customer service

The (Very) Dreadful Return Policy Of Nike

May 28, 2019 Happenings
Nike Logo

I never thought I would someday write this about a brand like Nike that it probably has one of the worst possible return policies of the big brands that I have experienced so far and so discriminatory. There’s simply an air of superiority & control as they leverage their branding dominance while negotiating with customers who want to return their products due to faulty workmanship on the part of Nike. And I’m surprised, that a multi-billion dollar brand as big as Nike, still haven’t figured out an easy solution to products which have a manufacturing flaw and not physically damaged.

A portion of the ubiquitous swoosh logo on one of the sneakers I purchased recently at mall outlet had come off despite using the pair sparingly and exclusively for normal activities such as walking, so when I went to that outlet to ask for a replacement I was surprisingly told to call up Nike. After giving them a call I was asked to ship the product so one of the Nike inspectors would take a decision on whether or not it warranted a replacement or otherwise. It’s totally on the discretion of the inspectors I was told. The weird replacement policy also suggests that regardless of the colour at the time of the purchase Nike does not guarantee it would replace the sneakers with the same shade although they definitely guarantee the size. So god forbid, but how much I’d hate myself to be ogled on the streets with bright fluorescent orange shoes! Wasn’t Nike’s product messaging attributed to ‘personalization’ and individualism? This again, is left at the discretion of the inspectors. Moreover, when I bought the shoes I was just told about the 30-day return policy and nothing about paying the shipping costs in case I opt to return the product. Clearly, this has to be one of the most ridiculous return policies from a well-known brand. Here’s what I learned during my conversation with the Nike representatives and it’ll shock you.

Nike Store Operations
It was during the call today that I realized to my surprised that Nike operates two categories of brick and mortar stores — one that’s owned and operated by Nike and the other are franchisee outlets. In other words, unlike the Apple stores which are owned and operated by Apple with clear branding & customer experience not all stores with the ‘swoosh’ identity are operated by Nike. Beware!

Return Policy
Per my conversation with the customer executives (Peter, Mary, Ozzie) based on your selection of the store the return policy differs to an extent. Products bought at the Nike-owned stores and Nike.com are accepted at the Nike-owned outlet and they bear all the shipping costs but anything that you buy at the franchise outlet must be shipped to Nike and the shipping costs must be paid buy the customer. And there’s no easy way to know which store is what unless you have a specific conversation with the sales executive on their return policy or make your purchases online on Nike.com.

From a customer standpoint, if Nike is selling its products through retail stores it shouldn’t matter if they are owned by Nike or by whoever because it’s the experience & value proposition in question, the store is simply a channel. Hence it has to stop its policy of discrimination as long as the customers are being charged for the brand, regardless of wherever. So if the franchisees are selling Nike products they receive the returns too at no extra cost to the customers. Clearly, there’s an underlying business tactic behind this deal which I’m not able to comprehend, but in simple terms, Nike should offer the same privileges to customers from their franchise stores as their online or at Retail Store. Where’s the question of paying for shipment for a product if there’s a manufacturing defect? Just Do It.

There’s More…
Once the sneakers are inspected by the so-called inspectors and they decide whether it’s worth sending a replacement. Physical wear and tear is not covered under this policy, most importantly, sneakers which are older than 2 years from the date of their manufacturing are not eligible so the next time you decide to go for a pair of Nike sneakers ensure this info by looking for the tag underneath the pad inside, the manufacturing date is legibly mentioned alongside the item no., something like BEXXXX-004. Why can’t the manager of the outlet where the Nike product was purchased take a call on whether a replacement could be afforded or not?

Don’t Be Left Cheated
It’s not surprising how the entire sales experience is played out to pull in customers but just like any other big product brand the service experience is pathetic and selective. And just so you don’t feel like a a complete idiot who was taken for a ride, here’s what I’d recommend you must do. Next time you make a purchase at any ‘Nike outlet’ make sure you check the sneakers for the manufacturing date. Ask the sales rep about the return policy and I’m pretty sure they’d end at telling you it’s 30-days, but that information is not enough as I have noted in my response. Prod them about the shipping details, etc. Trust me, this would save a lot of your invaluable time and energy going forward. Lastly, don’t take Nike’s word or for that matter, any other brand for granted on their quality standards. To put it plainly, it’s a manufacturing process and there will always be some flaw. It’s better to know the servicing process than curse the manufacturing one. In a nutshell, Nike is asking you to buy at the Nike Store or Nike.com and avoid Nike Partner Stores. Check the online store locator to find the Nike Store closest to you.

