A Meowy Great Customer Service Story
Meet Chompers, my new (adopted) furbaby.
He’s 7 years old and has no teeth due to mistreatment from his former owner who relinquished him to a rescue. He’s goofy, energetic and loves a good snuggle. I’m a happy furbaby mama!
It was time to stock up on wet food for Chompers so I took off to my local Petsmart. With the intention of sticking to the brand the rescue was feeding him, I went to the aisle where I could find that food.
And down that aisle I went, greeted by a store associate named Emma who had the biggest, most genuine smile.
She was stocking cans of food on a the shelf near where I stood. She started to ask me about my day and if I had any questions. I told her I’m looking for food for my adopted toothless cat. She pointed to the brand I was going to buy and said that was good brand but they just released a new brand into the market that she really likes because it has less preservatives and more healthy fats. She then went on to say she used to manage an animal rescue. She shared with me some insight on what cats like to eat and some of the important nutritional values in their food. She also told me about the PetSmart return policy, which I was not aware of prior to her telling me. So long as you have the receipt, you can return any open container of food up to 50% used for a full refund.
Emma was friendly and caring with her information. I decided to try the new brand and went on my way.
One thing I love to do is recognize great customer service when I’m out and about. So of course, I went on the PetSmart website and wrote an email to their corporate offices about my interaction with Emma.
In some cases, companies never respond to positive feedback and I am led to believe that my words of praise are hanging somewhere in outer space.
But, I always like to take a gamble.
This time, I was impressed!
Within 24 hours, I had a reply from PetSmart about my experience. Check it out below:
I love a company that takes time to listen to the customer and recognize their great employees.
Thanks for letting me share this story with you!
Jenny, thanks for sharing this story and warm welcome to Chompers. He’s lucky to have you, and you are lucky to have him. And speaking of luck, it’s great that Emma was so professional, friendly, and well-informed. You were lucky to find her, and she was lucky to have a conscientious customer like you who will take time to make sure her managers know what a great job she’s doing. But I am not impressed with PetSmart’s response! That is a canned response, and it’s not half as fresh as it should be! What does “Your kind words are encouraging” even mean in this situation? PetSmart’s response is way better than no response at all, which you feared might happen. But Emma, I mean ” store associate,” deserves better and so do you. PetSmart should have at least used the word “cat” somewhere in the response!
You are SO right, Leslie. I didn’t even touch on the wording of their reply (you’re much better at that). Like you said, I was pretty excited to even receive anything…because usually, you don’t. I’m now really curious what happened to this and if they did anything to recognize Emma in the store. Maybe I should go back and follow up?
I will say, I did like the fact that Michelle signed her name as such as opposed to a generic “Petsmart” or “Customer Service.” But yeah a mention of “Cat” would have been good. I love it that Leslie chimed in on this one! Great article, Jenny.
Yeah, good points, Jeremy. I am now really curious about their positive feedback process. I wonder how much they actually receive and why they can’t send a more personalized message.
Congratulations on your new, aptly-named cat! And good on you for recognizing great service.
haha thank you, Jeff!
Hi Jenny,
From one cat lover to another, great story for all.
Aww thanks fellow cat lover! You’re meowy kind 🙂
Hats off to you for taking care of the mistreated cat and looking after its special needs. People generally don’t adopt animals with disability or those which want special attention, we need more people like you.
Thanks, AKhan. I agree – I wish more people would open their hearts to special needs animals. 🙂