Customer (Dis)service at Sears

NOTE (7/7/17): The cover of this book has been changed and the text has been re-formatted. What can I say? Lesson learned.

When I worked at the Sears, Roebuck and Co. headquarters in Hoffman Estates, one of my favorite jobs was handling complaints. Actually, I wasn't supposed to handle them personally; I was supposed to farm them out to one of the four call centers. But some of the senior executives found out that I liked handling complaints. If a complaint got through all the filters and was headed to B-6, I got it - with directions not to pass it on.

I was lucky. I didn't have a supervisor standing behind me with a clipboard and a stopwatch. When the complaint got to me, I called the customer right away.

Read about the woman who was sold a used wedding band. The store wouldn't take it back or exchange it.

Read about the man who was a customer for 48 years and whose drill bit broke the first time he used it. He got roughed up so badly that he custom-made a wooden casket for that broken drill bit and sent it back to the home office.

And then there was the customer who bought $6,000 worth of home appliances and had them shipped to his home in the Bahamas. He couldn't get them out of Customs, and the store in Miami wouldn't return his phone calls or fax him the right paperwork, because calls to him were international calls!

You'll find this book (Kindle version) on Amazon.com for $1.99. I hope you'll pick up a copy for yourself and also gift copies to anyone you know who worked at Sears or who has their own Sears customer service story.

After you read it, please leave reviews on www.Amazon.com and www.Goodreads.com

Thanks!!!

OK, I'm heading out to my mailbox now to wait for the royalties to roll in!

Friends...

Friends come from the strangest places and times.

I just got a heart-warming telephone call from a woman in Baltimore. We've never met, and we may never meet, but she is a good friend. She's 85 years old now and quite spry. She called because she hadn't heard from me for a while, and she wanted to check in on me.

We met by telephone, when I worked at the Sears headquarters. That had to be back before October 2002. She had had a customer service problem, and for some unknown reason her complaint hit my desk. I wasn't supposed to handle customer complaints directly; they weren't in my job description. I was supposed to farm them out to a customer service rep at a call center.

And you know what that means. As well-meaning as many CSRs are, they know they have somebody standing behind them with a stopwatch, and they had better not be on the phone with the customer more than the allotted time of, say, five minutes!

I recall her surprise, when she answered her phone the first time I called her. I remember that she said that she didn't think anyone would call her back, after she left a message about her complaint.

Whatever the problem was, I solved it for her. It wasn't a big one; it just needed somebody's personal attention. I told her I'd take care of it; I took care of it; and I called and told her that I had taken care of it.

We were in touch during my last two years at Sears, and I still call her on her October birthday and on a few holidays. And when she calls me, I call her right back, so that the charge is not on her phone bill.

I always gave the customers my direct-dial phone number at Sears, so they could skip the switchboard and get right to my desk. She may have been one of the customers who said, "I'll bet you won't give me your home phone number."

I probably said, "I'll bet I will." And I did.

Maybe one of these days I'll write a book about customer service (or the lack thereof).

Centegra continues automated calls

Man, oh man, I got another of Centegra's automated calls yesterday to call them back. Now, this was not a call that first tried to reach me (live) and then left a message for me to return the call. It was an automated call, telling me to call them back.

Somebody up the food chain in Centegra's management team made a customer dis-service decision from a cost standpoint to purchase and use an annoying telephone procedure that dials a customer (client/patient) and leaves a message for that patient to call its accounting office back.

I had previously complained to a Centegra customer service rep (CSR) that I found that procedure especially annoying. I realized that the CSR was only doing her job (when I called back), and so I didn't go down her throat. I did ask for a supervisor to call me back, so that my complaint about their "time-management tool" could start up the food chain. No one called back.

When yesterday's call came into my telephone's voice mailbox, I almost didn't return it. But then I decided to. Again it was important to be polite to the CSR who answered the phone; she is only doing her job. She, I am sure, had no part in the corporate decision to implement such an intrusive, annoying tool.

And I was nice to the supervisor. I didn't "buy" the "this is how we do it" explanation. Of course, that "how" they do it. I already knew that. What I wanted her to "get" was that I, the customer, didn't like it and that I wanted her to forward my complaint up the food chain.

