I wanted to buy a projector for business presentations, one of those micro LED models that have recently begun to become popular with those of us who travel. Looking for that instant gratification thing (go pick it up at the store today) I found that one was in stock at the local Circuit City (according to the Circuit City website). That’s the last part of this story that comes anywhere near being an SCO…

So I drove down to the the local store and meandered over to the computer section. Seemed logical it would be there as this type of projector is used almost exclusively by business people (the LED projectors aren’t really bright enough for good home theater use). No luck.

Spotted an employee, a young man, and asked him about it. He was very nice but had never heard (or seen) hide nor hair of these micro-projectors. We checked the projector area without success then went to a computer and checked the Circuit City website. Yep, there it was. In stock. But where was it?

Now please note that the store employee very obviously wanted to help me. That’s an important aside in these kind of stories, because in most cases the front-line employees instinctively know what should happen with the customer and do their very best to achieve just that (a non-refined SCO, they “blink” that much). But if the company they are working for is not aligned to achieving the SCO then these front-line employees are jammed between a rock and a hard place as while they want to meet customer expectations (usually set by the company), the company is actually aligned to defeat their attempts much of the time. The non customer-aligned company is inadvertently placing barriers in the employees way that quite often defeat the best of efforts by employees trying to do the right thing (remember, Are you doing things right, or doing the right things?).

Anyway, the Circuit City employee upon seeing the item listed as in stock immediately commented that “well, the web site is wrong a lot.” (Ouch! Doesn’t having an item listed as in stock on a web site clearly set a customer expectation???) He then diligently grabbed another employee and marched off to the storeroom to find the missing “in stock” projector.

Ten or fifteen minutes later he emerged to tell me that the projector was not there, that they did not have one in stock. However, he immediately offered to contact the next nearest store showing the item as in stock to make sure they had it if I wanted to go there. Sure, let’s give it a try.

Now let’s get ridiculous. The poor guy calls the next store and they start running him through unrelated departments though he very clearly and succinctly asked for someone with projectors. When the call transfers finally landed him at the Verizon Wireless department I gave up and ended his misery by letting him know I appreciated his efforts but couldn’t stand to watch him being dragged through a maze of stupidity anymore. Thanks but no thanks, it’s time for me to go.

On the way out of the store, I was stopped by another Circuit City employee. “Did you find everything ok?” he asked. No, I didn’t. I came for a projector that was listed as in stock in this store that no one here has ever see, that isn’t really here, and when the poor guy trying to help called the next store to make sure they actually had it he got the run around to all these departments - except anything to do with projectors! So I’m leaving and I won’t be back.

During this time the poor Circuit City employee’s eyes are started to glaze over and his face has gone completely limp. I wasn’t sure why until after a pause he answered “Sorry about that” (another pause, like searching for what comes next)… (light goes on) “You folks have a good day!”

Of course the reason why I got this response is because once again Circuit City is not aligned to the customer. The guy didn’t have any options, training or support to fall back on to help him try to right the wrong, and shift things back from abysmal failure to customer success.

But I did pick up one thing from his comment. That if I really do want to “have a good day” I need to make sure that my day does not include Circuit City in any way, shape or form.

Terry Schurter
Director - International Process and Performance Institute
www.ipapi.org