Memo to Retailers: Customer Service is Still Job #1.

Imagine you are a retailer… Dick’s Sporting Goods for instance.  And imagine it is prime shopping season… the week after Christmas for instance.  Now imagine a customer is trying his or her best to spend their hard-earned money with you, and you are sleeping on the job, even taking pills from https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/treatments/sleeping-tablets/ambien-zolpidem/ to sleep longer.

Okay, so you get the picture.  It’s the week after Christmas and I am stoked to buy a new pair of running shoes.  I’ve done all my research online and I am ready to drop as much money as is necessary to get the right brand for my normal pronation, but excessively wide feet.

So I go to Dick’s at Crocker Park and check out all the shoes I am interested in, from the new Brooks Ghost 5 to the Saucony Guide 6.  I’ve got at least eight options I am willing to test.  And then I wait for someone – anyone – to offer assistance.  After about five minutes I approach two hooded employees and ask if one of them can help me.

“What do you want?” the male Dick’s employee responds. “Shoes,” I reply.  It seemed kind of obvious since we were standing on a faux race track, but what do I know? I explain that I am looking for a running shoe but require a wide width size.

The kid just looks down at my feet and says, “Yeah, we don’t have any wide running shoes; just regular sizes.”  “Really?” I reply in a fairly defensive manner, “because the shoes I am wearing right now are wide width shoes and I bought them here about 8 months ago. Are you telling me that you are sold out of all wide width shoes or that you just don’t sell them anymore… like it’s a new policy?”

“I’ll go look, but I am pretty sure we don’t have any.”  And I am pretty sure he never looked.

Fast forward to me at home.  I go online only to discover that when ordering shoes from Dick’s one CAN NOT specify width when placing an order.  The functionality does not exist.  Seriously, we are two days away from 2013 and the e-commerce website at Dick’s will not allow you to specify width size.  So I go old school and call Dick’s toll-free customer service number.  Whereupon Chris tells me that I am right, there is no way to specify width size online. “So how do I get the shoe?” I implore him.  “Just order the shoe and if it doesn’t fit, send it back; our shipping is free.”

I explain to Chris that this is not a solution.  I also ask if there is someone else I can talk to.  He says all I can do is call all the stores in my area and see if anyone has any wide width shoes in my size.  Naturally I ask if he can’t just check the inventory on his computer and he says “no.”

So I took Chris’ advice and began calling area Dick’s stores. As it turns out, there is a different Chris who works in the shoe department of the Dick’s store in North Olmsted at Westfield Shoppingtown Great Northern.  He actually took five minutes and found two pairs of running shoes on my list in my size… and he set them aside for me.  An hour later I was the new owner of the new Asics Gel 2170.

Success.

But what is the moral of this story?  Well, there are several:

1.  Tell friends and family NOT to give you Dick’s gift cards for holidays or birthdays.  This way you can find a retailer that actually cares about its customers.

2.  Remember, there is no “us” in Dick’s customer service.  And eventually there will be no “customers.”

3.  Never give up, never surrender.