Customer Loyalty Blog: Sears, Lies and Process Measurement

Sears, Lies and Process Measurement

November 27, 2006
Greg Robinson, Customer Loyalty Blog

This weekend I got into the holiday spirit and bought an air hockey table at Sears. When I went to pick up the table a day later, I was very impressed with the customer pick up area. The electronic scanner allowed you to log in your pick up request and this information was transferred to a scoreboard above the warehouse door and to an employee in the back. They had a sign promising five minute delivery of your item to you or you would get a $5 gift certificate and a board showing that 100% of yesterday’s pick ups and 92% of the previous month’s pick ups had been completed within five minutes. Since it wasn’t crowded, I was confident that I would be in and out of the store in plenty of time to watch the end of the Florida/FSU game.

When the pick up scoreboard hit four minutes, I got up, knowing that my table would be on its way. At 4:15, I saw an employee at the computer in the back. At 4:27 my order showed completed on the scoreboard. The doors opened and the employee sprang forward . . . but my table was nowhere to be seen.

When I asked him where my table was, he said in a very annoyed tone of voice that someone had stored it incorrectly and he couldn’t find it. I then asked why my pick up showed completed and he said he had turned it off because it was not his fault that the table was not in the wrong place. Before I could say anything else, he walked away from me and went into the store presumably to find my table.

After waiting a few minutes, I decided to go into the store and after wandering around a bit, someone asked if they could help me—it was the Customer Service Manager for the store. I told her my situation and she took my receipt and went off to solve the problem. 10 minutes later, my table and receipt appeared along with a $10 gift certificate for my wait.

The process made me curious about the accuracy of Sears’ process measurement process and how the data is used. The 15+ minutes it took for me to get my table is recorded as a having been completed in 4:27. By the employee’s actions, it seems as though he will get punished for failing to complete the delivery of the merchandise in less than five minutes even if the product is not where it is supposed to be.

Measuring process performance is the right thing to do, but if you don’t get accurate data, it defeats the purpose. Giving front line employees the ability to shut down the system when things go wrong undoubtedly leads to results that are better than they actually are and potentially hides problems from management. Getting your shipment quickly is certainly a key measure of process effectiveness and customer satisfaction, but it is not the only one. Speed of delivery when accomplished without regard for friendly and attentive customer service, will not delight your customers.