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Let me start this off by saying, I LOVE Costco, I am a huge fan, but I don’t love them today and if I were their CEO, what happened today would be a BIG ISSUE that I would immediately fix.
To most people, this will seem trivial, but if you are running a company of any size, you MUST MAXIMIZE your customer experience or you are absolutely leaving money on the table. If you do think it’s just trivial, I’d love to compete against you. Â
Everyone knows that Costco has “receipt checkers” at the doors when you leave the store. Their primary job is to make sure that nobody walks out with something that they did not pay for. Their secondary job SHOULD be maximizing the customer experience to ensure return visits and goodwill.
It’s not happening. As we walked out today, after the lady checked our receipt, I looked at her and said “thank you”. What did she say? Absolutely nothing. That’s a CRIME!
This was a perfect opportunity to maximize the customer experience with something so small as saying “you’re welcome”, “have a nice day”, or “thanks for shopping at Costco today”.
If I were the CEO of Costco, I would require every receipt checker to say something to every single customer that walks out the door or they would lose their job. In this day and age, the economy, online shopping, etc, people have many choices where to shop and if you don’t maximize every customer interaction, you are losing customers and losing money whether you know it or not.
So, why should Costco do what I suggest?
1. It is EASY
2. It is FREE
3. It takes no time, no money, and virtually no extra effort!
4. It will make them more money.
Shame on you Costco for not ensuring that you maximize the customer experience at every possible opportunity. I also want to note that this was not a one-time thing, it’s happened before and I was going to blog about it but never did.
So Costco, I ask you, why not maximize your customer experience at every possible opportunity, especially with those things that cost no time, money, or effort? You have a great company but you can make it better. I challenge you to improve your customer experience at every level.
As for other companies out there, even small one person internet companies, make sure that you maximize your customer experience at every possible opportunity because if you don’t, someone else WILL!
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Photo Credit: pokoroto
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Paul, thanks for finding me on Twitter. Just checked out your blog. I love it.
You are right on about Costco. It’s unbelievable to me how big companies can (but don’t) execute very easy, very cheap (or free) changes to their operating plan and enjoy enormous improvements in brand equity/loyalty, sales, and/or profits.
They NEED to do this. Because if they don’t, as you say somebody else certainly will.
Great post. I’ve added you to my reader. Look forward to more.
I am a Costco lover and devoted customer. Usually the receipt checkers are friendly, but NOT ALWAYS! You absolutely pinned it! The exact thing happened to me a couple of times in the past month. I felt like I was carrying the whole load of courtesy. I think management is unaware of the problem. Heidi
Hi Paul!
Thanks for finding us on Twitter, too. Ironically our blog post from last night hits on this very issue — just say thanks. It’s simple, it’s free and it build relationships. And it will no question, over time, increase income. Amazing how many customers or clients (or in our industry — donors) are lost because we forget to be thankful. (Here’s a link to our post just in case you want to check it out: http://tinyurl.com/bbulm5)
-Kris
I had a bad experience with Costco that will top all others. As a long time Costco member and one that spent at least $4000.00 a year there I was stunned when Costco let me go as a customer by revoking my membership and refunding my yearly fee. One day I was in line checking out and the two employees that were waiting on me ( a cashier and a box person ) were having a big conversation in Spanish and acted like I wasn’t even there. After stewing about it for a while I called the Manager of the store and complained. He was very apologetic and assured me it would never happen again. So I was happy and to honest ever since then I stayed away from Hispanic looking cashiers as I enjoyed shopping there and didn’t want to get pissed off again. Ironically about four months later the same thing happened to me again and when I called the main office in Washington they told me that the store Manager would contact me. Well, he contacted me alright by sending me a letter telling me my membership was cancelled and here is my $50.00 back. This does not seem like a store that wants to keep customers. so I joined Sam’s Club. I go there all the time and I never have come close to having the rude attitude I get from costco employees.