You may recall I’ve written about toxic managers or leaders, but recent personal experience and stories I’ve heard compelled me to look into the increasing polarization of customer service behaviors.

My good friend Dan, related a tale about buying some expensive technology products online from a leading retailer and when he arrived at their local ‘bricks and mortar’ store, he was denied picking up his purchase because he did not bring the credit card he used to make his online transaction.

Well, Dan had plenty of identification that would have assured the “customer service” representative that he was indeed the person who was entitled to the purchase.  After all, they had charged his credit card for the order, and here he was to pick it up. But the company has a policy that requires the clerks to check the credit card of online buyers, and it can only be assumed that this is for a good reason.

So the clerk emphatically pointed out that my friend did not “read the fine print” on his online receipt clearly (however small) stated that it was required that he bring the actual credit card when picking up his purchase.  By the way, this comment was repeated several times during my friend’s dialog with the clerk.  And the store employee noted that a driver’s license, passport, Social Security card, nor a note from your mother would not satisfy the retailer’s requirement for the credit card in question.

Dan, asked the clerk if the store manager might be able to make an exception and override the policy, to which the answer was, “He won’t, but I’ll call him down here [from Mt. Olympus, I suppose] anyway.”  And yes, the clerk was correct.  The store manager was not able to help Dan with his problem.  You see, Dan had to travel five or six miles back to his house and then back to the store in order to consummate his purchase.  He was like many of us around the holidays, pressed for time, as this gift was an overseas shipment, and believe it or not, traffic was a mess! He would have cancelled his purchase and bought it from another retailer if he had the time. (Note to Coach Brian – contact Dan about his time management challenges)

After explaining to the store manager, that he was clearly unhappy with the store’s policy and the manager being “handcuffed” by this rule, Dan pulled his trump card.  He told the manager that he was in the market for several new pieces of technology, including a big screen, high definition plasma television (in the neighborhood of $2000), and that he would think very carefully about using the store for his future purchases.

Obviously, dangling a carrot like that might seem to make a difference, but many big retailers are now quite numb to any “trump” cards.  Likely, because it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book and they’ve heard consumers “cry wolf” too often.

Begrudgingly, very begrudgingly I might add, Dan went home, retrieved his “Holy Grail” credit card, returned to the store, completed his purchased, picked up his package and left the store – for the last time. 

Now, here’s the kicker.  The store manager missed a great opportunity to keep Dan as a customer, and appease him even in a very small way.  If he’d have been present when Dan returned, apologized for not being empowered to fix the perceived problem, and offered my friend a free CD, or even something so minute as a $20 discount on a future purchase, Dan would have remained a customer. 

And he would have bought the plasma HDTV and the Bose Surround Sound, and the satellite dish, and the new telephones, and the digital camera, and several other electronics store products that he doled out for Christmas gifts. But he went elsewhere. 

I’ll wrap this one up with a simple question.  Do you know if your customer service employees or purchase policies are pushing prospects and customers to your competitors? Maybe you should find out.