Looking at "customer first" from the shopping experience in the United States

Looking at "customer first" from the shopping experience in the United States Picture/text: North America Xiaopu [...

Picture/text: North America Xiaopu [About the author] North America Xiaopu, a senior media person, a visiting scholar in media at the University of North Carolina, USA; Master of Communication from Indiana University, USA. Introduction: Americans always keep invoices when buying things, because it is normal to exchange and return goods when buying things in the United States. In fact, in the United States, Canada and other European and American countries, there is no legal guarantee that customers must have the "Right of Refund". Instead, it is an industry "hidden rule" that various merchant service industries jointly implement in order to provide customers with a better "customer experience." When I used to manage a company's brand department in China, I often shared this view: "Try your best to satisfy customers so as to retain them, because the cost of developing new customers is 6 times the cost of maintaining old customers...". Compared with our service industry, which remains more focused on the slogan of "customer first", the American service industry also does this.

[Text] I took out the fruit platter I bought from Harries Teeter (a supermarket chain in the eastern United States) yesterday from the refrigerator. I had already eaten half of it. When I opened the box, I found that the fruit had a bit of a peculiar smell. There was definitely no problem when I ate it yesterday. I don’t know whether the fruit spoiled because it was left overnight or because the original quality was poor. In the evening, I was chatting with my American landlord Peter in the living room, and I accidentally talked about this matter with Peter. After hearing this, he said, "Don't throw away the fruit yet. If you take it to the supermarket tomorrow, they will give you a satisfactory answer." I said it was only a little over 6 dollars in total, and I had already eaten half of it, and I didn’t notice anything wrong when I ate it, so let’s just forget about it. Peter said that after all, it had gone bad in just one day, which at least meant that the fruit was not fresh, and insisted that I take it to the supermarket to argue.

We Chinese generally don’t have the habit of leaving an invoice when buying small items. Moreover, when returning goods, if there is no invoice or the item has been slightly changed, we will not refund it. I told Pete r that I didn’t keep an invoice, and it was too troublesome to go to the supermarket Argue for a few dollars, so I wouldn’t go looking for it. Peter said that it didn't matter if there was no invoice, because it was a fact, and if I didn't want to go, he would go by himself. Americans have a strong sense of rights protection and don't care about the amount of money. The next day, Peter took the remaining fruit to the supermarket by himself. After a while he came back from the supermarket and gave me 13 US dollars and said that the manager of the other party came forward today and sincerely asked Peter to bring me their apology and give me double the price of the fruit platter as compensation. I hope this purchase will not cause any discomfort to me. If I feel dissatisfied with the solution, I can go to them to discuss it again. I was a little surprised and asked Peter. Firstly, I didn't have an invoice, secondly, I had almost eaten all the food, and thirdly, there was indeed no problem with the fruit when I first ate it, but the way they handled it really made me feel a bit surprised and satisfied. Peter said, "This is to protect your rights. If you go to Argue, they will pay more attention to keeping the freshness of the fruit in the future. At the same time, you are satisfied and happy with the way it was handled, so that you will go there to buy things in the future, which is what they want!" They want to have their company face and not lose clients (they are very careful about the company's image and do not want to lose customers)? Peter He also told me that although most merchants use invoices to return or exchange goods, there are still some merchants in the United States, such as Costco, who can use their computer systems to find out the original purchase records and return or exchange goods to customers even if they do not have an invoice.

I recalled the scene when I was shopping in another store in the United States a month ago. At that time, I saw a special price on a type of cookie that I liked. This type of cookie is rarely discounted, so I planned to buy a few more boxes to keep at home. But there was only one box left on the counter. When I paid the bill, I accidentally told the cashier my disappointment. Without saying a word, the salesperson typed a receipt for me, which was a coupon for 4 boxes of cookies. He told me that within a month I could use this receipt to buy 4 boxes of cookies at the current discounted price. This receipt is what we often call "Take a rain check" in English (This means you can buy the item later for the sale price, even when the sale is over. If a discounted item you want to buy is out of stock, they can issue a rain check receipt, and when it is in stock, you can purchase it at the discounted price). Rain Check is another good example of customer-first experience in American malls.

At the same time when buying something in an American supermarket, if the price you pay is different from the price tag on the shelf (because the price tag is placed incorrectly or is not updated in time, the price tag on the shelf is often different from the price at checkout), you can get this product for free (If a sale item scans wrong, you will get it for free). There are many such shopping experiences in the United States. The "disappointment" scenes that often occur when shopping in China often lead to unexpected "surprises" here.

Compared with the "unexpected surprises" I continue to get when shopping in the United States, our domestic service industry still has many deficiencies and deficiencies in handling customer shopping disputes. There are very few experiences that allow customers to reap these unexpected "surprises." In the eyes of many domestic merchants, the image of a century-old store and merchant brand is far less affordable than receiving cash immediately. In fact, there is no law in the United States that guarantees that customers must have the "Right of Refund (right of return)." Instead, it is an industry "hidden rule" formulated by each merchant service industry in order to achieve "customer first" and allow customers to have a better "customer experience." There is a basic theory in the entire service industry that the cost of developing new customers is 6 times the cost of maintaining old customers. Compared with us who stay more on slogans, the American service industry also does this.