Sears has always stood for customer service.  I remember as a kid growing up in the 80s and early 90s that Sears was “the” place for my parents to shop.  Everything from my school clothes to the washing machine came from Sears – and when something went wrong, Sears was always there to take care of things.  Didn’t have the right size?  They’d get it.  Needed advice on what to buy?  They knew their stuff.  Something broke?  They’d knock themselves over to fix it.  They were the hallmark of customer service and if you ask many folks, especially older folks, they will tell you that Sears stood 110% behind the motto, “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.”

Today, a quick search around the ‘net and you’ll see that the  biggest gripe with many folks about Sears is their lack of customer service.  Phone calls that never get returned; orders that disappear into the ether; items that break that take month to get fixed; folks in the stores who just don’t understand what they are selling.  It’s frustrating for them, and as anyone in marketing can tell you, once you get a customer unhappy with you it’s almost impossible to turn them back into a loyal, satisfied customer.

I myself have recently went through this with two orders I placed on the Sears.com website.  Both orders ran into problems – and while I understand that issues come up, what really got me was that nobody really knew (or seemed to care) how to resolve the problem.  Endless phone calls that never produced a successful resolution.  Even when the person at the other end of the phone wanted to help, tried in desperation to help, they often hit a roadblock.  One lady I was talking to tried in vain for over 15 minutes to get the store to answer the phone.

No amount of money can fix bad customer service.  Sure, some of the stores could use some TLC, but you can have the fanciest, most modern store in the world and it doesn’t matter if your customer experience is lacking.  Customers will leave in droves never to return again no matter how shiny the tile is or how fresh the paint smells.

Of course there are stores that try, and some that succeed, in still delivering the customer service that Sears was once known for.  One store that does this amazingly well is the Sears mall store located in Columbia, Missouri.  In my travels throughout the US I have visited Sears stores in over 12 different states.  I can say that hands down, this store far surpasses any other store I’ve been to in the customer relationship department.  It’s not the fanciest or biggest store Sears has (it’s classified as a “B” store), but the people there are truly amazing.

Take for instance a gentleman named Miles.  Miles has been with this store since – well, as long as I can remember.  He’s an appliance salesman, but he’s more than just someone who wants to sell you something.  He listens to the customers, he asks them about what their needs are – and then he recommends a product to fit their needs.  I would drive halfway across the state to buy something from Miles.  I remember a time when I was having a tough time tracking down a light bulb for the water dispenser in our refrigerator.  It used a non-standard design and I went in the store looking to see if they could possibly order one.  Miles listened, then he went into the backroom and came out with one – no charge.  I wasn’t looking for a freebie that day, but he wanted me to leave a happy customer and so he performed a small gesture that meant a lot to me.  That’s what customer service is all about.

Sears corporate would do well to send some of their top brass to this store to find out how to do things right.  They could learn a lot from spending just a few days on the floor with not only Miles, but many of the other employees there.  Even the manager of this store is amazing – I happened to be in the hardware department one day when she overheard me talking with an employee giving my name so he could send me some information to my email.  She came up to me and engaged me in conversation and thanked me for the positive comments I had put in for the store.  Again, here was a gesture that cost the company absolutely nothing but meant a lot to me, the customer.  To this day when I’m in the store if she sees me she will say hello and ask how I am doing – you can’t buy customer satisfaction like that.

My partner Keith worked for Sears for most of his early adult life.  He was a former employee of the Sears in Columbia, leaving 6 years ago to finally get his college degree.  To this day he looks for any opportunity to return to Sears because he, like me, believes in Sears.  He really misses the customers and the interaction he had; and though sometimes I think that perhaps he is seeing Sears with rose colored glasses, I think in the end he really understands what it will take to make Sears great again. 

If anyone from Sears is reading this, believe me when I say there are those of us out here who still believe in the company.  We want to see you survive, to thrive, and to be the American icon you once were.  Money alone won’t make that happen – because in my opinion what can really help turn Sears around is something that costs very little, yet has enormous returns on investment – customer service.

That all changed last Thursday while surfing Netflix on demand for a movie to watch and came across “Wal-Mart:  The High Cost of Low Prices”.  This 2005 documentary interviewed many former and current employees of Wal-Mart from all ranks—from cashiers to high-level executives.  The story throughout was the same – Wal-Mart considers employees and small, family owned businesses enemy #1.

