Woke up thinking about marketing so I spent the AM planning marketing for our Udemy course. That went well. Then got in a 5+ mile run to maintain sanity. Second run in as many days and third in four days. Very happy about that.
Filming lots more on Monday and need new cameras for that. Buying a Sony 220 camcorder. BestBuy supposedly had what I needed. So off to Woodland I went. Not so bad – only 15 minutes from home, but ugh… a retail store.
Customer experience is everything. I eventually got what I needed. It’s just that it’s not about the product I bought – it’s about the customer experience.
Quick roll call of #fails:
- Waited for help when I arrived at the camera area – manager had to retrieve someone
- Showing one in stock but I needed two – “we can order it for you” Yeah. So can I. From Amazon. I’m here because I need it today. This is a best-selling camera because of its capabilities at this price.
- They did have the next model available – the Sony 230. The rep didn’t know difference between the 220 and 230. He said – “They’re pretty close.” Yeah, except one is $50 more than the other. How are they different.
- Once we figured out that the Natomas store had the cameras in stock, I asked about 64GB memory cards. The rep wasn’t much help here. As I was Googling the SanDisk on my phone, he seemed a little peeved watching me.
- Once I had that settled, I asked about an adapter cord for the camera to upload directly to an external hard drive. I had the product I needed pulled up on my phone via the Amazon website. None of the three associates knew about the cable adapter. I mentioned – “Maybe Radio Shack will have it” – one rep said “I don’t know” while smiling, suggesting that he wasn’t going to help me shop at another store. The other rep walked away. The last one said – “I thought they closed.” thanks for helping me out after I’ve committed to spending $500 with your store.
- We went to the front desk to call the Natomas store to make sure they pulled their stock for me. The rep said – “Do we have the number for Natomas or do I have to Google search it? Oh wait, here it is…” on a post it note on the wall between the register and half wall. Jeez – that shows real organization.
- The sale rep passed me off to the customer service rep (I was exchanging one product for store credit to partially pay for the cameras.) One guy working exchanges. Waiting 10 mins with only one person in front of me. I finally asked another rep – “Can you help me out? I’m ready to spend $500 with you guys and I’ve been here waiting.”
- Turns out the store can only do returns on two registers. Oh. That makes sense. Huh?
- Finally this second customer service rep – Kara – helped me out. She had to call the manager twice for approval of the return and exchange.
- Finally took 30+ minutes from the time I was ready to buy to walk out of the store to get in my car to drive to Natomas, which is 20 minutes away, and now 30 minutes from my house.
At least Kara was nice and finally plowed through the transaction, and at the Natomas store, Phoenix (Sales Operator there) was very helpful in picking up the cameras I needed. She was a champ and apologized for my troubles in Woodland.