Per their website, Lowe’s vision statement is as follows:
” We will provide customer-valued solutions with the best prices, products and services to make Lowe’s the first choice for home improvement. ”
Let’s concentrate on the service aspect of the statement above. I don’t know that I have ever walked in to a Lowe’s store and not been greeted warmly. It is also not unusual for employees to ask if you need any help every couple of isles. In my experience, the sales folks are knowledgeable, and if they don’t know the answer, they will not give up until they find someone who does.
This past “Black Friday” I purchased my husband a wine fridge on Lowes.com. The wine fridge held 8 bottles, and was on sale for $49.99, half of its regular $99.99 price. I received an email a few days later informing me the wine fridge was at my local Lowe’s and ready to be picked up. Very long story short, I went to pick up the fridge, and was informed that it had been sold to someone else. Even though I had paid for the fridge on Thanksgiving, someone in the store had erroneously sold it to another customer. The manager was called, and apologized profusely, and promised to call me as soon as another was received. I went home, and just-so-happened to have an email from the Lowe’s website asking me to rate my purchase. Those poor folks had terrible timing. I wrote a scathing email about the fact that my husband’s Christmas present had been sold to someone else and how terribly disappointed and surprised I was. as Lowe’s doesn’t generally operate in that fashion.. The store manager called me the following evening, and the day after that I returned to my local Lowe’s and picked up my brand new 18 bottle, $200 wine fridge, at no additional cost. Lowe’s was willing to upgrade me to the next in-stock step up, in order to keep me as a happy customer, and it worked.
“According to the 2005 American Customer Satisfaction Index, Home Depot ranked worst among specialty retailers, while Lowe’s satisfaction rating was second only to Costco” (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_03/b4017006.htm). In my eyes, the wine fridge experience only reinforced that. They did what they had to do, to ensure that the customer (me) was satisfied. I’ve never stepped foot inside a Home Depot, and can’t imagine that I ever will.
Side note, I do love Lowe’s, but after proof-reading this post, my husband reminded me of another experience we had at Lowe’s just after purchasing our home…I suppose not everyone is perfect.
http://www.bradleyandaileen.com/1/post/2010/05/narfyou-need-to-go-to-a-harware-store.html
aileenoliver 