This West Elm customer had the time and patience to politely read the store’s manager for his staff’s lack of customer service skills.
Customer service 101: Greet the customer when they walk in. Whether you’ve worked in retail or just walked into just about any store, you know that this is the standard practice.
While a simple gesture, this introductory greeting can set the tone for a person’s shopping experience. It also gives them a point person to refer back to should they have any questions.
Well, West Elm shopper Leigha Jones (@huhawokay) documented how it took nearly an hour for an employee to acknowledge her at all.
“Come w me for a pi$$ poor WEST ELM experience (53 mins of no customer service),” the text overlay on the video read.
In a TikTok the length of a YouTube video plus a follow-up, Jones explains that while she’s a CB2 girly, she’d been eyeing a particular West Elm couch. The couch, she says, has been on her radar for a while. She even went in before to test it out and get fabric swatches.
The day came for her to walk into the store and purchase this big (and likely pricey) piece. However, Jones notes she was surprised to find that there’s absolutely nobody around to help her, despite the location being empty. She says it was a Tuesday afternoon, which are not exactly peak hours.
There were several employees in the store. None of them (there were three to four, depending on the time) had come up to help her or even greeted her.
“Do I even want the couch anymore?” Jones questions after 10 minutes of her waiting on said couch went by.
Jones says that it’s not only a pet peeve of hers to experience bad customer service. But, she says, she’s particularly keen on it since part of her job in operations is to enhance the customer experience.
At first, Jones says she had an inkling that the bad service might have been a race thing. However, she says she noticed other non-Black people come in and also be ignored by staff.
“I knew that the customer service was bigger than me because I sat there and watched that happen to multiple people,” Jones says.
Jones ends up chatting with a fellow customer who came over to talk to her before an employee even spoke with her.
“A customer acknowledged my needs before an employee? Wow,” Jones says.
Jones told the fellow frustrated shopper that she no longer planned to give that location her business and would rather go to a location across town.
Forty minutes in, an employee finally walked up to her. He shares that the first time he walked into that West Elm, he had the same experience. Jone’s response was iconic.
“So you experienced it and continued it?” she asks.
The worker confirms he is in fact the manager. And Jones asks him to sit, so they can have a discussion about the customer service. Jones is never being rude toward the man but shares her experience and provides direct feedback.
After Jones says her piece, she walks out. She fulfills her promise from earlier to not buy the couch at that location.
@huhawokay @West Elm @westelmmena I had higher expectations for y’all truly.. MOCKINGBIRD STATION 5307 East Mockingbird Lane Suite 100 Dallas, TX 75206 5109 #fyp #foryou #blacktiktok #westelm #cb2 #customerservice #dfw #dallastx #dallas ♬ original sound – HuhAwOkay
Responding to critics
Some people in the comments section said that Jones’ expectations were too high.
“Oh you were expecting princess treatment. No. I was expecting a ‘Hi, welcome to West Elm. My name is ______, let me know if you need anything,’” Jones said.
“Basic standard customer service skills,” Jones added.
Others shared their perspectives and experiences.
“I don’t have the patience to sit for an hour to prove a point. They have about 8 minutes and I’m out,” a top comment read.
“I had the same experience @West Elm Alexandria,VA. Must be a company culture thing. So turned off, my husband & I took our $ to Anthropologie & I ordered the remainiing items from Joss & Main,” a person shared.
“Oh I can tell you are great at your job! West Elm needs your level of communication, direction and correction. Firm and respectful!” another wrote.
“Honey, they gonna give you the couch!” a commenter manifested.
“This is the only logical outcome truly,” Jones responded.
And she kept it going by adding this to her bio: “@West Elm email me leighajones95@gmail.com Thanks bookie.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Jones and West Elm for comment via email.
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