Review Analysis of Rapid City Menards

Continuing to build off last blog topic, AI use in the digital marketing space, this post will be an analysis focused on how AI can evaluate customer reviews and create constructive feedback. We will be using ChatGPT in order to analyze Google Maps customer reviews by entering prompts and examining feedback. Let’s start with the positive!

Positive Review Analysis

1. First, I search the Rapid City Menards on Google Maps. Menards has over 300 stores across the Midwest, but the reason I chose the Rapid City Menards is because it is by far the busiest Menards in the entire company. With high customer traffic than any other store, so the customer reviews – should be – the best ones to go off of. For the first part of this assignment, I copy and pasted one-hundred of the highest rated reviews from Google into ChatGPT and asked the following prompt:
   • “What are the customers most satisfied with based on the reviews?”
     • Here is what ChatGPT replied with:

• Product Selection & Variety — This is the most frequently praised aspect. Customers consistently love that Menards carries an enormous range of products, from lumber, tools, and plumbing supplies to groceries, pet food, clothing, and outdoor furniture. Phrases like “one stop shop,” “you can find anything,” and “everything from soup to nuts” come up repeatedly.

• Helpful & Knowledgeable Staff — A close second. Dozens of reviewers specifically call out employees by name (Mike Burns, Gary, Richard in paint, Ray at lumber, Connor in the lumber yard, etc.) for going above and beyond. Customers appreciate that staff are proactive about offering help and are knowledgeable about their departments.

• Prices & Rebates — The 11% rebate program is mentioned enthusiastically by many reviewers. Customers feel they get significantly better value than at competitors like Lowe’s or Home Depot. Clearance deals and food pricing also get called out as surprisingly good.

• Store Size & Stock Availability — Many reviewers are impressed by how large the store is and how rarely items are out of stock. The ability to order online and pick up in store is also appreciated.

• Easy Returns & Customer Service Desk — Several customers specifically mention hassle-free returns and a helpful customer service team as a major positive

2. Next, I will ask ChatGPT to look through the best reviews and examine the keywords associated with these reviews. I will enter the prompt:

“Extract positive keywords from those reviews, and analyze the frequency and associations of these keywords”

Here is what I got as a response:

Top keywords by frequency:
“Helpful” dominates at ~68 mentions, followed by “great selection,” “friendly,” “great prices,” and “knowledgeable.” Staff-related words make up the biggest cluster overall.
Three main keyword categories:

• Staff & service (blue) — the largest group, including helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, professional, and easy returns. This theme runs through more reviews than any other.
• Selection & products (green) — great selection, everything, variety, one stop shop, well stocked. Customers love the breadth of inventory.
• Price & value (amber) — great prices, 11% rebate, good deals, save money. The rebate program is frequently called out by name.

Key associations (what appears together):
The most common pairings

• “Helpful staff + great prices” — customers who mention good value almost always also mention good service.
• “Friendly + knowledgeable” is also tightly linked, suggesting customers see these as a package. The 11% rebate almost always appears alongside other price-related language, showing it reinforces the overall value perception.

3. Finally, now that there is some data to work with, we will ask ChatGPT to provide a recommendation. In order to get this recommendation I will ask:

“What would be the suggestion from the findings?”

Here was the response:

Based on the keyword analysis and review findings, here are the strategic suggestions:
Double down on what’s already working
1. The staff is clearly Menards’ biggest differentiation.

Customers name employees by name — Mike Burns, Gary, Richard, Ray, Connor — which signals genuinely memorable service. The suggestion here is to formalize recognition programs that reward this behavior, since it’s already happening organically and driving loyalty. Peer nominations or public shoutouts (even in-store) would reinforce the culture without manufacturing it.

2. Leverage the rebate program more aggressively in marketing
The 11% rebate appears constantly and almost always in a positive light. However, a few reviewers noted the mail-in process is a hassle. Streamlining rebate redemption — whether through a digital option or auto-applying at checkout — could turn a strong positive into an unbeatable one and remove the one friction point customers mention.

3. Use “one stop shop” as a positioning anchor
Customers are genuinely surprised and delighted by the breadth of products (hardware AND groceries AND clothing AND pet supplies). This unexpected variety is a real competitive edge over Lowe’s and Home Depot. Leaning into this in advertising — targeting people who don’t think of Menards for non-hardware needs — could attract new customer segments.

