I had an interesting customer service experience at the Home Depot last weekend.
But first some background. I'm in Canada, so this was just a normal weekend (unlike the US where it was Memorial Day on Monday) and I went in around 1:30 PM. This should be after most employees have had lunch.
I headed off to buy everything I needed to install the pool heater that we had delivered during the week. This included a few hundred dollars worth of electrical and plumbing supplies.
The Experience
I arrived and headed straight for the electrical supplies. I've been there before and know the general layout. I immediately found the first items which were clearly identified; this was a good start.
Now, I'm looking for wiring and a circuit breaker. Unfortunately, the wiring that I need doesn't come prepackaged in anything less than 250 or 500 feet and I only need 50.
Failure #1
So I start looking for an associate since there's a sign that says that they have to cut it. I can't find a single associate in the electrical department; I even look for a call button. No luck! I do find an associate in the plumbing department but he seems to be alone and is already serving another customer. I figure I'll shop for something else for now...
Failure #2
I start looking for the circuit breaker that I need and finally find it on the board along with the price. But where's the product; I can't find it anywhere! Finally, I notice a sign that says that they are at the cashier but the sign is at least 12-15 feet above me! Grrr!
I've already spent at least 30 minutes in the store and have two products missing... So I'm off to the plumbing department but already starting to get annoyed.
I need about 50 feet of 1 1/2″ Carlon piping. Now this isn't anything special and I've purchased some before. But this store doesn't seem to have anything larger than 1 1/4″ and the associate is still with the customer that I saw him with earlier. He's standing on those roll away stairs cutting pipe for the customer.
Failure #3
Now comes the first indication that I'm not going to leave the store satisfied. The associate hands the customer his 3 feet of piping and the customer doubts that it's the right length so he measures it. The pipe is 1/2″ short (detail oriented isn't he) and the associate questions the customer's measurement(!) When he comes down he contradicts the customer and tells him that it can't be too short since he cut on the line!
It would have been so simple to say something like "I'm sorry, I may have been off a little with my cut. Would you like me to cut another piece?" Chances are that the customer would have responded that he already asked for more than he needed "just in case" and even if he did ask for another piece, it wouldn't have been a big deal...
Failure #4
Now here's the kicker, once the customer leaves, what does the associate do? Does he turn to me and ask how he can help? I've been standing there watching and waiting for at least 10 minutes.
Not at all! He slowly takes the roll away stairs and replaces them further down the aisle. Then his phone rings and he answers. He has never even made eye contact with me. He's clearly talking to another store employee and goes down the aisle, turns the corner and is gone.
My reaction
At this point, I'm totally disgusted with this Home Depot store and I have less than half the materials I need and have no clue when I might get service. (It's also a beautiful day and I would much rather be outside.)
I have a few hundred dollars of electrical supplies in the shopping cart and planned to spend a few hundred more and wasted 45 - 60 minutes.
I decide to walk away. I left the shopping cart right there; the "associate" can replace the items.
I usually don't like to raise my voice (my wife says that it scares people) and I'm irritated enough that I know that if I try to complain immediately, it won't be fun. So, I just leave. I decided that I'll go to another store early tomorrow morning when they open for contractors. I'm not going to get any of this done today so I'll spend it relaxing.
Later - the Twitter Experiment
I go home, have some lunch and allow myself to calm down a bit. I decide to send out this tweet to see what happens.
From @ericjacques:
#homedepot #customerservice #fail - Blog posting to follow later.
As you can see, I had already decided to turn this into a blog posting. Less than 20 minutes later, I receive this tweet.
From @homedepot:
@ericjacques Is there something I can help you with? [email protected]
3:22pm, May 29 via web by sarahsambuca in reply to ericjacques
Now, I don't have much hope that anything will be done about this. However, I am pleasantly surprised that someone tweeted back. And, even better, there's an email address and a person's name. Wow!
So, I decide to respond in 140 characters or less.
