New York & Company Risks Customer Relationship With Return Mishap

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.