Giving Praise…
I received this email from reader, Lindsay, and wanted to share it with all of you:
I have been couponing for years, as I’m sure so many of your readers have, also. I have developed such good relationships with a lot of our local Walgreens and CVS employees and am so thankful for their helpful saving advice and the coupons they give me when I’m missing one (or 2 or 3!). This Christmas, I went on the Walgreens and CVS websites and left a comment of praise for EACH of those employees who help me on a weekly basis. I know we are all struggling and their bonuses and promotions depend on customer response… and let’s face it, most of the time, it’s not praise. I thought that maybe this year you could encourage everyone to leave at least one comment of praise for their most loved employee. My girls, Jessica and Nicole, do a lot for me and put up with my multiple transactions, messy coupons, and disorganized brain so much that it really was nothing for me to go to the Walgreens website, click ‘contact us’, click ‘comment’, and leave a praise.
I will definitely be doing this for all my favorite employees! What a great way to show appreciation for others AND get into the spirit of what the holidays are all about!
To make it easy for you, here are the contact links for Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid:
It does not work for CVS.
There was this one CVS cashier that was very helpful so I submitted a praise on the CVS.com website contact form. Days later I got a canned email from CVS corporate that basically said any “issue” I encountered in a local store should be called in to their toll free customer service number. The web contact form was only for CVS.com issues.
So they didn’t even read my email at all. I didn’t have any “ISSUE”. I was emailing to praise one of the employees. What a waste of my time.
I have called CVS a couple of times and asked for the manager and told them directly, so at least I know the info gets to them for sure, even if I don’t know if they do anything with the info.
I just left a comment for CVS and Rite Aid, I’ve always wanted to do this but just never got the chance to, thank you for making it so easy for me to do! I really hope the workers get a bonus or something!
I frequent a CVS that is FILLED with wonderful employees, but one is a real standout. I wanted to send praise for her to CVS via e-mail, but the only way I see to contact them is by phone or snail mail. Can you send me in the right direction to e-mail CVS? Thanks for your help.
I am so glad that you posted the links. I was reading a lot of the posts yesterday where people were complaining about walgreens. I can understand where they are coming from. There are two walgreens in my town. At one I am always met with eye rolls and heavy sighs when they see that I have coupons. I was near there this weekend with my friend who is going through a divorce. I wanted to show her how to coupon to lighten her financial load. I wouldn’t have gone there but we were close and only had 3 items to purchase so I thought it would be ok. The cashier and manager were both rude to us. I was very sad that they acted that way because I am afraid it will turn my friend off from couponing. BUT…at the other walgreens I have a wonderful cashier who is always kind and pleasant. I was thinking that I should write and tell her manager that I thought that she was great and then you posted this link so I knew I had to do it 🙂 I also added to the end of my post that I hoped that they would continue to teach their employees about the benifit of coupon customers. Before I started couponing all of my money went to another store. Now because of coupons I am spending money in their store.
Same here! I never shopped at CVS or Walgreen’s prior to being turned on to this site and their rewards programs. Now I shop at Walmart about once a month down from once a week. I’m lovin’ it and saving lots of $! Couponers benefit those stores immensely!
**clicks Like button** 😀 I actually just commented via website the other day for a Wags associate and about a week before that I did the same for two Target associates. I used to work in retail and wow is it true that if anyone ever bothers to write in it’s usually to complain about the service or product they received. I always make a point to contact the company when we have found a truly friendly and helpful associate. It makes your whole DAY to be told by a higher up that someone complimented you!
What a GREAT idea! I just did it for my 2 fav girls 🙂
Just did a Rite Aid comment for the cashiers who are nice about my coupon use.
Great idea! My CVS cashier was so nice and patient with me today even after I forgot my bag tag (he scanned an extra one so I could get credit), I busted open a carton of Mtn Dew all over the carpet in front of the coupon machine (he said just go get another one!), and I handed over the wrong ECBs (he refigured them for me because I couldnt think straight!). I will be contacting CVS about him 🙂
Thanks for posting the links. My experiences at Walgreens & CVS have been largely positive, and it is nice to be able to put in a good word for the wonderful cashiers I encounter. I know there has been quite a bit of frustration noted with Walgreens in particular not following their own coupon policy, but it seems pretty clear to me that the problems are not generally problems with the employees. They usually just want to do a good job and not get in trouble! The company, however, has not adequately informed and trained their employees to handle the use of coupons. At my favorite Walgreens, the employees did not even know that the company had a coupon policy until I told them about it. They were excited to see a copy the policy that I had printed off of the Walgreens website! But, even then, they didn’t know how to do some of the things on the coupon policy like reducing the coupon value down as they had not been taught how to do it.
