大家購物遇到煩心事該如何解決大綱

The holidays can feel like a test of your mastery of the seasonal arts of shopping and -- unfortunately -- complaining.

節假日感覺就像是對你的節日購物技巧以及──不幸的是──投訴技巧掌握程度的檢驗。

It's crunch time for gift buyers, the week when stores and websites see a surge in sales, and with it comes more potential for problems and frustrations. The multitude of ways to do holiday shopping -- in stores, online, from a smartphone -- poses new challenges for shoppers and stores. Whether it's faulty merchandise, the wrong price or shipping that is too slow, time-starved customers want a resolution and they want it fast.

對選購禮品者而言，這是一個緊要時期。在這前後的一週時間中，各大商場和購物網站的銷售量迅速上升，出現問題及令人失望事件的可能性也隨之升高。進行節日購物的衆多方式──逛實體店、網絡購物及通過智能手機購物──給消費者和商家帶來了新挑戰。無論是買到次品、價格弄錯還是送貨太慢的問題，時間寶貴的消費者都希望問題得到解決，而且是迅速解決。

Luxury and mid-price department stores increasingly see customer service as their main attraction and the best way to draw in shoppers from discount stores and online sellers. 'We spend a lot of time, money and energy attracting new customers,' says Richard Baker, chief executive of Hudson's Bay Co., owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. 'The last thing we want to do is, after all that work, lose a customer over a bad experience.'

豪華百貨商場及中檔商場逐漸將客戶服務作爲他們的主要吸引力，以及將顧客從折扣店和網店吸引過來的最佳方法。Hudson's Bay公司首席執行長理查德・貝克(Richard Baker)說：“我們投入了大量時間、資金和精力來吸引新顧客，我們最不希望做的事情是，在做了那麼多工作後，因爲一次糟糕的購物經歷而丟掉了顧客。” Hudson's Bay爲薩克斯第五大道百貨(Saks Fifth Avenue)及Lord & Taylor的母公司。

That is why Andrea Robins spent several hours on a recent weekday hunting for a handbag. Ms. Robins is Saks's senior director of customer service, who solves problems that escalate from any of the retailer's 113 full-price stores and outlets. A customer at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Florida had bought a $1,850 Gucci bag to be shipped to her daughter in Washington state. The store mistakenly sent it via ground, not air, and the bag wasn't going to make it in time for the daughter's birthday.

這也是安德列婭・羅賓斯(Andrea Robins)在最近一個工作日花了數小時搜尋一隻手袋的原因所在。羅賓斯是薩克斯百貨的客戶服務高級總監，負責解決該零售商的113家正價商店及折扣賣場涌現出的問題。一名顧客在薩克斯百貨佛羅里達店購買了一隻價值1,850美元的古馳(Gucci)手袋送給住在華盛頓州的女兒。該店誤將手袋通過陸地運輸而非空運方式寄出，這樣一來手袋將不能在顧客女兒的生日當天及時送達。

'It's not acceptable to say, 'We're human and a mistake was made,'' Ms. Robins says. 'The commitment to service says, 'Now what are we going to do to fix it?''

羅賓斯說：“對顧客說‘我們也是人，所以我們出錯了’是不可接受的，根據服務承諾，‘現在我們要做些什麼來解決它’？”

Ms. Robins and her team first tried to reroute the package to a faster shipping method -- but that wouldn't be fast enough. They considered placing a new order for the handbag with quicker shipping, but it was out of stock. Finally, they called up a Gucci store in Seattle, bought the bag from the retailer and had it sent to the daughter -- just in time.

羅賓斯及其團隊首先嚐試了將包裹改成更快的運送方式──但是那也不夠快。她們又考慮下一個運送方式更快的新訂單，但是手袋已無存貨。最後，她們打電話給西雅圖的一家古馳專賣店，從這家店買了一隻手袋送到顧客女兒的手上──剛好及時送達。

A survey of 1,003 people conducted this fall at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business found consumer dissatisfaction with retailers is on the rise. Half the people surveyed had a problem with a product or service in the past 12 months, up from 45% in 2011, the last time the study was conducted. And the public is frustrated, with 68% of respondents saying a problem made them 'very' or 'extremely' upset, up from just 60% in 2011.

