Elaine,

Ouch! A great example of disconnect between corporate and employees. Happens all too often. More attention needs to be paid to employees in terms of training, motivation, inspiration, and co-ownership (buy-in). In this case, someone should have ensured they received the memo.

You're right, Lewis. What are your thoughts on the policy itself? The stores won't allow for customer pick-up. Don't you think it's a missed opportunity to up-sell?

Elaine,

Department store chains are so few thanks to buy-outs and consolidation, and they have gotten so large that they've forgotten about great customer service. Unfortunately. Is it any wonder that many specialty retailers have eaten the department store's lunch? They truly have become white elephants.

You are very right. Every effort should have been made to pull the merchandise you wanted from other stores and make it all available to you for pick-up in the location closest to you.

With so many choices at retail, and so much similar merchandise in multiple stores, the customers will continue to vote with their dollar spends.

Absolutely right, Elaine. Department store chains, thanks to buy-outs and consolidations have become huge, impersonal, white elephants. Large retailers like Macy's that have lost their customer service with new "policies" along the way, will continue to see volume losses to specialty retailers that go out of their way for their customers. Consumers continue to vote with their pocketbooks.

Your local Macy's should have pulled the merchandise you wanted to purchase from its other locations and brought it to the store nearest your home for pick-up since that was your wish. Think of how good it would have made you feel had they called you to say: "Mrs. Fogel, the merchandise you ordered is ready for pick-up, at your earliest convenience." All of the advertising and sales flyers in the world aren't going to tempt you to shop Macy's very often, if at all, because your personal experience was unsatisfactory.

"Don't you just love customer answers that say, 'It's not our policy,' or 'Sorry, can't do.' Yikes."

Usually this answer really means one of two things (or both):

"You're not worth doing this for."

And let's not forget, "I have no authority to do my job effectively."

Just once I'd love to have someone who retorts with the canned response, "That's not our policy" be honest about it. At least then I'd have something to be mad at.

In the first case, I would question why they're in business at all, and in the second case, I would ask why the employee is working there at all.

"I can't" defuses because it abdicates responsibility. "It's out of my control, and I the person who does control it is too important to deal with your petty difficulties."

I used to work at Macys, and I certainly agree they should "walk the walk" a little better, but let me give you some advice: always ask for the manager. he has the authority to waive the ship charge if the product is out at your Macys, and it must be sent.
Obviously, if you are sending an item for your personal convenience they will charge you, but it is Macys policy to send at no charge if you are available to buy and take, but the product is not available for you to take with you. This applies primarily to advertised goods, although a manager has some flexibility to make a customer servie decision on a case by case basis.

During my six-plus years at Nordstrom, we leadership folks were required to work on the sales floor during the first day of our three major sale periods.

You obtain an appreciation of the folks you're criticizing in this post, once you're forced to work under the policies and procedures you as a leader created.

You quickly learn how office politics, systems deficiencies, and departmental challenges translate to a less-than-optimal shopping experience for the customer and for the retail sales associate.

Great insights here! Thanks for contributing.

Kevin, your experience at Nordstrom is a good example of management getting a front-row seat to the policies that affect customer relations. What would be even better is if they polled the associates first to see what their responses would be. Or, at minimum, hold staff focus groups. Associates would likely have a good handle on what may fly (or not) with their customer base.

Often policies are made to make life easier for the insiders or to save costs. But if, in the end, they mess up and lose customers, what's that worth?

Jim, I appreciate your advice to ask for a manager. However, in this case, it appeared to be an overall policy from head office.

Cam, I believe that the associate was powerless in this case, but she should have apologized and been a bit more customer oriented. She cited her answer as if it were by rote.

Claire, you're right. After I hung up with the associate, I searched online, found another supplier for the same price and they waived the shipping fees. I was determined not to make that purchase at Macy's.

In response to Cam Beck, i.e., "In the first case, I would question why they're in business at all, and in the second case, I would ask why the employee is working there at all." I would add that Macy's might want to consider all the money wasted on advertising products customers can't purchase conveniently. Taking into consideration the cost of advertising, mailing and the employee's time spent on the phone checking stock and explaining why she couldn't fulfill the customer's request, wouldn't it be far more cost-effective to simply say, "Yes, we'll take care of that for you"? The kind of thinking displayed by the employee begins at the top with poor communication and inadequate training. Given the number of retail buyouts, mergers and takeovers, Macy's and other similar dept. stores with the same 'policies' are either extremely arrogant or extremely ignorant.

Last month Wal-Mart took its "buy online, pick up in store" program nationwide. They've been promoting this Site-to-Store program in their email campaigns for the last few weeks (http://retailemail.blogspot.com/2007/07/am-inbox-wal-mart-touts-nationwide-site.html). I would bet that this will spur Macy's and the rest of the old guard to better integrate their online and offline operations, as well as getting better inventory visibility between stores.

In response to Jim Gordon, I believe the manager does have more power. But most customers, no matter how self-advocating, won't ask to speak to the manager and some are not aware they even can. It would be far better for the associates to know this is an option and implement it on the customer's behalf. In Elaine's case, with proper training the associate could have saved time and money by going directly to the manager to get the problem solved. The customer would have been happy, Macy's would have made the sale, and the associate would have gained new confidence for having solved the problem. Everyone wins. Having policies in place that frontline staff aren't aware of is like having no policy at all.

Thanks, Victoria and Chad. All good comments. Maybe Macy's will "get with the program" and clean up their act. Gee, I wonder if they monitor the blogosphere! :)

Whenever I have to tell someone that we don't do ship-to-store, I try to acknowledge that I feel their pain by saying, "We're still pretty 20th century about this." Since I know I've lost the sale, I am feeling pain of my own.