4. Invest in department-level expertise
Multiple reviews specifically praise employees in specific departments: paint, plumbing, lumber, and special orders. This suggests customers value specialists, not just general floor staff. Maintaining deep product knowledge per department — through training investment — would protect the “knowledgeable” keyword that shows up 38+ times.

5. Address the occasional navigation pain point
A handful of reviews mention difficulty finding items in the store, though they also note staff helped resolve it. This suggests that signage and store layout could be improved so customers feel confident navigating independently. Better aisle labeling or a store app with a product locator would reduce friction without relying entirely on staff availability.

6. Actively encourage more named-employee reviews
Since reviews mentioning specific employees by name are among the most enthusiastic and detailed, a gentle prompt at checkout — “If someone helped you today, mention them in your review!” — could generate more of this high-quality social proof content, which is far more credible than generic praise.

7. Protect the value perception
“Great prices” and “save money” are woven through the reviews, and customers directly compare Menards favorably to Lowe’s and Home Depot. Any pricing changes — even small ones — could erode this perception quickly since it’s a core part of the brand identity customers have built in their minds.

Negative Review Analysis

With all things good, must come the bad. Now I will repeat the exact same process for negative reviews.

1. Just like before, I will start by copying and pasting one-hundred of the lowest rated Rapid City Menards reviews in ChatGPT and ask:
   • “What are the customers least satisfied with based on the reviews?”
     • Here is the response:

• Employee attitude & rudeness — This is by far the most complained-about issue. Dozens of reviewers describe employees as rude, dismissive, hostile, or indifferent. Specific language like “hate life,” “eye rolls,” “passive aggressive,” and “talking down to customers” appears repeatedly. Several customers say they left and went to Lowe’s specifically because of how they were treated.
• Unhelpfulness & “not my department” culture — A very close second. Customers frequently describe employees physically present in the store but unwilling to assist, pointing vaguely instead of walking customers to items, or deflecting with “not my department.” This frustration appears across nearly every section of the store — lumber, plumbing, paint, building materials, and the yard.
• Order pickup & special order failures — This is the most operationally specific complaint. Customers report waiting 40 minutes to over 2 hours for pickup orders, orders being marked as picked up before the customer arrived, items not being in stock despite showing available online, and missing items from orders. Curbside pickup in particular drew repeated harsh criticism.
• Lumber yard staff & loading help — Multiple reviewers specifically call out the yard and forklift staff as lazy, rude, and unwilling to assist with loading. Customers describe being watched by employees who do nothing while they struggle to load heavy items themselves. Women customers in particular report being ignored or treated dismissively in the yard.
• Inventory accuracy & stock issues — Customers drove long distances based on the website showing items in stock, only to find them unavailable. Products being in the wrong location, incorrect pricing at checkout, and out-of-stock sale items are recurring complaints.
• Gender bias & discriminatory treatment — A notable cluster of reviews specifically mentions women being treated poorly or condescendingly, particularly in the lumber yard. At least three separate reviewers describe incidents of apparent sexism, which is a serious reputational risk.
• Online ordering experience & fees — Complaints about the online system include a “processing fee” for store pickup that customers find unreasonable, inability to cancel orders easily, items showing in stock that aren’t, and a confusing or broken online experience overall.
• Response quality from management — One reviewer pointedly called out that the store’s response to every negative review is the same copy-paste message directing customers to email the general manager, which customers find hollow and tone-deaf. This pattern itself became a complaint.

2. Now we will see what words were frequently used in the negative reviews. I gave this prompt:

“Extract negative keywords from those reviews, and analyze the frequency and associations of these keywords”

Here is the result.

Top keywords by frequency:
“Rude” leads overwhelmingly at 72 mentions, followed by “no help / unhelpful” at 65 and “not my department” at 48. These three alone paint a very clear picture of a staff culture problem rather than scattered individual incidents.
Five complaint categories:

• Staff attitude (dark red) — the largest cluster by far, covering rude, bad attitude, ignored, dismissive, slow/lazy, sexist treatment, and the 31 reviews that explicitly say “go to Lowe’s.” The fact that a competitor is named this often is a serious churn signal.
• Service failure (orange) — no help, “not my department,” poor customer service, and no loading help. This is distinct from attitude — it’s about systems and accountability, not just personality.
• Order & pickup (amber) — long waits, orders not ready, and missing items. These cluster tightly together, meaning a broken pickup experience almost always involves all three problems at once.
• Stock & product (blue) — out of stock, wrong inventory shown online, and damaged products. The online inventory inaccuracy is particularly damaging because it causes customers to make wasted trips.
• Operations (gray) — the online processing fee, the copy-paste owner responses to reviews, and the inability to reach the store by phone. These are systemic issues that signal management disconnection.