亞利桑那州立大學W.・P.・凱里商學院(Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business)在2013年秋季對1,003名消費者進行了調查，發現消費者對零售商的不滿有所增加。有半數受訪者在過去12個月中遇到過產品或服務問題，高於2011年即上一次調查展開時45%的比例。消費者的心情也非常沮喪，有68%的受訪者表示出現的問題讓他們“非常”或“極其”不高興，高於2011年剛到60%的比例。

'There were two things that increased the most -- yelling and cursing,' says Scott Broetzmann, chief executive of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, the survey's principal designer.

該調查的主要設計方Customer Care Measurement & Consulting的首席執行長斯科特・布勒茨曼(Scott Broetzmann)說：“有兩樣東西增加的最多──叫喊和咒罵。”

Several executives at both Lord & Taylor and Saks said they always want to know about a problem, rather than have an upset customer leave the store in a huff. At the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship New York City store, a tourist destination that sees close to a million shoppers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, every receipt has the email address of John Cruz, the store's general manager, printed at the bottom.

Lord & Taylor及薩克斯百貨的幾名高管稱，他們一直都想了解問題，不想讓顧客怒氣衝衝地離開商場。薩克斯百貨的紐約旗艦店算得上一個旅遊目的地，在每年的感恩節及 誕節期間會迎來近百萬顧客，它的每張購物小票的底部都印着該商場總經理約翰・克魯茲(John Cruz)的電子郵件地址。

The Internet is a popular place for shoppers to vent. The survey found 35% of people with a problem posted about it on a social-networking site, up from 19% in 2011. It's a way to 'voice your dissatisfaction with the world,' says Mary Jo Bitner, executive director of the ASU business school's Center for Services Leadership.

網絡是消費者發泄不滿的熱門之地。調查發現遇到問題的消費者中有35%的人在社交網站上把它說出來，高於2011年的19%。亞利桑那州立大學商學院服務領導力中心(Center for Services Leadership)的常務主任瑪麗・喬・比特納(Mary Jo Bitner)說，它是一種“表達對世界的不滿”的方式。

Stores often evaluate and take the conversation offline to resolve it. Earlier this month, a customer of Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Group's high-end New York department store, lost a stud on a pair of Prada ankle boots and tweeted, 'SO UPSETTING! What Can I Do?帝' Bergdorf's Twitter account, @Bergdorfs, responded with a name and phone number to call.

商場常常會評估問題並轉到線下商談來解決問題。12月初，由於自己的一雙普拉達(Prada)踝靴掉了一粒飾釦，Neiman Marcus集團旗下紐約高端百貨店Bergdorf Goodman的一名顧客在Twitter上發了一條消息，“真讓人無奈！我該怎麼辦？？”Bergdorf的Twitter賬戶@Bergdorfs爲此留下了聯繫人的姓名及電話。

Most retail problems are still resolved over the phone. Hudson's Bay Co. typically gets about 50,000 inquiries a month at its Wilkes-Barre, Pa., facility, which handles calls for Lord & Taylor and the Canadian Hudson's Bay chain. That number triples in December, says Lisa Fuller, the call center's director.

不過，大多數的零售問題還是通過電話解決的。Hudson's Bay位於賓夕法尼亞威爾克斯-巴里(Wilkes-Barre)的客服中心負責處理Lord & Taylor及Hudson's Bay在加拿大的連鎖商場的問詢電話，通常每個月會接到50,000個電話。該中心的總監莉薩・富勒(Lisa Fuller)稱，這個數字在12月份會增加兩倍。

New employees, including 140 seasonal hires go through a two-week training program focused on diffusing anger and empathy. 'My grandmother used to say, 'It takes two people to argue,'' Ms. Fuller tells employees.

該客服中心的新職員，包括140名季節性臨時員工會接受爲期兩週的培訓，培訓內容以化解顧客的怒氣及培養同理心爲主。富勒對員工們說：“我的祖母過去常常告訴我，‘一個巴掌拍不響。’”

Last month, a man called about his effort to buy a hat on Lord & Taylor's website. Each time he tried, the system cancelled the transaction. (Lord & Taylor and Saks shared customer complaints with The Wall Street Journal with the agreement that no customer information would be disclosed.)

在11月份，一名男子打來電話投訴他在Lord & Taylor網站上買帽子時遇到的麻煩。每次他嘗試下單時，系統就會取消交易。（Lord & Taylor及薩克斯百貨與《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)協定可公開顧客的投訴，但不會透露顧客的個人信息。）

'I'm not getting off this phone, I'm telling you right now, until we get this settled,' he said, audibly agitated.