Tale after tale of tactics by the company to push employees to work longer, harder and many times off the clock.  Stories from executives of how many employees were told to use welfare and other public assistance programs just for necessities.  Can you imagine being a full time employee and still having to use WIC or Medicaid?   Apparently that is common practice with Wal-Mart.  Their own employees making below the poverty levels, and Wal-Mart really not giving a damn. 

Then there were the stories of the China factories that produce for Wal-Mart.  The horrific working conditions these people have to face on a daily basis.  Stories of young males and females who should be enjoying their youth working and living in the factories because that was policy.  It was nothing more than modern day slave labor.

I could go on, but I really encourage you to watch the documentary yourself and listen to employees tell the Wal-Mart story.  You be the judge.  If you can watch this film without shaking your head in disgust then perhaps Wal-Mart is the store for you.

As for me, I’m officially 100% Wal-Mart free.  The one holdout in our family, my dad, has even switched with me.  We now support our local merchants, which we are lucky enough to have quite a few of (the Wal-Mart in Boonville, MO hasn’t managed to put them all under yet – though I am sure they are trying ). 

The amazing thing is – even after a weekend of shopping at local businesses, many of which are family owned – I noticed something:  I wasn’t paying more.  In fact, in a few cases we noted we were paying less – much less than Wal-Mart.  What’s more we noticed that many of the goods we were now buying were stamped “Made in the USA”.  Something that Wal-Mart has just about managed to destroy completely – American manufacturing.

As for me, and the rest of my family – we took the pledge to be Wal-Mart free.  I encourage you to do the same.  Don’t be fooled by the high cost of low prices –  many of which aren’t really low after all.

As I walked into the hardware department I had noticed another customer being helped by an employee who appeared to be discussing a problem they had.  I really didn’t pay much attention to it, and another employee came over to help me.  When I was finished with my transaction (which took all of 2 minutes) I noticed that the discussion between the other employee and customer was getting more agitated.

Let me state that I do not know what the concern/question/issue was with the customer.  He may have been right, he may have been wrong – but that is beside the point.  Right or wrong, he obviously needed some assistance.

The employee was doing his best, but he acknowledged that he needed help.  I decided to hang back for a bit to see how this played out.  The employee went off to find a manager to help the customer.

And the customer waited; and waited; and waited.

Pretty soon the customer started moving around and getting agitated.  He approached security cameras and started making obscene gestures.  At that point in time I thought I’d go off and see if I could find another employee or manager to help him.  My efforts were futile.  The few employees I found were helping other customers – and I saw nobody in management around anywhere.

Soon things escalated even further.  The customer started banging on merchandise; taking things off shelves and displays and moving them around.  At this point I knew things were just out of control.  Where was management at? Where was security at?  I started hearing messages being broadcast over the PA system – code words and numbers being used.  Was this security trying to inform non-existent personnel of a problem on the floor?  And why was nobody coming out to help this man? 

The employee came back and said he was not having any luck finding a manager and was going to keep trying.  I followed him over to the television/appliance department where he asked another employee if he had seen a manager around.  The answer was, of course, negative.

At this point you could tell that this was not someplace you wanted to be anymore.  If there were any customers in the hardware department they had long since left (I certainly wouldn’t blame them).  The customer was now throwing more merchandise around and moving it about.  I decided at this time that before things escalated any more I was going to get the heck out of there.  I had no desire to be around should things turn any worse.

All the while this was happening I was on my phone.  I send messages via Twitter to @MySears hoping that someone would respond back or at least call the store to find out what was going on.  To my knowledge nobody did.  I looked around for a customer service number – perhaps I could call that and let them know that they needed to page/call/do something to find a manager.  Nope, none of those around either. 

The employees were doing their best – I don’t fault any of them.  They were doing what they were empowered to do, and I suspect that many of them didn’t want to be anywhere near this irate customer.  I certainly can’t blame them.  The problem is they needed management help – and there was no help to be found.

