Have you ever asked yourself or your friend why Walmart’s customer service is so bad? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.
No matter how well-liked they are, supermarket stores occasionally have service difficulties. But is it conceivable that there is one store that routinely receives poor customer ratings? As it happens, there is.
The findings were essentially unanimous when Mashed polled 652 individuals to see which national grocery shop they thought had the worst customer service. According to the poll, 52.3% of consumers identify Walmart as the culprit.
Five reasons why Walmart’s customer service is so bad are:
- They Don’t Have Enough Staff
- Nobody Knows Where to Find Anything
- The Staff Are Grouchy
- They Aren’t Able to Authorize Accounts
- Refusing to Take Returns
5 Reasons Why Walmart’s Customer Service is So Bad
Walmart, the biggest retailer in America, has recently been beset by obvious issues with understaffing and subpar customer service. Why has shopping at Walmart become so disorganized and unpleasant?
1. They Don’t Have Enough Staff
Even though the company is worth billions of dollars, the home office gives store managers a set number of hours and paycheck dollars they can use to hire staff members and pay them in each department.
These amounts are determined by the sales in that department on that day during the previous fiscal year.
You can start to understand how this pattern of never having any help available developed when you consider that store manager and assistant managers’ incentive bonuses (about $80K for store managers and $20K for assistant managers each year) are partially based on how much they can reduce scheduled hours/payroll from the year prior (of course, while still maintaining sales up).
Walmart’s hourly workers receive quarterly incentives but are often less than $300 and do not even cover the hours deducted from their salary to obtain the bonus.
2. Nobody Knows Where to Find Anything
In workers’ capacity as department managers, the home office also requires us to modify the design of their spaces and the things that are kept in them every six months.
It is simple to understand why not even the managers know where everything is when you consider all the seasonal products we have to account for (Easter things, summer stuff, Thanksgiving, etc.).
A department can include about 6,000 items. Anyone who can mentally track where 6,000 different goods are located at any given time is an incredible find, particularly when you consider that their location on the shelf changes roughly once every 3-6 months.
It also helps to make sales if the customer is left wandering around the aisle looking for that one thing they came to buy and decide to add a few more things to their cart since it’s right there.
It’s a similar tactic to having candy and other products on the aisle leading to checkout.
3. The Staff Are Grouchy
Customer support representatives typically receive 3–4 tasks they must finish before their shift.
This entails removing/moving displays, transferring 100 boxes of inventory to the floor, altering the layout, and updating all labels along a whole aisle in their area.
These tasks can take a complete shift or more to perform if there is an excessive amount of inventory on the shelves or if there are a lot of more discontinued products after installing a new arrangement on an aisle.
If you didn’t also have to assist customers, cover for the cashier, clean up after yourself, and put things away in other sections, this would be OK.
Workers often have to choose between having a customer angry at them for being grumpy or rude or having their boss mad at them for not completing everything in time.
Most workers anger the customer instead of risking their job for good service.
Add in that most customers talking to customer service are already in a bad mood because of an issue, and it can be a bad mix as the worker needs to deal with someone who might be hostile towards them.
4. They Aren’t Able to Authorize Accounts
Suppose you’re having an issue authorizing your account, especially as online shopping becomes more popular.
In that case, your first thought on how to solve the problem may be to contact customer service. However, there are limitations to what they can help you with, whether those are imposed by higher-ups or their lack of training.
Changing your contact information, like a phone number or email address, can cause many issues online as you try to prove you own an account so you can checkout.
Walmart’s reps aren’t always able to help you switch your information over since they need to verify your identity before allowing it, which they can’t do with an outdated phone number or email.
You’ll likely be told to make a new account and fill in your new information. This is not always the best tactic if you have other information on your other account, you want access to or to ensure the different account is closed because it contains sensitive information.
5. Refusing to Take Returns
You won’t be able to return some things, even if you have your receipt and are within the return window after purchasing. However, many customers complain about being told an item wasn’t returnable until they tried to return it.
This can cause many issues, especially with more expensive items.
But by far the most frustrating experience for shoppers is when customer services tell them they can return the item and that the return is processing, only to have nothing happen or receive an email informing them their account is closed because they violated returns terms.
This can double your frustration when you read the “satisfaction guaranteed” slogan on store signs and shopping bags because when you aren’t satisfied, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to return the product and get a refund.
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Conclusion
Despite how well-liked they may be, supermarkets periodically experience service issues. But is it possible that there is a specific shop that consistently gets lousy customer reviews?
In actuality, there is. When Mashed surveyed 652 people to find out which national grocery store they believed to have the worst customer service, the results were nearly unanimous. 52.3% of respondents to the survey believe Walmart is to blame.