Here is a lesson on how to get everything wrong as a store.
First, the back-story. I needed some oil. I go on their website and put in the registration of my car. It doesn’t work, and I get this…
… hmmm… That’s no good. Never mind, I have to head to the store anyway, so I’ll check it there.
At the store they have old-school flip-chart things which let you find the right oil for your car. I have a look, but my car isn’t listed. No worries though, because they have some flashy tablets which let you search for your oil.
Trouble is, these don’t work. You put your registration in and it tells you that lots of products have been found, but it doesn’t display any, so you have no idea which one to get. I tried another another one and got the same thing..
After going to a completely different website on my phone I eventually found it. At the checkout the lady asked me if I’d like a normal receipt or an “eReceipt”.
..Well, that sounded all flash and modern…
“Less paper, isn’t it?”
Well yes. I’ll do my bit for the environment.
However, just after she’d grabbed my email address, I realised how stupid I’d been. This was obviously just a ploy to get my email address. More spammy emails no doubt, and yet more of my life signed over. I can’t believe I’d fallen for it.
This is something that’s happening more and more too. In this case I wasn’t even told that I would also be getting marketing emails.
You’ve probably had the same. Order online and the company will always need your email address so that they can send you “order updates” or to “create an account”, but the moment you do, you’ll be signed up to marketing emails.
But then…. after all that.. I get handed… a paper receipt too.
My reflex actions kicked in and I just grabbed it and walked off before realising.
Then, a short while later, the eReceipt popped into my inbox..
I figured I’d tell them that I wasn’t happy with all this after spotting this..
A customer satisfaction survey. Brilliant. However, when you click on it and you tell it that you bought something in store, it asks you for the store number and some other bits. All details that are only printed… on the paper receipt. This I’d thrown away because I assumed I wouldn’t need it, but absolutely none of this information is on the fabled eReceipt ..
So I couldn’t give feedback either.
Moral of the story? This was a pretty bad shopping experience. The website didn’t work properly, the in-store displays didn’t work, if you have an eReceipt you’re automatically signed up to marketing emails without being told and the website you use to give feedback asks for information you probably won’t have.
Oh look… Here’s the marketing email I didn’t ask for. This appeared just 12 hours after my eReceipt, however, I’m prepared to bet that it’ll take several weeks to get off this list.