該名顧客說：“我現在就告訴你，我不會掛掉電話，直到我們解決問題爲止。”從他的聲音可以聽出他非常惱火。

'I'm trying, sir -- ' the employee said calmly. The man interrupted: 'It should not take me from 10 o'clock until 6 in the evening to order a hat online.' 'I agree, sir,' the employee said.

接電話的員工平靜地說：“先生，我儘量…”。顧客打斷她說道：“在網上訂頂帽子，不應該讓我從10點鐘訂到晚上六點吧。” 該員工答道：“是這樣的，先生。”

Eventually, the employee discovered his order was being cancelled automatically as a security measure, because he had put in an incorrect billing address. The man never realized he was at fault, nor should he, Ms. Fuller says. 'The customer is always right, no matter what -- even if they're wrong, they're right.'

最終，該員工發現顧客的訂單是因爲安全原因被自動取消的，他輸入了錯誤的賬單地址。富勒說，該顧客從沒意識到是他自己錯了，他也不用意識到，“顧客永遠是對的，無論是什麼事情──就算他們有錯，他們也是對的。”

Call-center employees handle on average about 40 calls a day. Each inquiry is logged so the employee can see shoppers' purchase histories and whether they have had problems in the past. The company also looks for trends, such as a jump in what it calls WISMO calls (short for 'Where Is My Order?'), to help identify larger, systemic problems.

客服中心的員工每天平均要處理約40個電話。每項問詢都有記錄以便員工能看到顧客以往的購物經歷以及他們以前是否也遇到過麻煩。該公司還會通過觀察所問詢問題的趨勢來確認更大的、系統性的問題，比如有關被其稱爲“WISMO”（我的訂單到哪了？）電話的數量的上升。

New types of problems arise as the industry adopts the 'omnichannel' operating model, in which online orders may be fulfilled not only from a distribution center but also possibly from a local store that has the item in stock. This can lead to surprises. A customer ordering online usually expects to receive pristine merchandise that hasn't been handled.

由於零售業採納了“全渠道”的運營模式，所以新型問題會隨之出現。在該模式中，網絡訂單可能不只是由發貨中心完成，也可能由當地有貨的商店完成，這會造成一些意外。在線訂購的顧客往往期待收到的是未經交易過的全新商品。

Saks ran into this assumption over the summer, when a customer ordered a dress to wear to her daughter's wedding. Her complaint, lodged in an email to Saks's then-CEO, was that the dress arrived 'smelly' and 'used.' The dress had been plucked off the selling floor and shipped from a nearby store, meaning other customers may have tried it on or it had been purchased and returned. Ms. Robins made sure a replacement was sent.

薩克斯在今年夏季就遭遇了由此引發的問題，當時一名顧客訂了一件裙子準備穿着去參加女兒的婚禮。後來她寫了一封電子郵件向薩克斯百貨當時的首席執行長投訴，她在信中說，裙子送到時“有味道”而且是“穿過的”。那件裙子是從銷售場地拿來然後從附近一家商店發貨的，這表示其他顧客可能試穿過，或者它曾經被賣出又被退貨了。後來羅賓斯給該顧客寄了一件新品。

When a customer makes a difficult request for something far outside the store's policy, Ms. Robins is careful not to say no outright, but rather to look for an alternative. 'On some level, it's parenting,' she says. 'If I can't say yes to this request, what can I say yes to that may be satisfying?'

當有顧客提出遠遠超出該商場政策範圍的棘手要求時，羅賓斯總是小心對待，不會直接拒絕，而是去尋找一個替代方法。她說：“在某種層面上，這就像做家長一樣。如果我不能答應這個要求，那麼有什麼可能讓人滿意的事情是我能答應的？”

A customer trying to buy a watch for his wife recently complained about a store associate giving him misinformation about a discount available online. Ms. Robins didn't honor the misquoted discount, but she did offer the shopper a gift card toward a future purchase.

一名想給妻子買塊手錶的顧客最近投訴說，銷售員向他提供了錯誤的網上折扣信息。儘管羅賓斯並不認同這個折扣有誤的問題，她還是送給該顧客一張禮品卡供下次購物使用。

As a general rule, Ms. Robins and her team research complaints to make sure they are plausible but don't argue with a customer about details. 'Perception is reality,' she said.

一般說來，羅賓斯與其團隊會調查顧客的投訴以確定它們是否合理，但絕不會與顧客爭論細節。“感受到的就是事實，”她如此說道。