The Valuable Complaint

Many employees, especially those that work in customer service, find customer complaints to be a nuisance. Complaints are often looked at as a negative aspect of doing business; a component that simply needs to be addressed and dealt with on a regular basis. However, a customer complaint is an opportunity to understand what really matters to the customer, and to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience. Companies should look at complaints as a blessing in disguise, and use customer complaints to improve their products and services; helping them to achieve greater market share and customer loyalty. 

It's all smiles for Michael as he increases his number of stores, and his profits.
But when will consumers catch on? And when will it catch up with Michael Kors himself?

Lets discuss a recent experience I had at a Michael Kors store in the Eaton Centre downtown Toronto. I was gifted a Michael Kors watch that was quite large and needed to be resized. Fortunately for me, Michael Kors offers free watch resizing at any of their locations. I simply had to visit one of the locations to get my watch resized on the spot. Sounds easy right? Wrong. On my first visit to the store, the sales associate asked me to wait four hours to get my watch resized, because she was just "too busy." The next day, on my second visit, the tool that they use to do the watch resizing was apparently broken. Long story short, on my third visit to a different Michael Kors store (no longer the Eaton Centre location), I was able to get my watch resized. 

I was dissatisfied with the level of customer service I received from Michael Kors and consequently, emailed their customer service department. Unfortunately I received the typical "we value your concern" email. Needless to say, I am concerned for Michael Kors' financial health moving forward. After a recent IPO, they now have the funds and resources required to grow their number of stores to approximately 400 retail locations. If they can't appropriately manage customer complaints with their current locations, what makes them think they can maintain their level of customer service, and inherently their brand image, with 400?