Preventing the Death of Customer Care

A disgruntled columnist, after having no luck buying a desk, urges companies to focus on face-to-face service rather than online purchases

by Bruce Weinstein, PhD

In a recent column I argued that outsourcing customer service (BusinessWeek.com, 9/27/07) is unethical and bad for business because of the poor experience many customers end up having. But there is another problem in business today that is not only much more pervasive than the outsourcing of customer service—it is also more insidious.

The problem is the increasing reliance on the Internet to meet the needs of customers.

I'll explain the various facets of this problem through the story of how I've tried, over the past several weeks, to buy a new office desk.

The Big-Box Blues

I've needed more spacious office furniture for a while, so I visited the local big-box office supply store, which I will call Grommets. After entering the cavernous building, the first challenge was finding a "customer care" associate. Even though there were few other customers in the store and it was the busiest shopping day of the week, it was hard to find anyone who actually worked there. When someone finally showed up, I told him that I'd like to buy a desk.

"OK. Look around at our selection and then order what you want on the Internet."

"Why can't I buy it from this store?" I asked.

"It's faster if you use our Web site. For one thing, we don't stock everything that we have on display. It's better if you take a look at our catalog, and then use our computer to order what you want."

The store, therefore, is a showcase for office furniture rather than a place where you can purchase and take home what you want. If you'd like anything besides pens, paper, or paper clips, you're out of luck. Whoever thought that buying a desk would be no different than buying a car?

When I pressed the associate for specific information about a few of the pieces on display, he admitted that the only thing he knew about them was what he himself had read on the Internet. He continued to encourage me to go online or look through the catalog the store had on site.

"I think I'll just take a catalog home and look through it there," I said, since the prospect of sitting in the middle of a garishly lighted warehouse leafing through a magazine wasn't especially appealing.

"You can't do that. We just have one." He pointed to a desk that had the catalog glued to it. "Help yourself."

Well, at least they had an electronic massager attached to the chair, which made the indignity of the whole affair a little easier to bear.

Checking Out

When I found a desk I wanted, I walked over to the kiosk where the store made one of its computers available for customers. Two young men were huddled around it. "What do you want?" one of them mumbled.

"I'd like to order something when you're through."

"We're filling out an application," the other one said. They had already been there awhile, I'd noticed, so either they were playing around or they just wanted to take their time. It clearly was going to be a long wait.

Becoming increasingly annoyed by what should have been a very simple task, I headed to the customer service center, a misnomer if ever there was one. You see, after the clerk behind the desk pointed to yet another PC I could use to place my order, and I began typing in the SKU for the item I wanted, another associate grabbed the keyboard out of my hands.

"Excuse me?" I blurted out. It was as though I was an unsuspecting patsy on some reality show about the horrors of shopping in the 21st century. "I'm in the middle of ordering something."

"I just need it for a minute," she said with a huff.

"But I'm about to buy something from you! What kind of store is this?"

Since she wanted what she wanted when she wanted it, I chose to give up the struggle. "All right, you can have the keyboard. I guess you're not really interested in my business, are you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, and the manager looked on without a word. I left the store shaking my head in disbelief over what had just occurred.