Sears has problems, and big ones.  The last few years have been disastrous for the company and the stores.  They have been stripped bare of employees, they are failing into ruin and the customer frustrations are just mounting every day.  A quick news search on Bing will show you the constant complaints and frustrations that customers are going through each and every day. It is so sad to see this once great American icon fall into disarray.

What few employees are left it seems do care – but they are powerless to change things.  Eddie Lampert does not know how to run a retail store, and it is obvious.  I would have much rather seen Sears exit from the retail landscape with its dignity and customer-focus intact rather than see what is happening to them now.  Gone are the days when Sears stood for quality and customer service.  Anything that costs money seems to be on the chopping block.  Even Wal-Mart is delivering better customer service than Sears is nowadays.

I fear my lifelong friend – the one who filled my home with Kenmore appliances; the one who stuffed my tool chest with Craftsman tools; the one who kept my car going with Diehard batteries – is dying.  Worst part about it is that he is not even dieing a dignified death.

It’s been a brutal few days for Sears Holdings (SHLD) the parent company of both Sears and Kmart.  After dismal 2nd quarter numbers that shocked analysts (and shocked me) a lot of people are starting to prepare for the end of Sears.  In short, the company not only fell on its face last quarter, but it did so in such a way that the rest of the retail world is left to wonder just what has happened to this once iconic company and brands.

Ever since the merger of Sears and Kmart in 2005 it has been a disaster, to put it nicely.  Under the new leadership the stores are falling apart, customer service is non-existent and a corporate strategy is nowhere to be found.  There was a time when Sears stood for “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back”.  Well nowadays it should read “Nothing is Guaranteed in Life — Especially Any Hopes of Getting Customer Service Here.”.

Of course I still think that both Sears and Kmart have tons of potential.  However, it seems there is no clear direction by either brand nowadays.  They both just launched a wonderful Christmas Club program (a little late in the year, but better than never) but you wouldn’t know about it unless you went to a Sears or Kmart store – and judging by sales figures, nobody is.  The problem is they advertise to the few people (like me) who still go there instead of advertising to the masses to draw people into the store.  I have no doubt if they would spend a few dollars on advertising this Christmas Club program they would have people flocking into the stores – especially in this crappy economy.

The same goes for the bluelight specials that have returned to Kmart.  What’s that?  Haven’t heard of it?  Well don’t worry, neither have most people who haven’t set foot in Kmart in a few years.  Again, a lack of advertising outside of the stores has meant this program, which could draw a lot of shoppers back in to see what it is all about, has left Mr. Bluelight fallen flat on his face.

So advertising is one area where they fall flat, but store maintenance is another area they are failing at as well.  Kmart stores are old – many of them haven’t seen a remodel since the 90s – and they show it badly.  Tile that is falling part, carts that are rusting to pieces and a decor that screams 1976.  Sears Holdings management has not invested the money to revamp these stores and in many cases just lets them fail.  Another retailer will move in right after them, revamp the building and do stellar sales.  It just makes absolutely no sense.  A little bit of money now could see dramatic sales increases at the stores – but it seems nobody wants to invest a few dollars to take that risk.  They would just rather sit around while Rome burns.

When it comes to the Sears experience I’d stop blaming the housing market and start bringing back the customer service people came to expect from Sears.  Staff the stores, and stop this outsourcing of call centers and people who can help.  Make people proud to have a kitchen full of Kenmore appliances and a garage full of Craftsman tools.

In fact, customer service has fallen so badly at Sears and Kmart it has become a joke.  This past weekend I ordered a blender from Sears.com and the hassle I had to go through to get it was unbelievable.  First, the advertised e-Buster prices they had on the website would not show up correctly in the cart.  I placed the order and thought “no problem, I’ll call them up and they will adjust it” like every other merchant does.  Nope – the lady, although sympathetic, said all she could do was put in a request for a price adjustment.  Talk about a dismal fail.  Why in the world can’t the CSR’s do price adjustments?  When I went to pick the item up at the store the price in the store was $20 lower than what it was online.  At least the lady in the store was able to do a return of the item and repurchase at the lower price.  Still, this was just ridiculous.  CSR’s who aren’t empowered to do anything but say “I’m sorry” and a website that does not reflect the right pricing (I’ve had incorrect pricing show up in my cart many times on Sears and Kmart.com).  Epic fail.

