How’s this for a conundrum?

Help the customer or enforce company policy. Enforce policy or help the customer.

Office Depot’s management created this very quandary when my friend Elena visited their brand spanking new store in Albuquerque last week.

She wanted a copy of a two-page color document, but she was told she had to wait because the store’s policy was to service register customers first. Watching customer after customer enter the store and leave with a purchase, she gave up waiting after one hour. The manager overseeing the few overworked employees could hardly have been less contrite. After she complained about the long wait, he offered “you can come back later this afternoon and pick up your copy.” How’s that for service?

What could have been the outcome if the store manager wasn’t conflicted in his goals? What if he were empowered (to use a now-popular term) to offer to courier Elena’s document to her or to ship it overnight? Instead, the policy shackles at Office Depot prevailed, to everyone’s detriment.

During Elena’s wait, she purchased a few items, and decided to voice her complaint via the website printed on her receipt, which helpfully shared how much Office Depot values her opinion. After carefully crafting an informative message about her poor Office Depot experience, her transmission was promptly rejected. Why? She declined to include her gender and annual household income among the information she submitted. Clearly, any mantra espousing customer centricity isn’t mounted in a frame at the home office.

My friend Elena left Office Depot without her color copies, and without Office Depot learning about her experience. She won’t visit the store again. And yes, she will tell twenty people about her experience.

Office Depot, are you listening? Maybe Staples will!