Early Saturday morning, while waiting for some very large files to transfer via sftp from one server to another, I decided to write an email to Old Navy customer service. Here it is:

Hi,

I have a bit of a complaint, but I do want to say first that I *love* Old Navy. I live in Hawaii (on Oahu), and frequent the Ala Moana store. It's really annoying that it's filled with cold weather apparel. I can't imagine much of it sells. Sweaters, yes, to bundle up when the air conditioner in the office is on the fritz, or maybe something to wear to the mainland, but other than that (scarves? Are you kidding me?), cold weather clothing is pointless ON A TROPICAL ISLAND. The temperature rarely dips below 75 degrees in the winter. When you live here, you barely notice the seasons changing (it's like a 5 degree change from summer to winter). You get more of a change simply by driving from the rainy side of the island to the dry side.

Okay, I suppose to save money, as a general policy, all stores have uniform stock. But with the remote location of Hawaii, and the cost of shipping, why ship so much stock that few people are going to buy on clearance, let alone full price?

When I worked as an inventory manager at a bookstore on the mainland (part of a national chain), there was some stock that got shipped to me no matter what, but also some stock I could pick and choose from to suit the peculiar needs of my store (and boy were we peculiar - a very liberal bookstore in the heart of conservative Arizona). To me, it seems like this approach would benefit the Old Navy stores in Hawaii. I talked briefly to some clerks at the store (who will remain anonymous); they were concerned about the issue as well (I mean, it's really an obvious problem when you live here), but they didn't seem to have control over what quantities of which stock made it into the store (at least those that I talked to). Wouldn't it be more cost effective to let the staff pick some of the summer backstock from the mainland, as well as more basics and less winterwear, to put in the store?

I'd love to see slippas (flip-flops in mainland dialect, the official footwear of Hawaii) in the store year round at the very least. They are always in short supply because they are very popular (you could probably make a mint just stocking slippas). I mean, you guys make them *every* year. You've got to have them in backstock somewhere, waiting for the next summer season. I just don't want to see Old Navy go under here because it isn't serving the needs of the customers.

thank you so much for your time :-)
Katharine Osborne

Within 24 hours, I received this pleasant, yet bureaucratic reply:

Dear Katharine,

Thank you for your e-mail and for your suggestion regarding the warm
weather inventory carried in our Hawaii stores. We appreciate the time
you have taken to contact us to share your thoughts. At Old Navy,
bringing irresistible and weather appropriate fashion at an amazing
price to our customers is important, so we will pass your message along
to our merchandising team. Please be assured that customer feedback is
the most important consideration when planning what our future products
will look like.

Thanks again for writing.

I like this response because someone obviously read what I wrote. I doubt that they will make any changes based just on my lone email, but they might if they get lots of email from lots of different customers saying the same thing.

I wanted to post this because I've answered tons of crabby emails from disgruntled customers when I did customer service at EAI. Customer service was also part of my job when I worked at the bookstore and my first job at a bank (the awful memory of which still makes me shudder. I don't speak of it often). And now, part of my Girl Friday duties at Blue Lava includes customer service. The thing is, whether or not you can actually solve a problem for a customer, they often feel better when someone has the courtesy to listen to their beef. Good customer service is a great way to build long-term loyalty (I think I'm beginning to drink my own Koolade).