Accountability from Nike
Stick with whatever policy you might be comfortable be but be transparent about your service/return policies at least. Ensure that franchisees make it amply clear they don’t run the brand but are merely owning the place that sells Nike. When asked about return policy ask your franchisee outlets to outline the WHOLE process and not just the “30-day” version. Don’t make the customer feel as if you don’t care for their hard-earned money.

I have to say the toll-free customer service is grossly misguided and out of touch with current times. They sound awfully robotic and politically correct and perhaps they don’t have the freedom or the courage to empathize with a customer’s reasonable demand. Plus their lack of conversational skills and advocacy for what is truthfully justified is both surprising and sad because Nike is such a youthful brand. For example, when I asked if I could be given a discount on my next purchase — I was paying shipping costs, I wasn’t told about this complicated return policy and I had no discretion to choose the shade for the replacement or whether or not I’d get a replacement shoes, I was told I could go online on Nike.com where they put out promo codes every once in a while. That’s utterly shameful to hear on behalf of a top quality global brand.

I’m unable to comprehend Nike’s discriminatory retail strategy in penalizing buyers who prefer Nike partner outlets. Do they want to transition to single brand retail and are encouraging customers to move their purchase priorities to exclusive Nike-owned domains? Another rationale relates to the franchisee businesses who aren’t keen on after sales servicing. They’d rather have Nike to carry that load. Whatever the case may be, Nike should be accountable for fixing its fragmented buying experience and to stop differentiating customers on the basis of where they end up buying their items.

I learned several things dealing with Nike and the dilemma that many top brands face in the wake of competition although I would not like to put Amazon in the same basket as Nike or Apple. Because Amazon seems to have grasped the value of being truly ‘customer centric’ and ‘customer-driven’ without running a brick-mortar outlet and by engaging with them solely on the basis of feedback and data. In that sense, I feel Nike is light years away from figuring customer experience despite being the in the retail business for ages and successfully creating the impression of being a strong, vibrant entity largely thanks to their association with sports and sports personalities. The important question is, where does the buck stop for customer support and services? Nike stands for quality so if a customer is dissatisfied with the quality of his/her product which was bought at a store, how might they build a seamless return experience to assure its customers about its effectiveness? At this point, it’s anything but smooth or seamless, rather just painful and lopsided.

Defining Memorable Customer Experiences

May 7, 2019 Happenings

I can think of no other way to empathise with customer behaviour and interpret their concerns & needs other than stepping into their shoes. This primarily happens through my interactions at retail stores, coffee shops, or malls, and enables me to observe the standard of experience amongst various brands across the city.

I believe, the sales drive at a store level constitutes to be the most difficult segment for a brand when you consider its complicated customer experience. Sales executives have to constantly walk the tightrope in balancing between actually selling the product on one hand (purchase) and convincing the customer to buy the product on the other (pre-purchase / post-purchase). You may have noticed, in most cases, sales reps begin by courteously asking if you need any help today and go about their jobs promising you assistance when you want it, it’s reassuring for individuals who may not like to be hassled during the pre-purchase stage. But I also find going into some stores like jumping into a lake full of alligators without any respite from the constant nudging and tailgating although customer experiences need not be so painful.

First Experience

Let me narrate a store incident that went so well it defines how some customers might like to be serviced. I was at a MEC outlet recently and I was looking for a particular camera brand to strap to my body and shoot videos on a vacation. The idea behind this was to keep my hands free so I can enjoy the time with my family while it kept getting the shots. I found a lone sales executive who initially hadn’t heard about the camera brand but was enlightened after searching for the product through the internal portal, and soon after, I realized it was going way beyond my budget for a 4-day vacation. Sensing my disappointment; maybe the sales rep sized me up, she began narrating her personal experience to me. So it turns out, she was as an adventurer and an avid photographer who occasionally shoots videos using her Canon DSLR while bungee jumping! She not only impressed me with her knowledge for photography & adventure but convinced me that if I owned a DSLR it would serve the purpose of shooting high-quality videos at no cost. On that day, I may not have purchased that camera at MEC but the executive’s friendly advice and interaction left an impression on my mind enough to pay the store another visit in the near future.

I am respectful of how my relationship with the brand wasn’t just outlined on a professional level as a “customer” only. Letting customers like me into their personal space and treating them as guests by not persuading them to make a purchase, at the same time addressing their latent needs and concerns while being courteous makes the brand come across as more humane and leaves a lasting impression. It makes the customer’s visit memorable and they’re more likely to visit the store again with the intention to make a purchase. Personally, it’s the delight and the knowledge gained from the interaction that matters.

