February 28, 2008
Customer Service As Recession Fighter
Taken from the HP website: "HP today announced the most substantial investment in consumer technical support in its history – the aim of which is to enable people to get faster, more effective help with the HP technology products in their homes."
At a time when the economy is wavering and many companies are retrenching, HP announces a major investment in customer service. They may not be perfect, but here is more evidence that some companies really understand what is happening in the marketplace while others flounder in the evolving, customer-centric world.
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December 28, 2007
Fire That Customer, Pt. 2
Duct Tape Marketing has an interesting post titled "Fire 10% of Your Customers" that reflects the thoughts in my November 11 posting. Heading into 2008, it certainly adds food for thought. I particularly like his concept of referring the customers to a strategic partner and the creation of a written description of the revised customer profile.
Yes, you have to be financially ready to do this, but the reality is, every customer needs to add strength to your business, not suck the life out of it.
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November 11, 2007
Fire That Customer
I came across an interesting article in BusinessWeek's SmallBiz magazine titled "When, Where and How To Fire That Customer." It's something lots of business people think about, typically ignore, and often pay the price for inaction. The practice of professionally separating from your least profitable customers -- think of it like pruning a plant -- leaves more time for focus on new business and on the best customers. It is a common practice among successful companies.
It's an article worth reading regardless of the size business you work in, since it reminds us all that businesses need to keep their eye on the profitability of each and every account.
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July 23, 2007
The Power of NO.
Small business guru John Jantsch has a short, but important reminder posting about learning to say No when it comes to working with clients. Especially in many smaller independent dealer organizations, the temptation to accept all work is overwhelming. Learning to stay on focus can help you better manage your resources and keep the organization on a positive track.
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June 3, 2007
Delivering An Experience
In the June 11, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek, there is a a great quote from Allen Adamson of Landor Associates: "It is far more complicated to deliver an experience than it is to deliver entertainment on a screen. You have to rely on employees to do so, and just ask any fast-food chain how complicated that is."
The article was about Nickolodean's foray in to branded hotels. But, the words are valuable to virtually any business where customer service matters. Frankly, whether you are in a consumer-oriented or B2B company, that means you. As I have written before, buyer loyalty is harder than ever to maintain, and more any more companies....all the way to those selling through retail chains...need to think about what their "consumer experience" really is.
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March 13, 2007
On Good Vs. Great and Other Tips In Channel Sales Motivation
Several years ago, I entered a local Buick dealership to shop for a car. It was around 7:00 pm, and the slightly dingy dealership had only two salespeople on duty. The one assigned to me shuffled over and we walked back to his desk. He sat down, leaned back in his chair, and put his feet up on the desk! I talked to hom about 30 seconds, then got up and left (without tipping his chair over as I so badly wanted to do.) I thought things had changed since this happened to me...
Which leads me to a rant on sales and customer service in the form of a great posting on Seth Godin's Blog. Seth (for those readers not familiar with him) is a well-known author, speaker and consultant who is a passionate advocate for approaches to sales and marketing that are "customer-friendly" (like permission marketing) and that emphasize excellence. His latest blog is eerily like my story above, only all the more shocking because it involves Toyota.
Read: Good Is Not Almost As Good As Great
If you are a corporate reader with a large dealer network...this is scary reading. I have long advised clients on the importance of thinking about how dealers are trained, supported and treated...because behavior like this can undo all the value of great engineering and superior advertising when it comes to customer loyalty.
Do not say that "we have no control over dealer's sales beahvior..." Sending a link to a simple blog posting like this along with a sales tip and an acknowledgement/thank you for their commitment to excellence, can convey both a profound lesson and a boost of confidence that you care about their business.
When supporting sales channels...direct or indirect...it helps to continually remind people of the little things that make a big difference. Doing it creatively and supportively only makes the message more likely to be absorbed.
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March 5, 2007
What You Can Learn From A Ride On Amtrak
I am riding the train from New York to Washington as I write this. Having used the rail system in Denmark and France recently, I find Amtrak depressing. Penn Station in New York was littered with unahppy-looking people, the food options at 5:30 am were few, the building was in disrepair. As you ride along the Northeast corrider, the next thing you notice is that our rail infrastructure is crumbling. Depsite high fuel costs and increasing pressure to use mass-transit, Americans shun the rails. By comparison, in Europe, the train is a delightful experience -- clean, reliable and fast.
Which made me think about an article in the American Demographics insert of AdAge on November 20, 2006. In that article, titled, "Consumers Cite Past Experience as the No. 1 Influencer When Buying," the author noted:
"In a survey by GfK Roper Consulting, 83% of adults cited past experience with a brand as the most important factor in their purchase decisions. Quality and price -- issues often promoted in advertising -- ranked second and third. Personal recommendations came in fourth, highlighting the importance of word of mouth."
Some time ago, I ranted about manufacturer's often short-sighted obsession with products...sometimes at the exclusion of an equally obsessive customer service orientation (I took particular aim at General Motors..). So, it was not a surprise to me to see this data. However, it does surprise me that so many companies continue to ignore the evidence.
Which brings me back to Amtrak. There were some Amtrak employees this AM who made the experience relatively pleasant. The legroom in my Business Class seat was ample...and the availability of a power outlet meant I could work the entire trip. But seedy, decaying stations, trash along the route, and some notably unpleasant employees are some of the detractions. By comparison, Europe's high-speed rail cars with sumptuous first-class accommodations (OK, the unreserved coach cars can often be crowded and stuffy....), make using the train a delightful experience.