Will one little complaint make the difference? Probably not. If I were steering the ship and received this complaint, I'd can that system. Of course, I never would have implemented it in the first place.

If you find those calls as annoying as I do, give Centegra your two-cents' worth. And ask for a response from a corporate Manager or Vice-President, so that you know your complaint got heard up at the top, where change is possible.

No doubt there are customers of Centegra who duck their bills and collection calls. I'm not one of them. So I had them take my telephone number out of the accounting record. Will that also remove my phone number from patient records and eliminate any calls to re-schedule an appointment if a doctor is sick? Let's hope not!

But I had a second complaint, and that was a call about a $42.16 bill that is due today. They had called yesterday about how I wanted to handle the $42.16. I had mailed my check yesterday, and it will be delivered to Centegra Hospital-Woodstock today, exactly on the due date.

Is Centegra so desperate for $42.16 that they must call before a payment is late???

Customer Service Waste

Last Friday I had occasion to contact USBank when I was helping with the transfer of a title and license plates for a car that had been purchased at the end of a lease. All should have been straight forward and correct; right? After all, banks must handle thousands of similar transactions.

Instead of just trotting off to the DMV with money and papers in hand to get the new title and have the license plates transferred, I examined the forms from the bank. The title clerk must have left for lunch between starting on the forms and finishing them, because the Title Number on the forms was correct but the VIN wasn't anywhere close. There weren't just a few typos; she had typed someone else's VIN on two forms!

When I called the bank, I understood they could not talk to me because of customer confidentiality, but I finally got a manager to look at the file and see the error. She agreed to fax the vehicle purchaser/owner a copy of the sales agreement for the end-of-lease sale.

Then I noticed that one of the forms was an Illinois DMV form that allowed for the transfer of the existing license plates, which could be done for a $3.00 fee, instead of the normal $65.00 license plate cost. This meant that the plates on the car could stay on the car.

And so I called back. This time I ran into a stone wall at the bank. I needed to talk to the department that prepared the Bill of Sale and DMV form incorrectly, but they are shielded from customer contact. That's great customer service, USBank!

The customer service rep was polite but firm. He refused all help, because the purchaser of the vehicle was not available to approve his talking with me. I pointed out that he didn't to talk to me; all he needed to do was listen. He could see the errors that USBank had made. All he had to do was get them fixed and mail them to the purchaser (not to me) at the address in their file. The supervisor must have breathing down his neck. The outcome?

USBank will overnight an Overnight envelope to me. I am to return the incorrect forms. Then they will overnight corrected forms to me. That makes THREE (3) Overnight Delivery expenses. Since it was a Friday, I could have just mailed the incorrect forms, and they would have been delivered in Wisconsin for $0.42. Instead, USBank will spend $30 to save me $0.42.

Next time you are selecting a bank that promises to keep your banking expenses low, be sure to remember this story.

McDonald's Experience

Have you ever called the customer service hotline of a fast food restaurant after a particular dining experience?

When I was in the Chicago Loop yesterday for the first Second Amendment Freedom Rally, I was early, thanks to an on-time Metra train from Woodstock. Walking from the station to the James R. Thompson Center, I decided to stop at the McDonald's at Wacker Drive and Washington. As soon as I walked in, I knew there was something different about this McDonald's.

First, there was something inviting about the atmosphere. It was subtle and more felt than visible. Maybe it was that someone held the door for me. Perhaps it was because someone else held the door for a customer leaving with her order. Then I noticed that there were many cashiers at their registers, awaiting customers and smiling at customers who entered.

After I made my selection from the overhead menu, I stepped forward to an open register, and the young woman cashier there was happy, smiling, friendly and eager to take my order. The food order and my coffee were quickly served to me.

I looked for the manager when I was ready to leave, but I could tell that all the employees behind the counter were hurriedly serving customers and handling orders, so I did not interrupt their work to speak with him (his name and phone number were on the receipt).

This morning I telephoned McDonald's national customer service number and left my compliment for him. Yesterday's visit was definitely a Wow! experience.

And I have phoned the manager to express my appreciation for this truly different McDonald's experience.

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT