Walmart on Facebook: May Not Be Welcome But Still A Smart Move

Walmart has been catching flack from the Facebook community for creating a group aimed at
generating conversations (and sales) of back-to-school needs for the dorm room. But you have to
give them credit. They had to know they were going to get slammed for the most part by the
community. Anything that hints of big business usually does, but that didn't stop them from
doing it, which is good. It's better than the weak attempt they made before of promoting a
supposedly independent blog site that ended up being funded by Walmart.

It takes guts to do what Walmart did and will take even more guts to stick it out and dialog in an
open, uncontrolled forum rather than resort to trying to control the conversation through trickery,
or ignoring it altogether. It may not be the easiest policy, but it's the best one if you truly want to
be apart of the collaborative culture that Wikinomics is built upon.

Walmart Customer Service

October 13, 2005

I was in Walmart this afternoon at lunch time. It's not a place I like to be. The following example
of brilliant customer services is only one of the reasons why.

Place/time: Walmart, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1:00 pm

The scene: Many shoppers, many carts, children screaming louder than the laws governing sound
waves should allow, and exactly one check-out open. The cashier at Checkout Number Five is
trying to figure out what to do with a customer's check. Apparently, processing it, closing the
transaction�and moving on the next customers is inexplicably low on her list of "Things To Do
With This Check."

An elderly man in front of me in the epic Line At Checkout Number Five noticed my grimace
and laughed. "They're like this all over the country," he said. "And you see that sign on the wall
that says, 'Tell Us What You Need'"? He laughed.

After The Check was finally processed and my shopping neighbor-in-pain had checked out, he
approached the manager. "I'll tell you what I need...I need you to open more cash registers."

The manager, who clearly had delusions of adequacy, said, in a snotty voice, "Sir, do you want
to come work here? I'd be glad to have you. We need the help."
Has anyone explained to this woman that WE DON'T NEED TO SHOP THERE? It's not like
they're delivering electricity and we have no other options. We're not shopping there to do her a
personal favor.

I realize she's probably overworked and underpaid, so I'll skip blaming her and blame Walmart
corporate. Low prices only go so far in attracting customers.

Somebody forgot to tell Walmart that CRM does not stand for Customer Repellency
Methodology.