Customer Service should begin with a greeting as soon as you see or speak to the Customer Service Representative (who can be a clerk, waitstaff, cashier, an operator on the phone, etc...). After greeting: ask the customer/client how they may be helped, use eye contact and be cordial and professional and polite; in otherwards show you care! Then do everything you can to perform the task at hand efficiently, and try always to make your customer a "Happy Camper" in other words assist them in whatever they came in to see you for. When done ask if that if that is all they needed and as they prepare to leave thank them and say "good-bye; what a pleasure it was to serve you today!" Many of our customers ask for me or the owner, they refuse to deal with anyone else in the Agency because they want competent, caring, helpful, and reliable people to help them. There are a few youngsters here at work that give the impression that they could care less, or you're bothering me. These individuals may do other duties correctly, but their C.S.R. skills SUCK! If it were up to me totally I would fire them, I have no patience for that type behavior, at work, at home, or when I am the customer/client. I was taught long ago that "the Customer/Client is #1, and they are always right! They pay our wages and keep us in business!!!

I hope Williams & Sonoma folds and then we can purchase their stuff at Big Lots for a fraction of the price they charge:D

I was shocked last week when the lady at the JCPenney catalog place here in town went out of her way to help me. I had ordered Jons Dad 2 pairs of overalls. I ordered them to small and took them back to the catalog place here in town to send them back for a bigger size. When I ordered them they were $29. When the lady at the catalog place called them to get the next size up sent they were going to charge me $39 because they were no longer on sale. Since I was returning them they had to give them to me at $29 but the lady she had on the phone didnt want to do it. She stood up for me and insisted on speaking to that persons boss. She stayed on the phone with them til she got them for me at $29. When she got off the phone I told her how much I appreciated it. She goes some people you get when you call them are rude and you have to get rude right back lol.

Just an update on the Williams-Sonoma situation.

Apparently, any complaint filed with corporate is automatically forwarded to the appropriate district office.

A good thing, as the corporate customer service people are the next best thing to useless. I don’t begin to understand why they don’t just say that, instead of sending all the BS messages.

At any rate, I received an email from Lisa Arnold, the Midwest District Manager, who, among other things, said she’d like to discuss the problem. After a bit of phone tag we finally connected.

She was very sweet; very personable. In fact, in addition to the problem, we had a nice talk about food and cooking in general, and exchanged a few recipes. She'd be a good addition to our little SpicePlace family, in fact.

She apologized profusely for the problem, thanked me for bringing it to their attention, and told me she’s spoken to “her team” in Lexington, to assure it wouldn’t happen again.

She also pointed out that W-S’s policy is to allow customers to handle the display knives, and that most of their stores actually have a pull-out cutting board for that purpose. The Lexington store lacks such a board because it’s old, and smaller than most. But that the clerk should have taken me somewhere in the store where I could have handled the knives properly.

She did not address the clerk’s stupid comment that I couldn’t play with the knives on a board because they would then be used knives. Obviously, the clerk made that up out of whole cloth for whatever reason.

She also indicated that at the next corporate meeting, in July, she would be talking to the appropriate people about making both the web page and the corporate customer service people a little more customer responsive.

Finally, she said, she hoped I wouldn’t let this experience sour me, and that I would give them another chance.

On my end, I pointed out that she was the only person in the W-S hierarchy who seemed to care, one way or the other. And I thanked her for her concern and for following-up. But that given the overall experience I’d had at both the retail and corporate ends, and given the store’s location, it was doubtful I would ever enter it again.

And that was that. Very friendly. And I certainly appreciate her follow up, even though there was no direct resolution of my problem. But maybe some good will come out of it, so that other customers don’t go through what I did.

All we can do is hope, but you did your part, and that is all it might take if Ms. Arnold will jump right on it and make a little noise!

You did your part to make sure it doesnt happen to anyone else.