So disappointed, took my daughter to this Shoe Carnival for a casual day of shoe shopping. She…read morelikes the store, (mostly because of the basket ball play area, I think), we have only visited the Macomb Mall store, not finding anything at the Marshall's right next door, we wanted to check it out.
I was truly impressed when we walked in at how tidy and organized the store felt, the staff seemed friendly enough, as a young woman and young man each approached us within 5 minutes of entering the store, and the shoe selections were easy to find due to how organized the store was.
THAT IS WHERE MY PRAISE OF THIS STORE AND ASSOCIATES ENDS! My daughter had selected 3 pairs of shoes, we placed them neatly on a bench, disposing of any excess trash to the garbage can nearby, and set our coats beside her shoe choices on a bench between the girls and boys shoes. I went around the corner to see if there was anything my son might be interested in since we were there anyways, and she tore off to the basket ball court. After looking for approx. 10 mins, we went to get our coats and shoe selection for checkout, and all the shoes we had selected were gone!
When I asked the young woman she just said, "I put them away". Now I was obviously upset that over an hour of my life was for nothing, but infuriated at the nonchalant way she responded to my inquiry, which was only compounded by the lack of any kind of apology! There was no reason for her to put those shoes away. Our coats were there, so we obviously were too. Besides, due to the lack of business in the store, we were easily seen. The young man came along, probably hearing me tell may daughter how awful this store's customer service was, and that we were leaving, and asked what was wrong. Then in a very similar, nonchalant way, he never says anything to me, but instead walks away, seeking this other associate! I was so aggravated by this time, I just wanted out of that store!
I have worked within industries focused on customer service for most of my adult, working years, and am currently the regional lead for Customer relations and CSP for H&R Block, Inc., so I have seen and heard all kinds of situations and circumstances regarding superb all the way through the most abysmal types of service. So if I may, Shoe Carnival, the associates working at your Hall Rd store around 3:30-4:30 Sunday, March 3, 2019, allow me to give some pointers:
First rule of thumb, always say "Sorry" when a customer is noticeably upset, no matter the reason, it's not that customer's expect you to grovel, it just let's them know you are aware, even empathetic toward their dissatisfaction.
Secondly, ask your disgruntled customer if there is anything that can or could have been done to appease them, and if possible do it, within reason of course.
Thirdly, don't just assume that a customer is done with their shopping just because they've walked away from their "cart" to go to another aisle for a moment. If the "cart" along with it's contents have been sitting for an unreasonably long time or If you have seen them physically exit the building, by all means, put the cart away. Otherwise it's just rude, and as in this case, the company lost over $100 by this associate's dismissive attitude toward a customer's concerns! $100 may seem like a drop in the bucket, but when you consider if every store did this 5 times a day, that's $500 a day, or 3,500 a week or $14,000 a month, you see where I'm going with this, right? It's really bad for any business to allow associates to simply disregard customers in this way. Shoe Carnival wasted my time, in the end did not get to take my money just because of one or two employees that in my opinion should't remain as such!