The time for fooling around is over.  Way too many analysts are writing the obituary for Sears and Kmart.  It’s time they did something, and did it now, instead of sitting around and wait.  Find a clear corporate strategy and stick with it.  Their biggest strength right now in this economy is layaway and the Christmas Club.  If I was Sears Holdings management I’d push this strategy non-stop this holiday season starting right now.  Then for 2010 I’d start the Christmas Club program on January 1st.  I’d make Sears and Kmart synonymous with shopping smart.

This loyal shopper predicts unless they do something, and do it soon, Sears Holdings has probably two more years before it collapses.  So Sears, it’s up to you – are you going to sit around and go into retail history, or are you going to at least try and save yourself?  The customers (the few of us that are left) can’t do it for you.

Please.

Lately it seems like every time I turn around its my bank, or a credit card company or some online retailer or site sending me an “Ooops, sorry” letter.  There was a time when this happened they at least offered to buy you a subscription to a monitoring service – but you don’t see that much nowadays, I guess they figured that it happens so often now that its just standard procedure to notify you and then ask for forgiveness.  “We really, really promise to try harder next time!”  Next time what?  Next time you put my private data up for grabs?

Please.

It’s time that websites stop collecting personal data.  Period.  After all, most websites (I’d argue well over 95% of them) have no need for personally identifiable information.  I shouldn’t have to share with you my home address and telephone number just to be able to browse your website.  In fact, for most websites out there all the information they need is a way to identify me (a username) and a password to make sure its me.  That’s it.  They don’t need my zip code, my birthday – nada.

To be fair, some websites have already seen the light and are heading in this direction.  Sears Holding Corporation, parent of Sears and Kmart stores, recently made it so you can login to their customer service sites using a plethora of identification services such as OpenID and Facebook.  Even blogs are starting to get in the act and allowing you to “authenticate” with your Twitter or Facebook id to post a comment.

Of course, that’s not to say we should automatically trust Facebook, Twitter or even OpenID with our personal information.  However, I’d rather take my chances with a small number of companies that adhere to strict data privacy guidelines than giving it to every Joe Six Pack on the Internet who starts his own blog.  We can hold companies who setup guidelines accountable when they misuse our data or abuse our trust a lot easier than we can anonymous strangers behind a website.

If anything it encourages more interaction because we don’t have to interrupt our train of thought to create yet another account we’ll forget about or have to write down somewhere and keep track of.  Ever since some blogging platforms started allowing me to authenticate using Twitter and Facebook I’ve noticed I’m more willing to jump in and participate instead of thinking about participating and then opting not to because “I have to create an account first <Groan>”.

It’s time we stopped giving out our personal data to websites and start asking questions about why they want it to begin with.  Heck, I won’t even give out my phone number to people anymore, instead I give my Google Voice number to folks – even my friends.  Heck, I’ll even give that out to you – complete Internet stranger – just look to the right of my blog for the link!  I trust Google to keep my real phone number private (perhaps I’m being a bit too trusting?)

The past 16 years on the web has been the wild, wild west – but there is a new sheriff in town, and a whole lot of townsfolk who have had it with privacy “breaches”.

How many other companies do you know (especially ones that are as big as Sears) that would engage with you 1-to-1? 

If you aren’t on Twitter, the only question I have for you is, “Why?”  Get on there and then start following Sears to see how Twitter can be used as a customer service tool.

It turned out I was dead wrong.

For over 5 hours my dad and I drove around Columbia, MO looking at what the retailers had to offer.  Best Buy, Sears, Office Depot, Staples, Target – you name it.  Every store it was the same thing, “Oh, we don’t sell those anymore – nobody buys them – but we have this great LCD flat panel starting at only $500!”

I did not want to buy a $500 TV, I wanted a $150 no-frills television.  The one you used to be able to buy everywhere.

We eventually just gave up.  Apparently retailers no longer care about what we want to buy (I talked with others who were facing this same problem), but instead they are pushing what they want to sell.  Right there is the disconnect – customers, especially in today’s world, don’t like being told what they are going to do.  They are the ones who tell the retailer what they want.

