I have rarely encountered a customer-service experience so poor that I immediately took my business to a competitor--and I have never had a first interaction with a company make the decision to never return quite so easy.
This was my first time using CVS Photo.
At 11:46 p.m. PST, I placed an online order for prints to be picked up the following day by my mother in Indiana. The CVS website did not allow me to enter payment information, so at approximately 8:30 a.m. EST I called the Jeffersonville store to arrange payment and, more importantly, confirm that the order had been received and would be ready for pickup.
The employee who answered identified himself as Asher.
What followed was extraordinary--not because I expected special treatment, but because I apparently expected something CVS was unwilling to provide: basic courtesy and customer service.
After telling me that the store could not take payment over the phone, Asher said he needed to help another customer and put the phone down without placing me on hold.
I waited.
And waited.
And listened as he helped four additional customers with the self-checkout kiosks.
When another employee asked who was on the phone, I heard Asher reply, "Don't worry, I've already answered it," and continued his conversation while I remained on the line.
I eventually hung up.
And then I did something that made the entire experience even more absurd: I went to Walgreens and placed the exact same order.
The comparison was almost comical.
CVS: $15.74Walgreens: $4.74
CVS: Payment could not be completed online.Walgreens: Payment completed online immediately.
CVS: I couldn't even get basic confirmation from the store.Walgreens: Pickup confirmed in approximately one hour.
CVS: Complicated process followed by being effectively ignored.Walgreens: Simple process, payment completed, my mother designated for pickup, done.
Walgreens accomplished in minutes what CVS made unnecessarily difficult--and charged me less than one-third of the price.
This is not a complaint about a long wait, a technical glitch, or an employee having a bad day. Businesses get busy. Mistakes happen.
This was different.
A first-time customer encountered an inconvenient ordering process, called for assistance, and was then made to feel like an annoyance rather than a customer.
That is a particularly remarkable way to run a business.
CVS didn't merely lose this sale. You lost the opportunity to turn a first-time customer into a repeat customer. And you managed to do it before I had even completed my first transaction.
I have taken my business to Walgreens, where the experience was faster, easier, dramatically less expensive, and--most importantly--treated me like a customer.
CVS has permanently lost my business over a $15.74 photo order.
That's not because $15.74 is significant.
It's because how you treat people when they're trying to give you their money matters.
If CVS Corporate is interested in understanding why customers leave, this would be an excellent place to start. read more