From @ericjacques:
@HomeDepot Doubt it since I left 100s $ of purchases in aisle since I was completely ignored by an associate when I wanted 2 buy 100s more
I haven't heard anything back yet either via Twitter or email. I doubt that I will until I send a link to this post to Sarah...
Some Corporate Research
Since Sarah's Twitter profile included a link to her LinkedIn account, I decided to do some research.
The first thing that I found is that Sarah is actually in Public Relations. Her title is Corporate Communications Officer. It's nice to see someone in management tweeting and responding to customers and on a Saturday too. I also noticed that she's done so with others.
However, I am wondering at the choice for their Social Media efforts. Maybe my SCRM colleagues will weigh in on this. Also, most of their Twitter accounts are simply for advertising to their followers.
Since I was in LinkedIn, I decided to see if there is an executive responsible for customer service or client relations. I found over 50 VPs but none with the word "customer" or "client" in their title. I did similar searches for "officer" instead of VP; no luck there either.
A LinkedIn search for the Home Depot president or CEO didn't turn up anything useful. So I moved on to the corporate web sites.
I looked in both the corporate Home Depot site and the Home Depot Canada site. The "Contact Us" link for the corporate site is a web-based form and some phone numbers and the Canadian site simply has a phone number. I have no intention of contacting them this way but wanted to see what primary options were available.
Looking up their leadership team did give me the name of their CEO (Frank Blake) along with the names and bios of all the numerous VPs and board members. Unfortunately, there is no obvious way to contact any of them.
Finally, I decided to look up the Home Depot Values; #4 is "Excellent Customer Service" but I think they lack consistency...
Also, from the Home Depot Canada - All About Us page
What does it mean to be the Retailer of Choice?
The Home Depot provides our customers with excellent service every time they come into our stores. We offer the right products, the right selection, the right prices and a team of associates passionate about your needs. We build lasting relationships by helping customers realize their dreams and growing their trust through our products and services.
It seems that they need to work on ensuring that their values are understood and applied by everyone in the organisation.
The Takeaway
So, what made this a failed customer experience? There are many things that went wrong as we've seen above, but here are some of the points that I felt were the most important:
- Lack of available personnel to serve customers - This was a Saturday afternoon, I expect a store to be properly staffed.
- Signage not at eye level - I spent 5-10 minutes looking for something that wasn't there. I understand that it"s a small high-value item but put the sign where I'll see it.
- Associate argues with another customer - Come on! Empower the guy to make a decision; he shouldn't have to worry about something worth a few dollars. And, if he is empowered to make this decision, he needs some training and coaching in dealing with customers.
- No eye contact or acknowledgment of waiting customers - This is definitely a training/coaching issue. The associate should have acknowledged my existence well before he was done with the previous customer.
- Procedures before customers - I understand that the roll away stairs can't be left just anywhere but unless there is an obvious security issue, your customers should come first.
- Serving colleagues before customers - Who pays the bills? No, it isn't the boss, it is your customers. Enough said.
- Lack of Twitter follow up - If you engage me via a channel, be prepared to follow up until resolution. If needed hand it off to someone else.
What did Home Depot lose today? At least one customer and potentially others since I'm now a detractor.
The worst thing is that it didn't have to happen. None of the solutions to these issues are costly, some of them cost nothing (i.e. moving a sign).
We'll see what tomorrow brings. I'll update this post if there are any developments.
Good night all!
- UPDATE -
I promised an update, so here it is.
Other than the comment from Sarah at Home Depot below, I've had the following exchange with her on Twitter.
From HomeDepot:
@ericjacques Eric, I've alerted our team in Canada, they are reviewing your fdbk. Thx for these details, it will help us improve
10:58 PM May 29th via web by sarahsambuca in reply to ericjacques
And then.
From HomeDepot:
@ericjacques I hope you give us a chance to improve on these points - hold us to it by coming back to this store and let me know?
10:59 PM May 29th via web by sarahsambuca
The next morning I responded with this.
Link to original postFrom @ericjacques:
@HomeDepot I'll hold you to it but not by visiting. I expect updates on actions. My time is valuable too. Off to #RenoDepot #customerservice