Wal-Mart Watch Releases New Video on Wal-Mart’s Customer Service
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, June 12, 2007 – Wal-Mart Watch today released a new video that compares and contrasts Sam Walton’s “Rules for Building a Building a Business” with David “Sinbad” Atkins’ comments at the recent Wal-Mart Shareholder Meeting. Sinbad’s routine for Wal-Mart employees and board members mocked Wal-Mart shoppers, proposed literacy tests for shoppers and suggested that rifle snipers on stores would its customer service woes. The video and transcript are below.
| Sam Walton, 1992 | Wal-Mart, 2007 |
| "Let your customers know you appreciate them." | "There’s a thing there I wasn’t ready for. It’s called customers. THEY ARE CRAZY! What is wrong with those people? Do you know? Look at the sign! It says what’s in the aisle. Do you have soap? IN THE SOAP AISLE!" |
| "There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." | "What is wrong with those people? You should have to pass a test to come in. IF YOU CAN’T READ, YOU CAN’T SHOP HERE! I’m stressed out!" |
| [Wal-Mart ranked second-to-last in Quality Digest’s 2007 Retailer Customer Satisfaction Survey.] | "Is this the largest one you have? Well, let me look. YES. HOW HARD IS THAT? We need training sessions for our customers." |
| "The two most important words I wrote on a Wal-Mart sign: Satisfaction Guaranteed." | "We need a show like this for people who shop at Wal-Mart. So we sit down: These are the 12 dumb questions don’t you EVER ask again. That’s what we need, customer training. We are spending so much time training the employees… they are ready." |
| "Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over." | "We need to train customers. Or you will be shot on sight. Another customer down for asking a dumb question. We need snipers at the top of Wal-Marts… BOOM, BOOM, take him out! Asking too many questions. Take him out! Is this on sale? THAT’S WHY YOU GOT THE COUPON! Ok, I’m cool now." |
| Why doesn’t Wal-Mart value its customers anymore? What would Sam say? |
The new video is available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1EPwCpfgxA
Quality Digest’s 2007 Retailer Customer Satisfaction Survey:
http://www.qualitydigest.com/may07/articles/06_article.shtml
Sam Walton’s Rules for Building a Business:
http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=255
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