CONNECTION - Kinney Drugs

CORNER
PRESIDENT’S
By now, most of you have completed several modules in our new “It’s my
Kinney” Customer Service Program. It’s our expectation that you take what
you have learned in the program and immediately put it to use in both your
professional and personal lives. A recent experience that I had in one of our
stores, and that I’ll share with you now, tells me this is already happening!
A couple of weeks ago, I stopped at #34 (Gouverneur) to do my weekly
shopping. On my way into the store… I set off the EAS System. You can imagine how I felt…
there I stood… red cheeked… others shoppers staring at me… embarrassed as all get out… and
doing everything short of putting my hands up in the air waiting to be frisked!
Fortunately for me, Tanya was working front checkout that morning. She came right over, smiled
at me and said, “Good Morning Bridget”… Immediately things were getting better… she wasn’t
laughing at me or “silently accusing me” of anything, and hearing her use my name, made me start to
relax, rather than getting defensive.
The rest of our conversation flowed like this:
Tanya: “Are those new jeans, by any chance?”
Me: “As a matter of fact, yes… I got them a couple of weeks ago”
Tanya: “Did you buy them at Old Navy or Gap?”
Me: “Yup…they’re Gap jeans”.
Tanya: “You may want to go home and look for a security tag sewn into a seam. They don’t always
deactivate them and even washing them doesn’t take care of it.”
So I finished my usual shopping and we joked at the checkout about how I would “beep” again
when I went out… and of course I did!
Why am I telling you this story? Well first… when something is done very well, it should be
recognized, and Tanya took what could easily have been a very humiliating experience and turned it
into something to laugh about. And secondly, it’s to emphasize the fact that great customer service
can and must be applied in every situation.
2
There were a lot of different ways Tanya could have handled that situation. She could have ignored
me, been grumpy about being interrupted from “her work”, or could have treated me like I was
trying to steal something. Each of those approaches would have made me want to leave the store
and never come back! But instead… she acted like the owner of the company… which she is! She
exceeded my expectations… and made me feel good about spending my money in her store.
PS… Yes… when I went home I did find a tag in the jeans, which is now long gone!
Second Edition 2008