I was ready to give up when I thought to myself – I’ll see if Amazon had any for sale.  A few clicks later and I found not one, but 7 different models!  In less than 10 minutes I made a choice, purchased it and it was on its way.  What’s more it arrived the next day for only $3.99 (I subscribe to Amazon’s Prime program).  They shipped a 50lb television via Fedex overnight and only charged me $3.99 – wow!

The total cost – with the $3.99 shipping – was $161.98.  Right in the middle of my budgeted amount.  Plus, I was able to avoid paying sales tax by buying online and the television can pick up the new digital signals and convert them to standard definition should I ever want to use this as an over-the-air TV.  Not bad for $160 and change!

Amazon understood what their customers wanted and provided it.  The local retailers, even the national chains, instead wanted to tell me what I was going to buy.  They probably make a nice profit margin selling those LCD TV’s, but some genius forgot that not everyone wants (or can afford) a flat panel television.  Some people just want a basic television.  How many lost sales are they missing out on?  What if just one retailer would buck the trend – how much increased business would they do?

It’s all about the customers – and businesses that fail to realize that aren’t going to survive.  Not in this ever-connected world where if you don’t deliver what I want I can just click over to someone else who will.

Normally I would have had to take a day off work, but luckily I had President’s Day off.  The appointment was scheduled between “Noon and 4pm” and I was ready for them by 11:30AM.  That’s when the waiting game started.  At 3PM I got a phone call that the technician was running late and it would be “between 5PM and 7PM”.  I was a little miffed I had wasted most of my day sitting around at home, but at least I got some cleaning done and the laundry taken care of – so I wasn’t too miffed.

The next call came at 6:30PM.  Bad news, he wouldn’t be here until 8PM – 9PM.  I immediately informed them that it was now dark outside, below freezing and I was tired of sitting at home and was going out to get something to eat.  I told them that I wouldn’t be home until 8PM, so don’t even bother showing up before then – if at all.

We took our time eating, because I knew there was no way they were going to be upgrading anything in the middle of the frigid night.  We got home at 7:50 and the DirecTV installer truck was across the road.  We went inside and waited … and waited … and waited.  What the heck was he doing?

At around 8:30PM he calls (yes, calls!) and asks us where we are located.  I told him to look right in front of him.  See the guy standing in the window.  Guess what – that’s me!

At this point in time I had enough.  I was tired, it was 8:30 and I wasn’t going to stay up half the night while he goofed around.  Lucky for me, before I could say a word, he came to my door with a bunch of excuses.  It was dark; he didn’t have the right equipment; the stars were out of alignment.

At this point in time, he said that maybe he could reschedule me.  I told him he could reschedule all he wanted, but it was Saturday or nothing and that I was tired of this game.

He rescheduled me for Saturday “between 8AM and Noon” (which I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for).  I called DirecTV customer service to complain and before I could get a word out they told me they had credited me with $100 to my bill.  So apparently 8+ hours of my time is worth $100. 

Of course, I appreciate DirecTV doing this without me having to ask.  I also understand these people doing the installs/upgrades are contractors and not employed directly with DirecTV.  However, this incident points out two things:

* The installers are apparently either overbooking their installs, or getting paid by the hour. 

* DirecTV knows when this is going to happen, and so has the $100 credit program in place to head off the angry folks (like me).

You have to wonder just how much money (and customers) they are losing with such inefficient business practices.

It was simple, really.  Like most households we don’t use our home phone much.  In fact if it weren’t for the occasional fax and odd call we make we’d have dumped our home phone long ago.  The problem is we are still paying over $22 a month for unneeded services – add in a “long distance plan” that is around $7 a month and we soon have $30 per month of money going down the drain.  I simply wanted to drop all that mess and have basic phone service with caller id.  Sounds simple, right?  Well AT&T and simple just don’t go together.

I explained to the customer service rep what I wanted to do.  She was pleasant but I noticed from the beginning something was odd – you see in most organizations sales and customer service are two seperate entities, and for good reason.  People don’t want to be sold more “stuff” when they are trying to resolve a problem.  From the moment she answered the phone she started pushing DirecTV through AT&T on us.  I had to tell her “no, thanks” at least four times over the course of the call.

