
The problem is that it's now incumbent on Christine to find time in her schedule to make a return trip to New York & Co. to exchange an item for the store credit she's looking for — a task that very easily could have been taken care of the first time if the staff would have just printed her credit on a receipt, which is a common practice for many retailers. Look, I'm not saying that mistakes aren't going to be made occasionally. We're all human. My beef is with how New York & Co. handled the situation.
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times: Retailers should view customer service as an opportunity to satisfy and win over customers, not as a problem. New York & Co. could have handled this situation by being overly helpful and sympathetic to a loyal customer. (And I'm sure Christine wasn't the only customer who walked away from the store that day dissatisfied, especially in this post-holiday period when returns are plentiful.) But instead it chose to push off the problem on the customer, never a recipe for success.

Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.