I love it! I live in a small town and we only have 1 Walgeens. I have been doing Wags for about a year or so and LOVE my cashiers and managers! They know who i am and go out of their way to help out any way they can! And like someone else mentioned, i am very fortunate to have a VERY coupon friendly store and who let me do multiple transactions! I have saved thousands of dollars and they don’t make it hard on me doing it! =)
I left a long comment on the Walgreen’s site last week to praise my two cashiers Luisa and Tina who are sooooo wonderful to me. They are sooo patient with me! I also wrote a nice letter to the manager at Smith’s for my favorite (and patient) cashiers. Yippee!!
Phone calls to corporate of either praise or complaint reach regional-district and then store level MUCH faster.
I have left countless letters of praise and my store has never received any of them. We knew the Mgr. I only wish we would have made those calls to corporate. He was let go over something ridiculous and if only we made the extra effort to call and praise the MGR and cashiers he might have been working there still.This was a rare gem of a MGR who always went above and beyond for customers. Luckily we have met more mgrs in our area that are just as great and now we call in to give praise when we can. We let them know ahead that we will be calling in and they have told us that those calls of praise are very much appreciated 😉
We tested the letter vs call theory out recently with a complaint and never got a response. So the next time we had a complaint-very bad experience- we called in to Corporate and got a response next day from Store mgr with apology.
I read about the importance of calling over emailing importance on another blog and from personal experience it seems to be true. So if the comments must reach store level its best to call
Thanks! I was wondering about that… I also wonder if it is better to call the store and talk to the manager about a good employee or call corporate and tell them about the employee… I call corporate about good managers, but about employees I’ve always called the store (or gone to customer service right after I had a good cashier and asked for the manager to tell them), but maybe it is more official or something if I call corporate…. hmm
It’s great to let the manager on duty know, but unless their company lets them do something outright for the employee, it usually never gets passed along! I would ALWAYS get name of associate and go straight to corporate, then pass it along to store! I used to work for The Limited and we would have clients send our associate Thank You cards in the mail. That was so great! I loved giving the girls the cards!!! Such a great thing to see a hard worker get praise!!! Those are the employees that work so hard for you and would do whatever it takes to make a client happy!
As a grocery store employee I would like to say thank you for those of you who do send out words of thanks. A lot of times when the individual employees name is mentioned corporate will give us a $5 gift card with a thank you from them as well. Working a low income job it is very appriciated when customers (and corporate) take special time out to praise us. Merry Christmas everyone =)
I always praise my cosmetic counter cashier at Walgreens in the surveys I complete on the bottom of my reciept.
This is personally my favorite way for people to compliment our cashiers. I work at one of these stores, and our manager posts the customer comments from the receipt surveys once a month and leaves them up for everyone to see.
Thank you this is such a nice thing to do! Too often people complain about bad service….but never (or rarely) compliment those who go out of there way to help people.
Wow ,,, last week I called Corporate Office for Walgreens inquiring about the Crayola Product advertisement they had in the Wed. ad of last week. There were no Walgreens in my area that had any of these products. I thought it was strange they advertise a special for something they did not have on hand.I called many of my local Walgreens and had no luck. I put a call into Corporate and they advised me someone would get back to me with regarding this situation. To my surprise I received a call yesterday from the manager of a local store near by. He informed me that he had 6 total Crayola Product, 3 different variety of the product and he would save them for me. I picked them up today and was so excited and happy that they kept their word. He went out of his way to call me and honor the price from last week and took my $4 off coupons. He made me feel good today! So, as soon as I got home I called Corporate to tell them what a great experience I had with this manager.I could tell that the lady fielding the call was so surprised and thanked me repeatedly for calling and that my comments would get shared with his manager. I think it is so important to recognize the good service we get … not always focus on the bad 😉
I love the postive posts idea! I was able to leave a positive comment for the great cashier that is so patient with me at my favorite Rite Aid. Thanks for the positive words! I needed to hear a little less complaining!
i’m new to couponing, so i haven’t had too many relationships but so far everyone has been nice to me. They don’t see me that often but when i do come in there are some cashiers that say that i know what i’m doing with my coupons. So i praise the ones that are in my area that have to put up with me. i don’t buy that many items but they are the best.
Thank you for posting this!!! I work in retail and it seems that everyone always has something bad to say. They forget when someone goes out of their way to help them to give them praise. Thanks again!
As a cashier at CVS this is the best thing that you guys can do for us. Especially the surveys that print out at the end of the reciepts. Please give us 5’s when you do the surveys. It is crucial to the rating system for the cashiers. We don’t get bonuses, but sometimes they do give us a cute plaque when a customer recognizes the cashier. Please be sure to include the cashier’s name and which store they are from. You can also call 1-800-Shop-CVS for compliements, however do not use this line for complaints since this is the wrong number for that. Please please please anytime you have a good experience at CVS call the line and let corporate know about the exceptional service you had. It is seldom that we get recognized for providing the customer with the gold standard of service that I personally give all customers especially my coupon ladies and gents. I’m the kind of cashier that my coupon ladies love and wait in line to get for checkout even when the other registers are open with no wait. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send an email or a quick call it really does make us feel good knowing that we did good for our customers!!!!!!