Second Experience

This was at a Nike store in an upscale Toronto mall. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just visiting my favourite brand’s store. As usual, I was approached by a sales rep with whom I struck a conversation out of the blue — it started when I asked her curiously about the pins she was wearing and I was told that Nike gifts them exclusively to high-performers. So amidst all the talk about fitness and training, etc., I discover the sales rep I’d befriended a while ago was a CrossFit trainer and an athlete! During all my visits to Nike stores, what’re the odds of meeting an actual sports enthusiast, a real athlete? She also told me about her fitness regimen and how she manages time between coaching and store hours and so on. In fact, her dad was a marathon/triathlon athlete, and even her grandpa was into fitness training at some point. It’s worth noting here, that we’re simply having this conversation and she showed no signs of frustration or desperation to sell anything or push me into buying a product, she kept responding on her fitness and so on! I was ready to leave the Nike store after that enriching interaction but she got me interested in the apparel and I eventually ended up making a purchase.

One of the tenets of a ‘memorable experience’ is to have a fortuitous interaction that creates a personal appeal for the brand being represented. The interaction could revolve around things that define a product’s experience, for instance, not putting the focus solely on the purchase value itself. Perhaps, I was lucky to discover a fitness trainer within a Nike store but it was a fantastic and delightful buying experience, to say the least.

In a nutshell, empathy works both ways because our inborn tendency is to be drawn into personal experiences which are fueled by an insatiable thirst for curiosity and interest. Hence, skilful use of personal experiences during a sales cycle both offline and online (testimonials, persona stories) could create a vibrant and memorable customer experience by lending a human touch to something totally routine and lifeless. At the same time, one must be aware, that an individual who’s also a potential customer might judge these interactions from a different perspective. It’s important to keep up with that friendly approach in letting the customer decide on the valid time for making the purchase and to totally avoid coming across as negative and judgemental. Lastly, it’s not every time that customers are curiously looking to know your background during a sales journey, but it wouldn’t be a wasted effort to keep your cerebral antennae ready, just in case.

Phone Services And iPhone Features

June 9, 2018 Happenings

Today, I was on the phone with my service provider trying to understand more about an iPhone feature called the ‘visual voicemail’. Simply put, it provides a visual interface on the iPhone making it easier to check your voicemails, just like you’d check mail in your inbox. More importantly, a little Googling threw up some interesting use-cases, such as you could be saving the voicemails or sharing/forwarding it as a message to other recipients, a handy feature if one cannot get over the habit of missing calls. According to Wikipedia, it was the iPhone which introduced the visual voicemail feature and subsequently the other notable cell phone manufacturers followed the trend. So to sum this up, it’s a hardware characteristic and should be traditionally available to the buyers of any iPhone model. However, much to my dislike, my cell phone service provider (name withheld out of courtesy) decided to include it in a subscription package alongside a bunch of enhanced functionalities including more voicemails per month, cheaper calls to the United States, and a caller name ID, which no matter how trivial the cost of the “value package” might be I cannot see them benefiting me at this stage.

In a nutshell, let’s determine the value of phone features independently from the augmented cell phone offerings. I concur that telecom companies could invoice customers for the maintenance and distribution of additional & enhanced service packages, but there seems to be no justification behind charging consumers for elemental features that are inbuilt by the phone makers. In my view, the visual voicemail feature; despite the dismal volume of voicemails afforded by my basic plan, is an essential function of any communication experience to its consumers, just like texting or emails are, and should be provided gratuitously! Clubbing it with non-essential offerings lacks complete wisdom.

Powerless Without Internet

July 20, 2005 General

The fact that I have not been able to post anything in my blog is because my internet connection has gone haywire at my house. Hathway says it’s a problem with my modem & they would send an engineer soon. This was on Sunday night, when I lodged my complaint. On monday I rang them up 5 times in a span of 4 hours in the evening to inquire about the status of my complaint, but to no result. Their server is down sometime or their software has crashed on the other.

I have never expected any prompt service from Hathway. Their plans are good but their support / service lags behind the rest. Infact, I have come to the conclusion (call it cynicism if you want) that in India people are interested in only selling the product to you. The rest is all your headache.

Anyways, I have been promised that the engineer will come today in the evening and I am pretty sure that he’s not going to come :-) Until then I am powerless.