Discuss IKEA customer satisfaction on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. IKEA customer satisfaction - Questions about how to handle your trip to IKEA? Want to know the best time to go or the procedure for ordering? Ask here..
My name is Frank, and I am in an MBA course in England. I am studying service management and particularly the service you receive from IKEA. Although you might all like what IKEA sells, you might not like the way it is being sold to you (long waiting time in order to pay, lack of stock in stores....). I would like to do a simple poll of customer satisfaction with the following question.
"How would you rate the level of service you receive from IKEA?"
(Very Poor, Poor, Average, Good, Excellent)
Frank,
I think if you check out messages about the ordering process and service, you'll find that the level of quality is very spotty. Unlike many stores, IKEA does not seem to have a corporate policy for good service. If an individual IKEAn wants to provide good customer service, they can be excellent. But many IKEA employees are not willing to do the same unless their supervisors require it - and IKEA does not seem to require customer service as a routine policy.
As someone who lives hundreds of miles from the nearest IKEA I have to rely on long distance ordering and the IKEA order system is horrible for kitchens. Their web site does not cover the range of options available and a kitchen cannot be ordered over the internet, only by telephone or through a store. As someone who ordered a kitchen over the phone, I have to say that is a long, painful process - even though I got better service that way than trying to order through a store by way of faxes.
Honestly, my kitchen ordeal has been one hassle after another. After hearing what people have been through, I've tried to be very organized and helpful and friendly to try to get good service. I've dealt with several people who are nice and some who want to go out of their way to help you but IKEA really drags them down!
The kitchen planner doesn't link to the order system in the US! So we spend all of that time getting things right and the product list we generate has to be TYPED in, one cabinet at a time! While I stand there waiting. And when the transfer of the draft order goes incorrectly the whole thing has to be reentered because the draft order disappears when it's "converted" to a real order. Then the stuff arrives I have to sit for an hour while they pull it, even though it should be loaded right on two pallets! Then I am missing half of my order and have things from other people mixed in with my stuff!
It's frightening and I have to keep telling myself that it will be worth it (if I can get the other half of my order!) If I knew someone who didn't deal well with hassle, I would never consider recommending IKEA to them. If they were calm, collected types who don't let things bother them I would still warn them!
Like you said, though - love their stuff. I just wish they'd give the staff more technology to make things easier for them and perhaps a little happier to help you. I got the distinct impression when I ordered that nobody wanted to deal with me and my big order.
I also have an MBA and extensive experience with cutomer service. I live near a recently opened store but visit IKEAS when I travel - which is a lot. As you know your survey on this site is not very represenative of the entire customer base. However, let me just say each IKEA I have visited and purchased from has a wide range of services. They are never consistent in the same store on different days. Yet I can never say I have ever had a totaly bad experice. I have purchase a complet kitchen and yes I had some problems. Some were my own making others were caused by an IKEAN. Every one was resolved when brought to a manager or customer service/returns employee.
Compliants about long lines to pay, pulling your orders and lack of sales persons on the floor are not relevant to the IKEA business model. IKEA is driven by price and they manage to provide excellent products for extremely low prices. This must be factored into the entire shopping experience.
IKEA has overcome wide spread comments about poor quality and poor service. This almost rises to the level of urban ledgends. When ever I speak to persons who have actually purcased items at IKEA they rarely have a complaint about quality and service. The myths are spread by persons who know someone who had a bad experience.
I work for a government entity that regulates contractors and enforces consumer protections laws. There are much worse organization out there. My experience and that of my counterparts in states in the US where IKEA stores are located confirm that complaints are extremely rare and those are resolved very quickly.
When all is said and done, if you expect quality service and are unwilling to to provide it your self, you will have to pay for it.
This seems to me to be a sort of apples and oranges discussion. The strongest defense IKEA's competitors have is that they provide much better customer service. IKEA's claim is good to fantastic product for a reasonable price. Like most things in life, it's a trade-off. Having said that. I also have to say I've never had memorably bad service at an IKEA, and I've had lots of lousy service, and been treated shabbily in places where the prices were as painful as the shopping experience. On balance, IKEA does a great job. Not perfect, but what is?.
I too am a Utah Ikeafan. Well, actually, I'm an Idahoan, but the nearest Ikea is in Utah. So, I drove a couple of hundred miles (and back) to buy my kitchen, and I'll drive a couple of hundred miles (and back) to return a some things that I've changed my mind about. I'll also be returning about 25' of the 30' of wall mounting strip I was sold for the 5 (yes, just five) feet of wall cabinets I bought (I wondered what all that jangly metal stuff I had strapped to the top of the car was!). I don't know how that happened; Cory, my IKEAN, was a sweetie, but the store hasn't been open long, and well, it happened. I guess I could get annoyed about that, and about the door that wasn't in stock, but even factoring in the gas and the motel and dinner, since I probably won't want to make it a one day turn around, I'm getting a good deal.
I love Ikea design, but the customer service I've received has been routinely bad.
I bought a sofa once, asked for dimensions to make sure it would fit in my truck. (The tag was missing) I was given the wrong dimensions, but didn't know it. I bought it, had to wait until it was in warehouse. They called me to come get it, but then couldn't find it for two hours. When they finally did, that's when we discovered that it was the wrong dimensions and didn't fit. We had to call somebody with a truck to help us. When I got it home, it was broken with no way to get it back to the store.
I just now bought a desk and legs in the vika series, and there was no way to know that the desk and legs I bought aren't supposed to go together. Unless you open the package, there is no way to know that - signs in the store say that they all match.
I hate, HATE the fact that they won't give you bags for stuff and you have to buy them. I guess I should be grateful as it cuts down on my impulse shopping.
The lines are long, the workers don't seem to know the product, and it shopping there usually ends up being a big hassle where I have to return things, something I rarely do.
All that aside, I really like Ikea design and their useful products and will continue to put up with their lack of customer service. But, they are last on my list when I need something, not first.
I'd happily pay a bit more if I could get some service.
My experience has, with one exception, been total crap. Sorry to be crass but I'd like to use some harsher language. If you buy at Ikea Burbank there are two Ikeans to try and hold out for: Drew and Renzo. Avoid all others.
I can't really appraise the Orlando store until it's been open a bit longer and until I get a better look at the relation between the online "in stock" estimator and reality at the store.
I was surprised that one of two bed box springs that was routinely listed as "out of stock" was actually in stock, while an alternative, routinely "in" was in fact "out". The same seems to apply to Billy bookcase components, albeit these must have very high turnover.
I am thus a bit wary of how to proceed when I next rent a van to carry a load of Ikea furniture, or eventually refurbish the kitchen.
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When they finally did, that's when we discovered that it was the wrong dimensions and didn't fit. We had to call somebody with a truck to help us. When I got it home, it was broken with no way to get it back to the store. 
