Customer Service?

I got a really harsh email from MaryAnna today. MaryAnna is a little annoyed with her local Walmart and needed a place to vent. She went into one of the hate Uber sites and was still angry when she came out. She told me that she knew what to expect when she went into the site, but she had expected something better than what she found, especially after the buildup that it got from a Penn and Teller program. What MaryAnna found was a group of people without a clue. The link that she sent me was the one that left her scratching her head. Someone in this site put forth the idea of boycotting Walmart for a year. Okay............ MaryAnna's sister works at a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida, and the idea of a boycott is patently ridiculous, according to MaryAnna. If sales are down, way down, will Walmart begin to change their policies? Or will Walmart simply cut the hours of the associates in that store until everyone is forced to find another job in this great BO economy? What do you think? But the original source of MaryAnna's annoyance was that she was trying to buy something today and she could not find one single person that would help her! After waiting 5 minutes for someone to return with a manager, Maryanna gave up and left. She also left the cart of things she had intended to buy. Chalk up another loss of $200 for Walmart. In the grand scheme of things $200 is nothing to Walmart, or even that store. But if more people do it, maybe the bad sales will force them to change their ways. Or, like Maryanna believes, it will only put good people, like her sister, out of a job. So what is the solution? MaryAnna asked me in an email, and I told her the truth. I don't know. There are those who believe that a union of some sort will fix the problems. The only thing that a union might fix is the falling revenue of many unions. According to the sites that I have visited, union membership is down. Way down. But before I start a union discussion, I will head back to the start of this blog. Walmart should take a serious look at the customer service that it offers. Great service should be the norm, not the exception. What is my definition of good customer service? First of all, it shouldn't take five minutes for a manager to get back to you, either on the phone or in the store. Is my time not valuable? Second, when I am asking about a product that you don't have in stock, don't give me the sorry about your luck speech. How about if you make a phone call and see if it is at any other Walmarts in the area? Third, please don't act as if I am putting you out by expecting you to do your job. If you are a salaried member of management, isn't it your job to make sure that I am satisfied? I have noticed that satisfaction guaranteed is no longer on the outside of many Walmart store buildings. It is no longer inside the store either. I don't think that there is a solution that comes to the mind, easily. It would seem that Walmart's competitors have an opportunity at this point. If a retailer were to take a hard look at the policies that Sam Walton started, they would have the blueprint for a successful business. And it's not like the current Walmart is busy using those principles. So wouldn't it be great if some other retail place started a store that is like Walmart used to be? If a new store chain starts up in the near future, and it has the policies and customer service that Walmart used to have, you can thank me later.