotten used to getting great customer service for the past year unlike previously. It seems that people, stores, merchants have taken the recession to mean that they need to go the extra mile. That giving people a coupon to come back again, being extra nice about orders or special services have become the norm and not the exception.
But the other day I went into CVS and for the first time in a long time I was treated super rudely. The cashier didn’t want to use my coupon, then said she was too busy to give me a receipt when it jammed and didn’t print properly. She just tossed the half printed receipt in my bag and when I asked about it, she ignored me.
Um, okay. I shop at CVS because of convenience. I get prescriptions there and any last minute needs. But now, I feel like what’s the point? I might as well go to the Walgreens or Target or even supermarket. I liked the deals at CVS, but after my experience I’m really turned off on returning.
I actually was irked because my Extra Care Bucks should have printed but didn’t so I had to call and ask for them to be reprinted. Thus I also complained to corporate because I was so miffed. They apologized and gave me a $5 coupon but I’m not really sure if I feel like going back.
Honestly I wonder if this economy has made me more picky or just feeling pressed for time? I wonder, do you think that customer service can make or break a company? I mean look at what Toyota is going through right now. Will they really be able to retain market share?
Would you go back to a company that treated you poorly?
7 responses so far ↓
1 dogatemyfinances // Feb 5, 2010 at 11:15 pm
I don’t really get this post. You expected the $7/hour cashier to do all that for a stupid receipt? You really expected her to reprint your extra bucks or whatever you are talking about? What makes you think she is even allowed to do that?
I think a $5 credit is more than generous. Hey, you probably could have made/saved that in the time it took to complain to corporate and get that girl fired.
2 Forest // Feb 6, 2010 at 10:19 am
I think it may have just been a case of a person having a bad day. She doesn’t get paid much and it can be a drag doing that kind of job…. I don’t condone rudeness in any way but she probably isn’t always like this.
Sounds like the company made up for it and I hope she didn’t get fired…. I’d personally go back and if it becomes recurring then give up with them.
3 Jin6655321 // Feb 7, 2010 at 10:32 am
I agree that poor customer service is a huge turn off. However, there is often another side of the story. It could very well be that the cashier is just a particularly rude person and management doesn’t care enough to fix it. Or, it could be millions of other reason. If your past experience at this CVS is mostly positive or neutral, I would say brush it off and let it go. We’ve all been rude to strangers at one point or another. We’re all human.
Oh, and I agree with DogAte, most of the time, only managers can reprint the receipt.
My rudeness thresh hold depends entirely upon how expensive the merchandises generally cost. When prices are cut, payroll is the first thing a company trims in order to still make a profit. When payroll (# of hours of labor allotted per store) goes down, morale goes down and service goes down because now the employees are doing the work of two or three people. I don’t care that there’s no one at Target to guide me around and show me where things are located. I don’t care that the cashiers are rude and snarky. I don’t care that none of the workers seems to know the answer to anything. If I cared about those things, I wouldn’t be shopping at Target.
When I get poor service where I’m buying a $20 sweater, I don’t really care. However, I am still boycotting J. Crew over a particularly insulting experience. If I’m spending $200 on a sweater, my expectation goes up.
As for Toyota… I haven’t been following the story all that closely since I drive a Honda but… Wasn’t their issue more a quality issue then a customer service issue?
4 eemusings // Feb 7, 2010 at 11:43 pm
If I can avoid it, no, not on principle. How much was that coupon worth?
5 Brandy // Feb 10, 2010 at 1:27 am
Thats not the point of how much the bucks were or the coupon or if you make more an hour then the coupons or if you “cost her her job”. If she valued her job then she can at least be polite. If shes too busy maybe with a line and you knew it and all you might have stood by waiting patiently and she could have fixed once the line was down. But there is no excuse for that level of rudeness. Maybe she had a bad day, so she can still be polite. Shes passing the bad day along to you by being rude. And when Im at the register, thats my time. people behind me can wait like I wait for them. I would have called corporate too. Im sick and tired of the level of rudeness society allows. This needs to stop and it wont until its made to stop.
6 Taylor // Feb 10, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I actually had a very awful, terrible experience in CVS as well, and also complained to corporate. I am usually okay with average customer service – but the music was so loud that I could not hear my boyfriend, standing right next to me. When I asked the manager to lower the volume, she said that she couldn’t, that it was “corporate” – argh! Volume is not corporate. And she was so rude and unhelpful. So I complained – and said that such awfulness would be a factor in my decision to go elsewhere – my “corporate” decision. I got a very sincere apology.
But I agree with you. I do have minimum levels of customer tolerance that I expect, even from $7/hr employees – but more so from a manager.
7 Anonyme // Feb 11, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I have no idea how a cashier could be ‘too busy’ to do her job, or to call a manager over.
That said, there’s no guarantee that you can avoid rudeness by going to another store. Does your CVS have self-checkout kiosks?
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