Most Room For Coupon Improvement

Thanks to your participation in last week’s “Most Room for Coupon Improvement” survey I have a winner (or loser?! )…. Walmart received the most votes tallying 1,230 of the 3,461 votes that we received. With this information and a slew of reader comments, I am emailing corporate headquarters a letter requesting that they consider reviewing and revamping their coupon policy based on the recent Hip2Save survey.

This week’s YOU in Bloom topic is All About You… part of putting yourself first is knowing how to have a voice and use it. It is empowering and gratifying to share your views and opinions. It helps build confidence and self image. So, with that being said, I have an opportunity for you to take your voice and put it into action. Power is in numbers…if each one of us writes an email to Walmart, think of the impact that we will make! I suggest that you copy and paste the paragraph below and then add to it an additional note with your personal view and/or experience(s). Together, we CAN & WILL make a difference!

In addition, the actions we take will hopefully help to improve customer relations and increase business…. It’s a win, win.

Below is the paragraph that you may want to copy and paste into your personal email:

My name is “your name here“ and I am a reader of a coupon and savings blog called Hip2save.com. Last week, Hip2Save hosted a reader survey asking which of six national department stores (Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Target & Kmart) had the most room for coupon improvement. Walmart received the majority of votes totaling 1,230 of the 3,461. I am writing today to encourage you to use this information towards improving your current coupon policy. I would also strongly advise you to make it a priority to provide ongoing education for your employees regarding your coupon acceptance policy. I appreciate you taking the time to consider my request. With some positive changes to your current coupon policy, I will be much more inclined to offer my patronage as both a shopper and deal seeker at Walmart stores in the future. Below this paragraph I urge you to please add your own personal comments or experiences to your letter.

Please use the contact information provided below:

President & CEO of Walmart Stores/Supercenters USA

Michael Duke

Email Address: michael.duke@wal-mart.com

This is my letter to Walmart President & CEO, Michael Duke:

Dear Mr. Duke,

My name is Collin and I run a coupon and savings blog called Hip2Save.com. Last week, I hosted a reader survey asking which of six national chains (Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Target & Kmart) had the most room for coupon improvement. Walmart received the majority of votes totaling 1,230 of 3,461. Hip2Save readers are dedicated to saving money and prefer to shop at stores that support their thrifty goals. In addition to voting, many Hip2Save readers also left comments. Below are a few of the comments that I would like to share with you. Please keep in mind that these are only a few of MANY that I received.

“My biggest complaint is Walmart, of course. I can’t stand the coupon limit per transaction; they limit you on the amount you can save, but not on the amount you can spend?”

“My Walmart questions every insert, peelie, blinkie, or tearpad coupon, and now they refuse to take online coupons. Even though you show them the coupon policy on the corporate website, even if it’s printed that day, they will not take printable online coupons.”

“I voted for Walmart. Their cashiers are not trained on coupon policies and it’s always a huge hassle to use coupons and always ends up taking a lot of time. It’s too bad because I always find so many things to use coupons for at Walmart, but honestly it’s just not worth the trouble I have to go through to use the coupons. So I don’t shop at Walmart.”

“One Walmart I shop at is just not consistent. I can go one week and they take all coupons…the next week they have to ask the CSM if they can take internet coupons (and the answer is yes if they scan)…the next week they hand them back to me and say they don’t take internet coupons……today they took them no questions asked…next week…your guess is as good as mine……”

After personally reviewing the comments left by Hip2Save readers, the top 3 complaints about shopping at Walmart are the following…

1. Inconsistency of accepting internet/printable coupons; Although the Walmart Corporate Coupon policy clearly states that Walmart accepts internet coupons, many readers have had cashiers and/or managers refuse to accept valid and scannable internet coupons.

2. 40 Coupon Limit at Checkout: Many readers have complained about the fact that Walmart requires a manager override if more than 40 coupons are used at checkout; Often, the cashier does not understand why the cash register is beeping and thinks that it is due to an invalid coupon…there have been many occasions where readers have had to educate the cashier as to the fact that a manager override is required. This makes the checkout process take that much longer and causes frustration for both the consumer and the employee(s).

3. Lack of details and specifics surrounding the Walmart Corporate Coupon Policy. One area to note is that the coupon policy clearly states Walmart accepts “Store Coupons”. However, Walmart employees seem to have no clue as to what “Store coupons” are. As far as I know, Walmart doesn’t have their own store coupons, so I would assume accepting store coupons would mean that Walmart accepts other store coupons, such as Target coupons. This needs to be clearly detailed and explained in the coupon policy.

I hope that you decide to use this information towards improving your current coupon policy. I believe that if you make a few necessary changes to your policy and create greater consistency with your cashiers by providing ongoing employee education about your coupon policies, the “couponer and deal seeker” patronage will greatly increase.

Many thanks for your time and consideration,

Collin

In an effort to keep track of how many of you are participating in this email event, please let me know by providing a comment below. Thank you!!