Then the real fun started.  She informed me that for the low, low price of only $21 per month I could have basic caller ID and call waiting.  I told her that no, I just want caller ID.  Her reply was that this was their “lowest package”.  I then asked her why I would want to pay more (right now I only pay $20.48 per month for caller id, call waiting, three-way calling and some other stuff) and receive less?  Her answer, “Well, that’s the way it is.”

She then wanted to know, yet again, if I wanted to sign up for DirecTV.

So let me guess this straight.  CallerID, which already comes over the phone system and costs them next to nothing to deliver, they want to charge me $21 a month for.  Something that I remember getting for $3 a month years ago.  When I wouldn’t bite that bullet, they wanted to take away services and charge me more for the same thing I was getting five minutes ago.  When I wouldn’t have none of that they wanted to upsell me on more stuff.  Yeah, right, if AT&T thinks I’d buy something else from them after I’m already fuming mad over this racket for local phone service they have another think coming.

I thought to myself “fine, we’ll just take care of this long distance plan”.  On their website, which never works except to take your money, they tout a 60-minute flat rate plan for $2.00 per month.  We pay $5.00 a month for the same thing now.  I told her I wanted that plan.  She then informs me that there is no such plan like that, and the cheapest thing she can offer me is some plan with NO minutes and a base price of $5.00 per month.  Now, let’s step back here again and examine this.  I get 60 minutes a month of long distance (which we use about 3 minutes of) for $5.00 plus a whole bunch of taxes.  They want to switch me to a new plan that gives me zero free minutes, costs $5.00 just for the privilege of having it, and then costs 5-cents per minute to use.  Wow!  What a deal!

Needless to say I told her to forget it all and I was done.  Leave my phone the way it is.  Of course, before I hung up she couldn’t help but push DirecTV on me once again.  They must get a pretty big commission for every sucker they sign up for that.

So now I’m stuck with something I don’t want, paying a ridiculous amount of money for each month.  At this point I’m starting to investigate my options of getting rid of the land line.  So instead of keeping a paying customer, AT&T has used their great customer service to run me away and look at alternatives – and rest assured, I will find an alternative.

I wonder how long it will take for AT&T to go running to the government for a bailout.

I got home from work the other night and found the phone bill waiting in our mailbox.  We’ve been examining every expense lately and making sure that we are getting the best value for our dollars.  This is not the time (nor is it the time no matter what the economic conditions) to be wasting money.  I found that we were paying for something called the “Essentials Plan” that provides Caller ID, Call Waiting, Three-Way Calling to the tune of $20.82 per month.  I also found out we still had Call Waiting Caller ID to the tune of $1.43 per month.

Now there was a time when we had a use for these services – but nowadays we use our home phone for the occasional fax and less than 10 minutes of outbound calling a month.  Cell phones have all but replaced the need for all these fancy services.  So I decided it was time to call and change our plan – to put the $22 and change back in our pocket every month instead of handing it over to AT&T for something we don’t use.

It was around 6:30PM on Friday evening when I called and I got thrown into the “hurry up and wait queue”.  You know the one I am talking about – the one where your call is so very important, but we only have one person working because we don’t want to pay for anyone else.  That queue.

While waiting they told me to go online and I could change my plan easily – so as I sat on hold I fired up my web browser and went to AT&T and logged into my account.  Sure enough, I could make changes to my account – at least part of them.  Well, that is I thought I could until I hit the submit button and was told “Oh, too bad, you have to call and talk to someone to make these changes”.  Uh-huh – how is it when you want to DELETE things you have to call in, but you can ADD things all day long?

So I continued to wait… and wait.  Then the clock struck 7:00PM.  Almost instantly a recorded voice came on telling me that they were sorry, but I was calling outside of normal business hours (they didn’t bother to tell me what those hours were) and then hung up on me.  I was furious.

What other company makes you wait and then hangs up on you?  It’s like going to a grocery store and being in line at 9:00PM when they close and them just turning the lights out on you and locking the doors.  I wasted 30+ minutes of my time and for what?

This is lousy, awful customer service that AT&T should be ashamed about – but why do they have to worry?  It’s not like there is a competitor I can go to for my local phone service.  If there was I would guarantee you that I wouldn’t have been hung up on after waiting in line for 30 minutes.

So come Monday I’ll try again – and perhaps, while I’m sitting here fuming over it, I might just decide to drop my home phone service once and for all.