Startup Spark

5 Lessons Learned From Kohl’s Crappy Customer Service

by Ben Yoskovitz on January 22nd, 2007

Big companies are notorious for providing poor customer service and responding in monotonous, corporate speak to problems. Many of us accept that as truth and move on. But we shouldn’t. There are plenty of lessons to be learned…

Recently a friend of mine, Paul McEnany went into a Kohl’s department store in Dallas, Texas and was shocked at the condition of the store. He snapped some pictures and wrote a fairly blunt but meaningful post about it.

A few other bloggers, including Christina Kerley at CK’s Blog got wind of the situation and started writing about it as well. CK encouraged Paul to call Kohl’s and complain.

He did.

After a few phone conversations, he received a voice message response from a Kohl’s representative. It consisted of your typical, boring response. Paul wasn’t particularly impressed. He was hoping for more. In Kohl’s defense, they did respond, but they missed a huge opportunity.

What makes things even worse (and more amusing) is that an employee of the Kohl’s store started a blog in response to Paul’s efforts. You don’t want to miss this one. The employee rails against Kohl’s, the stupidity of management, and even calls customers “pigs.” Ouch.

So what lessons can startup companies and entrepreneurs learn?

1. Don’t underestimate the power of 1 person. Paul’s just one man. He complains online and the blogosphere does the rest. One person can, at least, cause a huge stink. Whether we see change from Kohl’s is another story.
2. Monitor the Web carefully. Kohl’s might not have found out about Paul’s original post had he not called them. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Even still they may never respond again. Why doesn’t Kohl’s have a blog? It’s so easy to monitor the Web and find out what people are saying about you. Even if you run a 1-person company, do it.
3. Responding to complaints isn’t enough, it’s HOW you do it that matters. Kohl’s responded but they took the bland, “at a distance” approach. Maybe they hoped this would go away. Clearly they were clueless as to point #1 and #2 above. They might still be clueless! What you need to remember is that it’s not just good enough to respond, the way you do it - the tone, the style, the message you give - are all important.
4. Responding quickly and effectively always wins. Kohl’s could have turned this situation on its rear by having an honest discussion with Paul about the incident. They could have provided more explanation. They could have invited Paul back to see the results of their clean-up (which incidentally took 10 days to get around to.)
5. Customer service is a differentiator. Paul walks into Kohl’s because of its proximity and the pricing, but he doesn’t become a customer just because of those things. The quality of service (including the state of the store) is a huge differentiator. Paul compares Kohl’s to stores like K-Mart and Target, recognizing the obvious competition on price but also pointing out how badly Kohl’s is failing in the image department. Startups can stand out through customer service. You might have the best product in the world but if you can’t treat customers with respect, forget about it.

And the bonus lesson: Don’t be like Kohl’s.

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POSTED IN: Business, Business Failure, Entrepreneurship