Customer Service Week: Appreciate The Customer

Unless you’ve been under a rock, two things happened to the French Grocery Retailer – Carrefour in the last 7 days. In one corner, they will be moving into TRM Mall occupying Nakumatt’s spot, and on the other corner, what hit the Twittersphere was an incident at The Hub – Karen. As the story goes, customer A was treated rather disparagingly by customer B at the checkout line. Both were women. What is abundantly clear is the lack of response from the CarreFour’s management team at the moment of the incident and the delayed response in the social media arena. Link to full story So what could have CarreFour done differently to improve the experience for all who present to the incident:

As the story goes, customer A was treated rather disparagingly by customer B at the checkout line. Both were women. What is abundantly clear is the lack of response from the CarreFour’s management team at the moment of the incident and the delayed response in the social media arena. So what could have CarreFour done differently to improve the experience for all who present to the incident:

On Social Media -The story goes viral

Examples of what to do:

So what could have CarreFour done differently to improve the experience for all who present to the incident:

As the Cashier:

1. Gauge the level to engage Customer B. What type of personality is portrayed? a. If hostile, complaining and getting vocal, engage them with eye contact asking what their concern is.
2. Calmly ask a fellow Cashier to come and walk Customer A to another register
3. Page the Manager on Call for support

As the Manager on Call:

1. Speak to the cashier and get facts
2. Apologize to Customer A
3. Walk Customer B to the register either at Beverages or Deli [where you have an opportunity to engage one-on-one]
4. Partner with either an Area, Department or Floor manager, and over the intercom apologize to all who were present.

Carrefour’s response here

Follow the customer feedback on Carrefour Facebook Page. Notice the one direction communication style? We would not recommend this to any brand. Always engage your customers in some shape or form. A brand never wants to appear indifferent or arrogant.

Notice how many brands are making simple blunders hint Dove?

Links to more of the Dove story:

Dove Apology – the guardian.

Dove Apology – BET