Key Concepts:
Empowerment
Follow Up
Service Appeasements

Situation:
November 6th, 2015.  I’m at my local Target to pick up a prescription.  I attempt to pay using my new chip-tech Target REDcard™.  I have successfully used my new card prior to this visit. Today, however, I received an error message (Sorry didn’t write it down) relaying that the information/system was not available.  After conversing with the pharmacy tech, we acknowledged that other guests had used the REDcard™ as payment previously during the day, but not at that specific terminal.  We attempted twice before I ended up paying cash.  We also agreed that as I finished other shopping, if my REDcard™ worked at the front checkout I would stop by and let them know so they could check the terminal.  After finishing my shopping, I went through self-checkout.  I received the same error message with my REDcard™ and ultimately paid with my regular debit card.

I looked around the checkout area, I couldn’t discern if other folks were having the same problems.  So I left under the assumption my card was the problem.  Upon arriving home, I called the 866 number on the back of my card and proceeded to log on to my account online as well.  After a brief wait I spoke to a live team member who could not help me because their back end system was down and could not look up my card information.  Hmmm, while this situation could still be a problem with my specific card, if the back end system was down, wonder if that also impacted the POS system too?  The team member on the phone suggested I call back in a few hours or the following day.

I promptly forgot about the situation and didn’t call back until the following week when I had to make another trip to Target.  I wanted to verify if I could use my REDcard™ or not.  I spoke with a team member and explained the situation.  My card is fine, there was some outtage of just the system that pertains to the REDcard™ during the hours of my visit the week prior.  When I asked if anything could be done with the additional 5% discount when the REDcard™ is used as payment (I would have used my REDcard™ if I could and thus paid 5% less during that visit’s shopping).
The team member explained if I take my receipt(s) to the store Guest Services counter they should be able to assist.

On my next visit, I went to Guest Services counter, explained the situation and showed my receipts.  The Guest Services team member recalled hearing about an outage and asked me to wait a few minutes while she discussed the situation with a manager.  The team member called on the radio then ran off into the store looking for a manager.  5-10 minutes later the team member came back with two $3 off coupons and apologized for the inconvenience and explained that I could use these anytime on a future purchase.

Outcome:
Ultimately, I was satisfied with the outcome of the situation.  I could not use my REDcard™, at no fault of my own.  I was “out” the 5% REDcard™ discount (~$5.00).  I made two short phone calls, no special trips nor did I feel any extra effort was required by me. I received two $3 off coupons for the trouble called it a day.

Feedback/Discussion (please respond in the comments!):

While I felt the service after not being able to use my REDcard™ was good, here are some thoughts that immediately came to mind that could have made the situation world class.

Empowerment – the nature of the appeasement; low dollar and coupon based (bar code/trackable).  Gave me the first impression that the Guest Services Team Member should have been empowered to take care of the customer without approval.  I’m not familiar with Target’s training or policy/procedures in this case and it is possible the Team Member did have the authority and simply wanted a second opinion.  Do you empower your team to do certain things to take care of customers without supervisory approval?  How do you differentiate what needs approval and what doesn’t?  Any other thoughts that could have further pushed this from good to world class?

Follow Up – During my first call I was asked to call back, I have noticed this frequently when I’m the customer.  In general, when taking care of our customers, we encourage our team to ask if the customers would like a return contact, how they would like to be contacted and when a good time is to contact them.  The customer may decline and wish to call back on their own, but we extended the invitation as a courtesy.  What do you think?  How does your team handle situations like this?  Is this too much for your team to keep track of?  The consequences of not following through could make the situation worse.

Service Appeasements – there are a lot of little things that go a long way to make a customer’s day.  Aside from effortlessly and satisfactorily taking care of a customer’s concern.  We want them to come back, continue to shop with us, “give us a second chance” etc.  Coupons and gift certificates/store credits fit the bill perfectly (in most retail cases).  This type service appeasement may not work across all industries.  What other types of appeasements could have been executed?  Could Target have done something different in this case?  What if I balked and said the two $3 coupons were not good enough?