Small Customer Relations Team Creates Big Results
Customer Relations Specialists Corrina Unal, Chelley Johnson and Carey Smith meet with Executive Response Specialist Rhonda Real to discuss messaging opportunities for VetVerify.org and the Veterans online shopping benefit.
For Soldiers and Airmen and their families, Exchange shopping is a benefit they’ve earned through their service. For that reason, they hold us to a higher standard in delivering that benefit and providing them with a shopping experience equal to their commitment to our great Nation. Key to providing exceptional experiences is to resolve customers’ needs or concerns at the earliest opportunity, hopefully at the point of sale or first contact. When an issue isn’t resolved at first contact, a small team of associates is dedicated to assisting customers with various questions, comments and concerns.
The Customer Relations team consists of Executive Response Specialist Rhonda Real and Customer Relations Specialists Corrina Unal, Carey Smith and Chelley Johnson. The team answers more than 13,000 comments annually. Comments come to them through many channels, including phone calls, Facebook comments, email, online Exchange Customer Comment Program (ECCP), Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) and the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). Comments also come in to Director/CEO Tom Shull’s office, congressional offices and even from the office of the President of the United States. The Customer Relations team manages those comments as well.
Comments range from complaints about service levels at Exchanges, ShopMyExchange.com,
MILITARY STAR® card to price-matching policies and hours of operations. The team assists with providing information to Veterans about VetVerify.org and the Veterans online shopping benefit. Monitoring and addressing comments on social media have become a more urgent focus as the Veterans online shopping benefit launch approaches. Actively correcting misinformation and providing guidance on Facebook and Twitter are paramount to protecting the reputation of the Exchange brand.
The customer relations team tracks and reports customer comment trends to senior leaders to highlight opportunities for improvement.
Recently, a customer reached out to the team because he ordered a crib online and never received it. The crib was misplaced once it reached the store. Real and her team reached out to the departments and resolved the customer’s issue quickly. During this process, they identified areas of improvement for the labeling, shipping and receiving of online orders.
“Resolving customer concerns is our number one priority,” said Rhonda Real. “We make every effort to turn negative experiences into positive ones.
“We are all passionate about providing excellent customer service. It’s incredibly rewarding to have a customer tell us how much they appreciate our efforts.”
