I just like to share my friend's COSTCO experience, it was the best customer experience, ever! What happened was, she lost her credit card. She doesn't know if it was lost in the store or somewhere else. She only found out that she lost her card after she got home. What she did was she contacted COSTCO, and asked if she left a card there. Unfortunately, the card was not there. My friend got really frustrated, she totally freaked out. So, what the manager did was, he asked my friend to come to the warehouse and he will help her report the lost card. The manager was very helpful, he personally called the bank that handles my friend's COSTCO card. He gave her assurance that everything will be OK. He even offered a gift basket to my friend just to let her know how sorry the manager was about what happened. At the end of the day, the issue was resolved and my friend went home happy and gained a new friend. What I really love about this is how the manager went out of his way to assist my friend. This, clearly, is not part of his job but he took care of my friend. For that, I give him my salute!
That is some excellent service. In my area, Costco has some great things but the crowds are a real turn-off. I mean, go to almost any Costco in L.A. and it is crowded in the early morning on a weekday. However, this testimony has changed my mind about joining.
That is excellent customer service. I work with customer experience, and what many stores don't realize is that customer satisfaction is not about doing what you're supposed to, but exceeding expectations. It seems like that's the case with your friend's Costco experience. I'm very glad to hear that, I love it when stores are able to exceed expectations and really surprise the customer!
It could be that the Manager did that because that's his nature. Once in a while you may come across such people but don't expect it to be too often. IMO, you friend just was lucky. Any other person would have just given the normal, "we'll look into that" line or something similar that gives you hope that something is being done when you know quite well that you may never hear from the Customer service reps again. For that store manager, Congrats would be in order for doing what most people would never do.
This is why I wish that there were Costcos near me. We do have Sam's Club, which is nice, but I hate purchasing anything from as terrible of a company as Walmart.
*This* is the type of stuff that happens, when you treat your employees well. You would never see something like this happening at a Wal-Mart or a Sams Club, because the employees are underpaid, being taken advantage of, under appreciated and jaded. You want good customer service? Then support businesses that treat their employees well and pay them better wages. Costco pays it's employees on average, around $18 per hour, compared to Wal-Mart, who pays them in the $7 range. Some of Costco's stores are unionized as well, so stick that to all the anti-union Wal-Mart apologists. FYI, recent reports on earnings show that Wal-Mart/Sam's Club's profits are down the last quarter of 2013, as well as year to date, while Costco's are actually growing much higher. Wal-Mart CEO's response? It's supposedly due to unseasonably cold weather - yes, the climate change crowd is now blaming the weather for their drop in profits.
