An Accidental Advertiser

I got my seasonal flu shot last week. The experience was tedious and annoying, but no more so than many other medical visits. The reason I’m writing about at all (and here in particular) is that my shot was administered at the “Take Care Clinic” within my area Walgreens. The Walgreens website promotes these deluxe locations as the ideal place to receive vaccinations, advertising “no appointment needed” and extended hours. Comparatively, the Walgreens I frequent in Austin required advance appointments that stopped daily at 4 p.m.

When I arrived at the Take Care Clinic, the single employee (a nurse practitioner) was on lunch break. The posted sign asked me to fill out a form while I waited, but there was no such paperwork to be found. I asked the pharmacist for help and was told that the clinic was separate from the pharmacy and that she had no idea how to help me. As I waited in the lounge (shared with said pharmacy), a string of other people arrived and ran into the same problem. The “Walgreens” clinic wasn’t staffed, and the “Walgreens” employees knew nothing. Those of us who frequent the Walgreens pharmacy were also confused that the computer kiosk asked us to establish entirely new patient profiles. Among other information that assumed it would already know about me, the “Walgreens” clinic wanted to know what prescriptions I took.

If I had gone to another Walgreens, I would have received a vaccination from an immunologist brought into the pharmacy for that specific purpose. Instead, what I got was a full-service clinic akin to a minor emergency room. Although I was third in line, I waited over an hour to receive my shot, since the people in front of me were there for other medical reasons that didn’t take a signature, $25, and a poke with a needle to remedy.

Here’s the thing. It wasn’t a “Walgreens” clinic, even though it was located physically within Walgreens, was branded as a Walgreens deluxe service, and was promoted heavily to Walgreens customers on the Walgreens website. Truth be told, it was a “wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreens” with patient care managed by an “independently owned state professional corporation established in each market.”

I didn’t know any of that when I arrived. I knew that I was at Walgreens and that I had a problem that the staff couldn’t address. I now know about the corporate structure and the fact that this clinic might as well just be renting the space inside the store, but at that moment, I was an annoyed Walgreens customer.

Restoration Hardware did something similar to me when I first moved to Austin. We were trying to match a light fixture in my bathroom, and we knew it had been purchased from that company. We found the exact match in the showroom. At this point, we were told that it had to be ordered. OK, no problem. And it had to be shipped to us, not the store. OK again, although that’s not ideal. And we’d have to pay 15% above the listed price in shipping fees. Pardon?

It turns out that Restoration Hardware’s store and catalog are separate operating entities (or “profit centers” or whatever), and our order was technically the same as a catalog order, even though it was on display within the showroom. My expectation upon entering the store was that anything shown would be available for purchase or could be ordered by the store. Instead, I was treated as if the showroom were merely facilitating my purchase from a completely different source.

Customers will assume that your brand is a single entity. When you offer products across multiple channels or when your brand operates across multiple divisions, make sure you support the customer experience seamlessly. I don’t care why I’m not getting the uniform brand experience I expect, I only care that my problem gets solved.