It's really quite amazing how technology continues to put iconic American businesses like J.C. Penney out of business. Even department stores are not immune to the effects of innovation.
Several years ago J.C. Penney had a choice to make. It heard from it's customers loud and clear through online contact forums they wanted to shop more online, but it couldn't make the change. The customer service department was overwhelmed with negative feedback, and still nothing.
Back in 2012 when I was seeing the most complaints on BBB about J.C. Penney online, I wondered how the CEO and executive leadership was making decisions at the top? Was it based on their experience? Was it based on a high priced consulting group? Or maybe their direct reports who were just trying to get their next stock bonus.
One thing is clear to me, they did not hear the problems from concerned patrons like this one from Searcy, Arkansas.
This store has some of the kindest employees working in the most poorly stocked JCP! This was once a GREAT store and now its turned into a place to pick up online orders at best. Even that had been made more difficult with the closing of the catalog dept! Was that the intention? While Little Rock is not too (30ish miles!) much further to drive, we in Searcy try to push the "shop local" mantra. I've used the online catalog a lot this year therefor am wondering if thats what you are shooting for? Sometimes it nice to actually shop in the store.If you ran a business and were losing customers faster than you could count, who would you listen to? I would listen to my loyal shoppers, the ones who have kept me in business.
Apparently for companies like J.C. Penney, they have had trouble adopting these suggestions in their every day business practices. Sometimes the answers are obvious, put the customer service department first on your list of priorities!
The small cities of America can be a great revenue source as many of them in the midwest and west coast continue to grow. They are also probably the cities that are most likely to quit and shop online or in a neighboring town instead. It's your customer to lose J.C. Penney.
Have you tried to reach the J.C. Penney complaint department? Leave a comment below.
