Losing Customers One Return At A Time
It seemed easy enough: Pick up a can of WD-40 from Home Depot and spray the front door so my wife would no longer know when I was sneaking out for a jelly donut in the morning.
A week later I pulled the cap off the can and found that the nozzle head was broken. Dismayed, I opened the door, it squeaked, my wife woke up, and I went directly to Home Depot. I put my $3.98 can of WD-40 on the returns counter, showed the associate the broken head, and asked if she could please exchange it. I knew I’d be out in no time, leaving plenty of time for a donut run. Oh boy!
Suddenly I noticed a change in her expression. I determined that she was either about to pass gas or that things were about to get ugly. Either way I wasn’t going to like it.
“Where is the receipt?” she quickly and very pointedly asked. O.K., a reasonable request, to which I replied, “I don’t have it.” You would think from her grimace that I had slapped her. She quickly volleyed with her next piercing question: “Why not?” I told her it was $4 and that I probably just threw it away with the bag. (I mean, come on, I’m a guy, what guy keeps receipts?) We both stood silently looking at each other, neither blinking, like a scene from “Deliverance.”
I cracked first and smiled, she did not. She shrugged and told me there’s nothing she can do and to take it to “J.T. in hardware.” I did so, and a very pleasant gentleman in hardware told me “No problem, just take this new one back to the counter and tell them I said it was O.K.”
I returned to the returns counter in the same way Seinfeld and George approached the soup guy, and told her J.T. said it was alright. I watched her eyebrows rise as she sputtered the word “Okay” under her breath, as if she had had tuna and onions for breakfast. Why was she upset with me? She was making me feel like a criminal.
I told her I had other shopping to do and could she put the can in a bag so that there would be no confusion at check out. “I can’t give you a bag!” she blurted, and without uttering another word she put a sticker on the can, wrote “Exchange” on it, then rudely slid it across the counter and turned away, as if I was the one with onion breath. I said thank you, to which I got no acknowledgement.
As I turned to get extension cords and a new drill, I thought “Hey, what am I doing, I just got treated like an escaped felon over $3.98!” Coming to my senses I turned and, after being stopped for attempting to leave with an open item, I left the store and bought my extension cords and drill across the road at Lowe’s, which through little effort of its own has now unconditionally won me as a customer.
How many customers with returns have you unknowingly lost? If you say none, think again. No one likes returns, neither the customer nor you, for CE retailers know that over 70 percent of electronics returns are not defective. Your goal has to be to determine as best as possible who or what caused the problem, and you can’t do that by putting the customer on the defensive.
How much training have you done with your sales managers and salespeople on what your return ratios look like, what the main causes are, and to brainstorm ideas? Make your team aware and they will become part of the solution that will allow you to lower return rates and save your customer before they become someone else’s.
And just in case you were wondering, I successfully applied the WD-40 and now leave unnoticed to enjoy my jelly donuts every morning.
Bill Stuart is CEO of Stuart & Assoc., an international consultancy serving Fortune 100 manufacturers and retailers in the areas of service contracts, professional training, and product returns reduction. For more information, visit www.bettersales.com.
DaveV commented:
Giving someone with a low self esteem a little bit of authority is never a good thing
Darren commented:
While I understand, and agree, that employees should make a reasonable attempt to obtain documentation that the item was actually bought at the store, it’s also necessary to remain professional. It’s not uncommon for shady people to walk into a store, grab an item, then walk to the counter in an attempt to get a refund. These associates have to deal with their fair share of this kind of nonsense. Clearly that wasn’t your situation and you just wanted an exchange, the associate was just being rude. Maybe working at a hardware store isn’t her life-goal. Perhaps she needs some time off to write that best-selling novel that she’s been working on. If she keeps acting this way, she’ll have that opportunity.
HenryFaley commented:
I shop at both Lowe’s and Home Depot. Have never had a problem with either regarding returns. While doing some remodeling a few years ago, we set up store return areas in our garage - we always bought extras. Never a problem. This article really just points out that a single employee can result in lost sales.
Bob commented:
This comment was removed as it does not meet TWICE’s editorial standards.
Tom B commented:
The negative customer experiences cited so far at Home Depot were the norm for me for years, so years ago I switched to Lowes who seems to have a better handle on customer engagement and staff training. I, too HATE self serve check out counters. Invariably my item won’t scan, won’t weigh or creates some exception. And in these days of high unemployment, checkers earn an income and pay taxes–I’m all for that!
Bill C commented:
Last week I purchased a light switch at Home Depot for less than $3.00 only to discover that I had purchased a “regular” switch although I needed a “three-way” switch. I returned to Home Depot, went to the return counter and asked if I could return the switch without a receipt. The person at the counter said, “Certainly,” scanned the switch and then gave me a Home Depot “Credit Card” for the amount of my original purchase. I then purchased the needed “three-way” switch using the Home Depot “Credit Card” plus an additional /-$1.00 that the more expensive switch cost. I expect that I would receive the same good treatment at Lowe’s. Sounds as if Bill Stuart’s wife was the person at the Home Depot return counter and that she resents his sneaky donut habit. At any rate, his story is not typical of the easy return policy at Home Depot.
george commented:
And to think that the original management understood exactly what occurred with you, and backed it by experience: The experience was that once a return was made, a larger ticket followed. OK, there was some abuse, but for a company on the rise, part of its success was the increasing ticket. Then everybody left….
Bill commented:
Greatest thing about Home Depot is the almost total lack of open registers with a clerk.
Appears that they actually believe that self service registers are good customer service. They clearly don’t get it
Thom Bailey commented:
Had a worse experience with the same chain but over a rental return. I understand and can see (as I go there still from time to time) the rude sale s clerk I encountered upon returning the carpet shampoo retal has now been promoted to Store Manager!
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