Back in 2006, my husband and I were gifted a set of red and white wine glasses from the Pier 1 Imports Essentials collection. They may not be fancy but they’re classic, sturdy and affordable. And what I always liked best about the Pier 1 Essentials collection was that it hadn’t changed since my best friend worked there in high school. For over a decade, while Pier 1 refreshed its inventory with every passing season, the Essentials collection never changed. It was comforting to know that if I break a glass doing dishes (especially doing dishes after I’ve had a few glasses), I can always run out to my neighborhood Pier 1 and, for just a few dollars, have a complete matching set again.
So imagine my surprise and disappointment (read: outrage) when last month I brought home a replacement Essentials red wine glass only to find that – are you ready for this? – it didn’t match.
Pier 1 changed the Essentials.
Why, Pier 1? Why?!
When I went back to return the glass, I explained to the 40-something female sales associate that there was nothing wrong with the item aside from it not matching my existing set. She asked me if I had an older set and went on to commiserate with me, letting me know I am not the only person in the past year to come back disgruntled with the change in the Essentials collection.
Obviously wanting to help in some way, she told me that Pier 1 is “really good about listening” to what customers are saying online and recommended that I “blog and tweet about it.” She made it a point to mention that while there are no guarantees, in the past few years she’s “seen changes happen” because of what Pier 1 gathered from social media.
I was delighted and, quite frankly, shocked by the exchange. First, I didn’t expect a non-Millennial Pier 1 employee to be touting the company’s corporate social media listening practices and I certainly didn’t expect her to be so knowledgeable about them. Either she is an incredibly invested and observant employee or Pier 1 is doing a great job of keeping its on-the-ground workforce well-informed. I was also surprised that she simply assumed I have a blog and Twitter account. I mean, I do . . . but how did she know that?!
The whole experience opened my eyes to how the retail landscape is changing and how the tools of our industry are a major part of it. My shopping journey is so much bigger than driving to a brick-and-mortar store and choosing something I like off the shelf. It’s begins long before I ever pull out my credit card, it’s multichannel and it continues long after I’ve purchased my items. Heck, the experience of buying a three-dollar replacement wine glass is still going on, almost a month later.
So anyway, I figured I’d take the sales associate’s advice and use this very public blog as a billboard for my own personal expression: Pier 1, are you listening? Please bring back the old Essentials line! I need another red wine glass!
Is this experience out of the norm? Has this happened to anyone else? How has social media and online listening impactedthe way you and your customers shop? What are the benefits of having engaged and enthusiastic customer-facing employees? Do you think anything will come of my plea?