Retailers: Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite You in the Bottom Line
Victoria's Secret (LTD) on 58th Street in Manhattan is the latest shop to temporarily shutter because of a bedbug infestation. I've already reported about the closing of Hollister's SoHo store and an Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) outpost in the South Street Seaport followed suit a few days later.
What's remarkable about such reports is that while the ick-factor is at an all-time high (bedbugs burrowing in bras and panties!), each chain's management seems to be making half-hearted attempts to offer a company-wide policy that will soothe worried customers.
Like parasites, these management failures can burrow into the fabric of the business and proliferate, requiring copious applications of good PR and reactive tactics until the last vestiges are erased.
Yet rather than watch, learn, and quickly jump on the proactive bandwagon, WWD's survey of a range of retailers showed that many didn't seem to be doing much about bedbugs at all.
Ralph Lauren (RL), Bloomingdale's (M), Saks (SKS) and J. Crew (JCG) all refused to comment, while others offered pat responses such as this gem from Bergdorf Goodman, "We are currently in the process of formulating a plan."
While those retailers fiddle, others should be communicate several things to gain consumer confidence:
- How stores will be tested â€" Lord & Taylor's Brendan Hoffman said, "We don't have a problem, but as a precaution, we have increased the frequency of our exterminator to once a week to ensure we have no issue." This is a good move, but needs to be publicized beyond the magazine's subscribers.
- How stores will be treated if bugs are found - Victoria's Secret did test its other Manhattan stores. "When we found small, isolated areas that may have been impacted, we immediately took action to resolve the situation," which included destruction of infested merchandise as discovered by bedbug-detecting dogs, and cryonite was used to freeze and kill the pests. Smart to detail the reactive measures, now customers only have to decide if they want to buy (and sterilize) undergarments that have been nuked.
- What customers should do if they find bugs in their bags â€" A & F is allowing customers to return purchases to the stores, where merchandise "will be properly quarantined before being sent to HQ in Ohio. That's no better than a restaurant giving a diner a refund for a dish that caused them to get food poisoning. To gain a real edge on its competition, retailers would do well to offer customers an additional special discount on a future purchase.
By actively implementing and touting these measures, retailers can not only build confidence and customer loyalty but they'll also be able to save thousands of dollars on legal fees by not getting slapped with a bedbug lawsuit.
Image via Flickr user wonderferret CC 2.0
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