Dear Manager at Victoria's Secret,
I'm so sorry to see the that the recession has hit your store so hard. Apparently you can no longer provide any sort of customer service training for your employees.
Here are a few tips, free of charge, that might help you improve the very lacking customer service.
1. When a customer walks in the store, look at them and acknowledge presence with a "hello, how are you today." Or, at the very least, a head nod.
2. When said customer has an armful of bras and is pushing a double stroller, feel free to ask if they need help or would like their selected items to be placed in a dressing room.
3. In the event that said employee does not do that and the customer finally asks for a dressing room, note that she is pushing a double stroller and will need the largest dressing room. This is not to be confused with the smallest dressing room. If said customer is not accommodated, please note that two unruly children will be running and/or crawling around the store, one of whom is very fond of taking the panties out of the drawer and flinging them haphazardly. The other will merely be content to chew on the panties that have been flung.
4. When customer asks for a bra in a different size yet the same color and the store does not have that size/color combination in stock, do not stand there blankly staring at the wall. Lift your arm and gesture towards the slightly different but very similar style of bra a few racks over. Walking over there and looking to see if preferred bra size/color is available would be an even better option.
5. In the event that no one is at the register, yet an employee is standing near the register, direct said employee to either a) go to register to assist customer or b) use store-issued headset/walkie talkie to contact other employee in assisting customer.
I hope you find these tips helpful.
Seriously ticked off,
Emily
*UPDATE* After I posted this, I was contacted by a manager at VS's corporate offices and they sent me a gift card in response to my poor experience.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
a helpful letter to the management at Victoria's Secret
Posted by Emily at 7:44 AM
Labels: funny, me, things that tick me off
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
29 comments:
I would have left the the store, leaving the bras in the dressing room. I hate bad customer service. Grr.
One of the many reasons I'm not a fan of VS! I can't believe you still bought a bra!
I would call customer service!
Totally LMAO!!! That is hysterical! You should print that out and send it to corporate!
SUPER funny! I can just see Charlie sitting on the floor chewing on all the panties!
So...you had a good time at Vicky's, huh? Want to go again today?
You seriously could've gotten better service at a self-service place like T.J.Maxx. That's absolutely ridiculous. Well, that and, oh I don't know, maybe THE FACT YOU STILL GAVE THEM YOUR MONEY!!!!
My 1st job was working in retail sales at Parisian. Ahh, the good old days! However the majority of the 'too many to count' years I worked there was spent in Human Resources. In addition to interviewing, referencing and hiring employees, I also did new hire training. Then they spent an entire 40 hour week going thru numerous other important customer service training courses. Back then, customers were valued. Unfortunately, that is not the case now AT.ALL.
The only way to possibly get any type of good customer service these days is to command it. If you don't receive it, demand it. If you still are unsatisfied, complain about it. But don't bother spending anymore money there. That's just rewarding bad business behaviour. It'll just be a waste since they haven't practiced even halfway decent customer service in as long as I can remember!
OK, I officially stepping down from my soapbox. ;-)
I think you should mail it! My cousin was an assistant manager for them for 2 years and said the higher-ups take complaints very seriously. She said they will occasionally send out "Our appologies" notes with a gift card. :) That would be great!
Didn't you know that snootiness and unhelpfulness are drummed into the fragile minds of these 18year olds at their training? How else can they be complete flops throughout their careers -retail or other - without fully embracing the idea that it is never "their job" and "the customer is always annoying."
what is wrong with people?
Must be a company-wide issue because I don't shop VS here in AZ for many of those same reasons. It seems GOOD customer service is not the norm anymore and I'm more surprised when I GET it than when I don't. Sad sad sad ... makes online shopping so much more pleasant (though not at VS - when I boycott a store I really do it!)
this is so funny...when did this happen?
OH no! I feel your pain...except I wish i was in a Victoria's Secret store buying pretty bras! haha! That's so frustrating, some people just don't have any courtesy anymore. HOpe you still got some great deals and some pretty bras!
I feel like customer service as a whole and gone down the crapper. Any stores you walk into… people just don’t care! But I have to say I laughed by @$$ off reading this! So funny!! Good job!
UGH! Don't even get me started on customer service and how it seems that ALL STORES have BAD customer service nowadays!
.....that's why I just do my shopping at Neiman's....they can always be counted on for a glass of wine, butt-smoochin' and PERFECTION in customer service (even though I hardly buy anything...it's great for the ego! hehe)
I have been to a few stores like that too. OMGosh our Better Health food store is like that. If there was a different one close to me I would totally go there. they are so rude and mean. We also have a payless like that. ugh.
Thats horrible. I would be so mad. Unfortunately they will never do anything about it. I hate when those sorts of things happen.
Huh. I didn't know customer service still existed anywhere.....
HA HA HA I LOVE THIS.. Maybe someone up high in VS will read this! That would be awesome :)
LOL...i hate it. Plus, you were probably working up a sweat trying to keep up with the kids and them trying to save on electicity bill. But I must say I had to do the same thing a few months ago (something about stopping nursing) and I do LOVE my new pretty bras!! It was worth it.
Here Here! Working in retail for many years, I always find the CS I receive in some places to be terrible.
LOL, very funny but so sad that it had to be written, huh?
I think customer service has taken a hit in this economy too, and it could ill afford to.
Thanks for stopping by to visit today!
I haven't been in one of those stores in ages but this sounds like they've gotten really bad! I remember the days when you had to say "no thank you" every 5 minutes to the various inquires of if help was needed.
Awesome, I think you should send this to management!!:-)
That's funny! Great tips, but you wouldn't need them if there were incentives for employees to sell stuff & if they hired people that actually gave a crap. I'm with Krystyn. Call corporate, tell them about your crappy experience, and you will hopefully be treated to at least a coupon.
Loved this! I am sick of lack of customer service, there doesn't seem to be any manners anymore taught to new assistants. I'm always complaining about it!
CJ xx
YEAH!! you go girl....right on...valued customer? service? they havent been born...and these shops deserve to go out of bsuiness IF they cannot train their staff and dare them to practice it...
give me back King customer days when l trained and served...dont get me on to it...makes me so cross
Seriously! With notably few exceptions, customer service is dead and gone in America.
You should send this post TO Victoria's Secret Corporate.
Good to see I'm not the only one who has written a rant about Victoria's! When I finally got my little dressing room, the chick was WAAAAY too "helpful" and actually looked like she was going to reach into the ill-fitting bra and "adjust" my girls.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? No way no how. I was floored and beat it out of there.
And I actually dumped a huge pile of clothes at Old Navy and loudly told the chatting group of lazy employees why I would not be standing in line another 20 minutes to purchase them. Umm... yeah, that was over a year ago and I've been too ashamed to go back since, LOL.
Sorry about your experience!
The last time I was in VS I had a fabulous customer service girl. But she was so sick! Poor thing. I had to go buy her an Orange Julius because her throat was all raspy and she was waifishly thin. She needed nourishment.
Post a Comment