At dinner Thursday evening, a guest asked me about my profession. When I mentioned the companies I've worked for, she said, "Oh Lands' End! Did you know that I get free shipping from Lands' End on every order?"
She told us that she assembles her order online, then calls the 1-800-356-4444, and reads the items residing in her shopping cart. Then she "gets crabby", telling the agent she will not pay for shipping and handling. The agent, being a kind, humble person from Southwestern Wisconsin, waives the $16.95 fee on her $210 order.
The obedient soul who follows directions pays 8% more than the crabby individual.
I've sat in executive meetings where this topic comes up. In every case I can remember, my leadership partners and I elected to give a better price to the crabby customer.
Our industry will have made progress when we figure out how to not be punitive to kind customers who follow the rules.
Maybe she was crabby cuz she receieved a code for free shipping on a Tuesday that expried that day, WITH NO TIME TO WAIT TIL THE WEEKEND WHEN SHE HAS TIME TO SURF THE INTERNET. Tell your clients to respect working women. their current policies favor stay at home wives who have time to shop as soon as they recieve a code. I got my code on Wednesday, and it was already expired when I tried to use it Saturday morning. Dern right I'm angry!
ReplyDeleteYes, please respect the working woman that needs to deal with customers always trying to cheat the system.
ReplyDeleteWell, this isn't just a working mom problem. I'm a stay-at-home mom (and still working mind you). I have the same problem with codes expiring before I can find a quiet moment to look through the catalog. I usually try to schlep to Sears and place my order there so I don't have to pay shipping.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion, offer free shipping for orders over $25 like amazon.com. Then we can all shop whenever WE want.