Overall Satisfaction, Out of Stocks and Snow!

Whew...

We made it through another Snowpocolypse and then an earthquake.  We kept our store open the entire time and served each customer that came into our store in a friendly manner.

It was fun!

The customers appreciated that we were open when our competitors were not.

Our Overall Satisfaction score TANKED

Why?

Out of Stocks

My first reaction was to get upset and fuss a little bit.  Didn't the customers understand what we were going through - that we couldn't get trucks, that we set a record sales day, that we couldn't get people into the store?

Yes, I think they did understand this.

What I wasn't understanding is that they still wanted what they wanted and were not going to be

HIGHLY SATISFIED

without being able to purchase what they wanted to purchase.

This has taken me a few days to reconcile in my mind but it makes perfect sense now and it really demonstrates the direct connection between out of stocks and OSAT and that is our lesson!

So...

This experience has made me more determined to attack our out of stocks and

ELIMINATE THEM

It took two snow events to make me understand this fully.  Both times our OSAT score dropped tremendously.  While I will probably not be able to prevent out of stocks during the next snow event I can certainly prevent them on a daily basis during our normal business patterns.

Give the customers what they want when they want them...

Can it be that easy?