Strongest keyword associations:
1. “Rude + no help” is the most common pairing — appearing together in 52 reviews — confirming that customers who encounter rudeness rarely get compensated by getting actual assistance. 2. “Long wait + order not ready” is the second tightest cluster, reinforcing that the pickup system fails as a whole unit, not in isolated steps.

3. Finally I will be using these data from both sections and ask ChatGPT fpor recommendations. I will use the prompt:

What would be suggestions from the findings?

Here is the response:

1. Fix the staff attitude problem first — it’s the root issue

With “rude” appearing 72 times and “bad attitude” at 41, this isn’t a training gap — it’s a culture problem. The suggestion here goes beyond customer service scripts. Management needs to audit who is being placed in customer-facing roles, establish clear behavioral standards with real consequences, and create a feedback loop where customer complaints are tied back to specific employees. The fact that multiple reviewers mention the same departments — lumber yard, paint, plumbing — suggests the problem is concentrated and identifiable, not store-wide.

2. Retrain or restructure the “not my department” response

At 48 mentions, this phrase has become a brand liability. Employees should be trained to either walk the customer to the right person or radio for assistance — never just point or deflect. A simple store-wide standard like “I’ll get someone who can help you right now” costs nothing to implement and would directly address one of the most repeated complaints in the entire dataset. Department silos are operationally useful but should never be visible to the customer.

3. Overhaul the pickup and special order system entirely

The pickup experience is broken at multiple points simultaneously — orders aren’t ready, items are missing, waits exceed 40 minutes, and staff seem unaware of order status. These problems clustering together suggests the issue is a process failure, not a staffing one. Investing in a real-time order tracking system, clear pickup notifications, and a dedicated pickup team with accountability metrics would directly address 35+ reviews in one move. Customers who use pickup are often your highest-value buyers — losing them is disproportionately costly.

4. Fix the online inventory accuracy urgently

Twenty-six reviews describe driving to the store based on the website showing items in stock, only to find them unavailable. This is a trust-destroying experience that also wastes customers’ time and fuel. Real-time inventory syncing between the store floor and the website is a technical investment that pays back immediately in reduced frustration and fewer wasted trips. Until it’s fixed, adding a clear disclaimer on product pages — “stock levels update every X hours, call to confirm” — would at least manage expectations honestly.

5. Address the lumber yard experience specifically

The heatmap puts the lumber yard at 9 out of 10 in complaint severity. Multiple reviewers describe forklift operators who ignore customers, watch them struggle to load heavy items, and treat requests for help as an inconvenience. There are also specific and credible accounts of women being dismissed or mocked in the yard. This area needs dedicated supervision, a posted standard for customer assistance, and a clear reporting channel for customers who experience discriminatory treatment. The reputational risk of the gender bias complaints alone warrants immediate attention.

6. Replace the copy-paste review responses with real ones

One reviewer specifically called out that every single negative review receives the same “contact the general manager” template response, and that observation itself went viral within the review thread. This is doing active reputational damage — it signals to every prospective customer reading reviews that the company is not genuinely listening. Responses should be personalized, acknowledge the specific complaint, and where possible, describe what was done to fix it. A genuine response to a 1-star review can actually recover trust with readers even if the original customer is gone.

7. the online pickup processing fee

Sixteen reviews mention this fee, and the framing customers use — “corporate greed,” “charging me to pick up my own order” — shows it’s being perceived as a punishment for shopping. If the fee must exist, the communication around it needs to be upfront and clearly justified. If it can be absorbed into pricing or eliminated, the goodwill recovered would far outweigh the revenue it generates.

8. Create a real escalation path for complaints

Right now, the only resolution path customers are offered is emailing a general manager — and there’s no evidence in the reviews that this leads anywhere. A visible, staffed customer service desk with the authority to actually resolve issues on the spot — refunds, discounts on damaged goods, order corrections — would intercept many of these complaints before they become public 1-star reviews. The review about receiving two damaged smokers with no compensation offered is a perfect example of a situation that a $50 discount could have fully resolved.

The single most important takeaway is that Menards is losing customers directly to Lowe’s — 31 reviews name the competitor explicitly as where they went instead. Every unresolved complaint is not just a lost sale, it is an actively redirected sale to a competitor. The urgency here is not just about reputation — it’s about revenue walking out the door with a named destination