I will have to do that! The CVS I visit every week has such nice employees!
Well, I just wrote a letter to CVS, thanking the people who work at my CVS, that I visit a lot. But, then I went there last week and the lady who checked me out, was a complete B****!
Always try to remember that cashiers make minium wage,(7.25),, and yes they are what represents the company but they are the lowest on the pole of the workers of the company, and dont get much recognition. Store level employees are always the last to know what is going on with new programs, rule changes ect…. they are also the ones who get yelled at if any thing goes wrong in the store for the customer, and most of those issues are really out of their hands. Yes some are not nice, yes some dont know the coupon policy, But all love to be patted on the back for doing a good job
Thanks for this posting. I was meaning to send a nice note about a cashier but lost track of time. The links were helpful, thanks! There’s a cashier that was really nice to me last week during the Snickers deal. She was patient with me and said no problems counting and scanning 32pcs plus other items. even though a line was developing she was professional and very nice. So I just sent a nice message to Walgreen to say thanks to her.
So everyone just think of it as “paying forward”. Do something nice for someone and you’ll get it in return:) I know I got GREAT returns many, many, many times!
Just to add. I recieved a followup email from my store today so sending a good note to them does reach them ASAP!:
READ
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE compliment. I have entered Alex in the district weekly contest.
And thank you for shopping with us
CIssy Slattery
Store manager
—– Original Message —–
From: DoNotReply@walgreens.com
To: mgr.05468@store.walgreens.com ; str.05468@store.walgreens.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 1:29 PM
Subject: Customer Communication – Initial Notification
Walgreens Issue Communication Form
Initial Notification
Store # 05468
ALL ISSUES MUST BE RESOLVED
WITHIN 24 HOURS
Case# 2809143
Instructions: Click on the link below to see the case details. Once you have resolved the issue, you can use the Case Resolution screen to submit your response. Please note that once your response is submitted, you cannot make any more modifications to the issue. If you need to add additional information once you have submitted the resolution, please use the link that appears at the top of the resolution screen.
If your case has multiple issues, you will receive multiple emails. Each email is specific for one issue. All issues need to be answered via resolution link to close out the case. You will continue to receive notifications if any issue is left unanswered.
If the case text indicates there is an attachment but there is no attachment on this email, please contact ConsumerRelationsSupport@walgreens.com for a hard copy.
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL
Resolution Form: https://caseresolution.walgreens.com/CaseResolution/servlet/walgreens.cr.web.CRProxy/LoginRH?caseid=2809143&issueid=1
Please forward resolutions for any cases requiring updates after case closure to consumerrelations.bb@walgreens.com
I would love to actually give a small gift…I would hate to give them some of my freebies…any ideas?
Sean, make sure you also take the time to appreciate them by sending the company a note from you (click on the link and remember their name). It really makes a difference and it’s great exposure for them that they are good for the company.
Plus If you want to give a small gift…maybe a gift certificate from Restaurant.com for a good deal ($2.00) or a gift card ($5.00) of a near by fast food place by their work…a FREE meal on you:)
I just did this, and hope that it gets to the right people at Wags. I talked to my favorite cashier today, and told her that I always talk about her on my survey responses. She said it does make a difference. I made sure to get the first names of the manager and cashiers that respect my couponing, and hope that they get rewarded for their excellent customer service.
My vote goes to the Gaggle of Chicks web site that operates similarly to Groupon. I ordered one of those great-deal cardboard houses from them advertised on Hip2Save. They mistakenly put the price lower than intended but MADE GOOD on their advertised pricing. Very commendable. After the sign-up Gaggle bonus, I ended up paying only $5 (including shipping) for one of those cardboard castles that kids can color. On top of that–they even shipped it out promptly enough to get there prior to Christmas, which means they didn’t slow boat it to save money. When I inquired about the shipping they also responded promptly and told me precisely the day they were heading out. No excuses, no problem. I also had this item shipped straight to my great niece in Arizona (I knew it would be bulky and I didn’t want to re-mail it from my home in Oregon) AND they didn’t charge me AZ tax. We all were thrilled.
Couponing has saved me a lot of money this past year and I’m grateful to the companies that post the coupons and to the stores that accept them. My best customer service throughout the year is with a company that has been saving me money throughout the years with car & home insurance. It’s USAA (United Services Automobile Association) and it just seems like they never have a bad day and it’s always a pleasure dealing with them.