Customer Service is Delivered by Individuals

I had the opportunity to experience very different levels of customer service at two locations of a retailer with over 1000 North American locations.  My guess is that corporate hopes that all locations deliver the level of service that I experienced at my second stop.  My goal was to acquire 50 frames for an upcoming recognition event.  I've purchased hundreds of these frames during the past few years.  On-line purchase is not an option, but I've never had a problem getting the quantities needed because there are 3 stores within fairly close proximity to my home and office.  Perhaps my post-Christmas timing was the problem for this event.  My closest store had only 9 frames.  Their attempts to call the two other stores closest to me yielded 5 at one store and 11 at the other store.  Special order was an option with a four week non-guaranteed delivery.  And my request to call me when they received additional frames (deliveries occur 3 times per week but they don't know what inventory they will get) was not successful.

When I stopped by store #2 to pick up the five frames they had in stock, the Store Manager and another associate checked the inventories of several Houston area stores.  They took my contact information and called later that day with the great news that they had 31 more frames waiting at their store for me. 

Customer service (or lack thereof) has enormous impact on our perceptions, feedback that we share and our willingness to become loyal to a company or service provider.