Welcome customers to and from your business. Costco’s entry and exit system doesn’t feel like a special, privileged club. To me it feels like I am a criminal they are temporarily allowing access to the store. Having “greeters” who do nothing but check to make sure your card is valid doesn’t make you feel welcome. Having your cart searched and every item ticked off your receipt as you exit leaves you feeling dirty and untrustworthy.
Feel free to post your comments on Costco. Do you like or dislike this shopping experience?
Technorati Tags: customer experience, customer service, Costco
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteI used to work at Costco years ago. While I was there I did some time working the doors. When people would ask me why I check their receipts when they leave I'd tell them it was because I was looking to see that items weren't double scanned (which happens more often than you might imagine). Granted that wasn't all I was watching out for, but when people heard I was actually looking out for their interests they seemed to feel better about me checking their receipts.
Myself, I look at it from the standpoint of Costco is doing something to keep prices down. It's very easy for unscrupulous types easy to get product past the registers and out the door. If Costco can keep losses down they can keep prices down.
Granted, Costco and it's front line employees could do more to make the customers feel better about having their card and receipts checked.
I work the door.
ReplyDeleteThe members make ME feel like a criminal and even when I try my best to treat them kindly the majority will have nothing to do with me.
The majority of the time I become so numb to ignorant/angry/mean members that I end up ignoring the friendly members as well.
If you don't feel like taking out your card so that Costco can make sure you are a member/keep count of the number of members coming into the warehouse in order to have the proper number of cash registers open: by all means, have your membership refunded and leave. (whoa run-on)
Although you would be surprised the number of people who are impressed when I find items that they have not paid for in their carts. To date I have only had one member throw his pack of water at me.
Thanks so much for your comments about this post. It's a very difficult situation for front-line employees, who may not be empowered to change how things feel. My post was directed more at how Costco is managing their experience than at the front-line employees, who have a very tough job.
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