Customer Service in a recession

Customer Service is in existence because customers are people and people can't always be serviced by machines. Don't get me wrong, the machines are great, but sometimes you need a little human thoughtfulness and maybe an actual person who can think outside of the box, machines are boxes, they certainly don't think outside of them.

In the past week I have encountered two very different kinds of customer service and I believe that good customer service directly correlates to increased revenues. That is not a novel idea, people have been saying that for years. I do think that sadly, in a recession even normally good companies let their customer service values fall by the wayside, and that is the real tragedy.

Customer Experience Number One: Banana Republic
I was an AVID Banana fan. I have been buying clothes from them on a very regular basis since I got out of college. I know my sizes, everything fits perfectly, the style is perfect for me- classic and conservative, but not my mom's conservative.

And then this weekend happened. I had purchased 6 items via bananarepublic.com at the end of June. They arrived and didn't like 2 of them. I planned to return them, and then of course, life happens. I moved, I started a new job, spent weekends in Maine, etc. In the back of my mind, I always thought I had 60 days to return these items, so I wasn't worried.

So last weekend I brought my items to the store at the Cambridgeside Galleria I was rudely informed that I needed to have returned it within 30 days. I thought to myself, "you know, I think I would have read that somewhere on the return slip." So I walked away from the counter reading the slip and found no time limits were noted on the returns so I walked back up and asked... "it doesn't say anything about a 30-day return policy on here." I was quickly told by the manager (they weren't busy so all the women were just milling around the register) that it is clearly stated in the online checkout process that its a new 30-day return policy.

This is now 50 days later and I can't say I remember where I put my car last week let alone what the check out process said on an online form I filled out 50 days ago... I digress. I am used to a 60 day return policy or none at all, especially since I am a Banana Republic Card Holder and have been shopping there for years.

I asked to speak to someone who could help me and the manager had to get on the phone with bananarepublic.com in order to find Kerry who supposedly said they could make a "one time exception" for this case and will let me return it.

Many of you are probably saying, "Thereasa, stop your whining and get it in the mail." And don't worry, it's in the mail. But, I think that people on the front lines should be given more power to so whatever they can to make the customer happy, especially in a recession. Right now customers have all the power, why not do everything to keep them coming back rather than give them even one reason to never return. It's in times of need when you find out who your friends really are, the same can be said about any service or company you purchase things from.

Customer Experience Number Two: L.L.Bean
L.L. Bean on the other hand has been a beacon of exception customer service for years. Spending most of my summer in Maine my fiance and I have done a fair amount of fishing and a month ago the top piece on his fly rod broke in 1/2. He's had this L.L Bean rod for over 10 years, and he loves it.

So, we drive to Freeport in the hopes of finding a piece that might replace the broken one. At the customer service desk the cashier proceeds to say he can take just that piece back but he's worried that they might not have just that single piece so they might just have to replace the whole fly rod. He says that the service dept will look at it within 2 days and he will get a call telling him what they will be doing and they will ship him either a replacement piece or a whole new rod within 10 days. Now that's the kind of service that you would get from a good friend.

L.L Bean's Customer and quality guarantee is listed here. It's probably why they have been in business since 1912. Here is a screen shot from their website, where they preach the importance of customer service.



Banana Republic on the other hand has only been in business since 1978 and was purchased by the Gap in 1983. I will be interested to see what happens to Banana as they continue to treat their customers with such disregard during times like these and in the many years to come...

I truly believe that exceptional customer service comes from treating your customers like friends and that will lead to a long life, not only as a business but as a person.