Which is, as the article points out, what it's all about -- the experience. Advertising/marketing-driven brand messaging can help drive the first order from a new customer. Or, as in my case, business need can drive periodic use. However, loyalty comes from the total experience. If Amtrak wants me to consistently look at the train instead of the car or plane for regional travel, it needs to clean up its act. One can only hope that Amtrak finds its way before bad service drives it out of business.
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December 16, 2006
DUH: With Increasing Product Parity Among Copier Brands, Sales and Service Become More Important to Customers
In its November 2006 report on customer satisfaction in the business copier industry, JD Power noted the growing importance of sales and service on the overall satisfaction with a brand. It is an interesting report because so many of the current leaders in the copier/multifunction systems category remain fixated on product-centric marketing and technology-focused development.
Factors like the sales experience, product reliability and service quality were major factors in differentiating major manufacturers. Once particularly interesting note was when asked to define the major reasons to consider switching copier brands, product reliability (not surprisingly) was mentioned by one-half the respondents. This shows how critical after-sales service and support are in determining repeat purchases. As I have noted before, management of the post-sale customer experience has never been more important in ensuring stable long-term business growth, since it is the primary lever to solidifying the existing customer base.
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November 12, 2006
It's Radio Shack. What Do You Expect.....???
Seth Godin's blog has a great story of bad customer service at Radio Shack. My first comment is in the headline for this post...
Radio Shack has a 30-day, Money-Back Guarantee (although it is cleverly worded to potentially exclude situations like the woman's in Seth's post...). It has a published Return Policy (again, cleverly worded...). It also has a reputation, well-earned, of not having the sharpest knives in the drawer working the stores. Why have cool-sounding consumer-friendly policies if they are to be adjudicated by less-than-well-trained clerks like those described in the post? And why have cool-sounding services like a "30-Day Money Back Guarantee" come with caveats if you are really serious about customer service?
Now, there are many great Radio Shack employees. And, it is unfortunate how these good employees have to be shackled by the efforts of the ones who are not so swift. Every time I walk into my local Radio Shack, I get the same feeling I get when I walk into my local Wal-Mart...a creepy, cheap, low-budget feeling that I am anxious to extract from as quickly as possible. It may not be fair, but it is the result of my experiences with multiple Radio Shack stores that have now spawned a defense mechanism every time I enter one of their stores. It is a solid lesson for retailers, dealers and franchisees in how important consistency is.
Training store personnel on the keys to customer service is one of the most immediate ways to change the perception of the once-proud Radio Shack brand. In the meantime, as Seth Godin suggests...."Why Bother?"
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November 11, 2006
The Power of Channel Differentiation (And The Shifting of Power!)
If you have ever been in a Whole Foods Market, you know how hard the company has worked to create not just a unique experience, but a literal culture among its shoppers. The company's motto -- Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet -- reflects a philosophy that goes beyond the selling of products to customers. They get above average prices for products from customers who are less likely to "sticker surf" than to simply "try something new."
The company has sheparded numerous organic brands to success by introducing them to the legions of Whole Foods loyalists. Simply by carrying a brand, Whole Foods delivers an implicit endorsement. Which is why a story in this week's Advertising Age about Pepsi's new Fuelosophy product -- a high-energy protein-rich beverage -- is so interesting. Aside from the fact that Fuelosophy doesn't seem very "natural" or "organic" (albeit all the ingredients are naturally occuring products), Pepsi was interested in introducing the product into the healthy lifestyle community without spending lots on advertising and marketing. Enter Whole Foods.
Whole Foods Market has such reach in the organic space that by sneaking onto the shelves at Whole Foods, Pepsi can see how the product performs in the marketplace without spending heavily on product advertising. Pepsi has worked hard to conceal its identity in the Fuelosophy line... there is no company mention on the packaging, the Web or any official company literature. The story is obviously big in the ad community where it is a case-study in new product launch strategies and brand management.
I find it equally educational from a channel differentiation perspective. It shows how a company in the mundane "retail grocery" segment, can identify and excel in a niche and then, in effect, become more powerful than the brands that want to sell through it. Compare that to Stop & Shop or Kroger's or other grocers. The brands doing the selling are more dominant than the retailer in the minds of most consumers. However, Whole Foods has developed its own local brand to the extent that it now is the powerful icon in the consumer's mind. They are not alone. For example, throughout Texas and sections of Mexico, H-E-B has learned that by obsessive attention to its customers, and careful management of its product offerings to reflect a Hispanic bias, it can differentiate from other grocers and dominate its markets. Again, H-E-B customers are part of the culture of the chain.
In my company, we often talk to dealers and emphasize the importance of knowing their strengths and building their brands. This story is a terrific lesson in why that is important.
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November 6, 2006
5 Bumper Stickers For Small Retailers
I was reading an article in Inc. Magazine titled "Price Isn't Everything" (online here). The author, Ted Hurlbut (a retail marketing consultant), did a great job of making the case for not competing on price alone in today's hugely competitive retailing environment. In this article, he offered five "bumper stickers" for small retailers -- tidbits to remember based on the experience of many larger retailers (Sears, Federated, etc.) who have seen their businesses ravaged in recent years. The five take-aways were:
- If you compete on price, there will always be somebody who will be able to beat your price, unless you decide to give it away. And nobody can do that for long.
- If you run an ad this year, you’ll likely have to run an ad next year to have any hope of running an increase. And your prices will have to be sharper.
- If you think you can cut costs by cutting customer service, plan on cutting customers as well.
- Customers may go to the internet for product information, but when they need true product knowledge they will come to you.
- Customers will always pay more for customer service than for products. Products they can get anywhere, whereas customer service, true service, is a rare commodity.
- Quality never goes out of style.
The testimonial at the the start of this posting is for a retail company in Chapel Hill, NC. — A Southern Season. My sisters were always raving about it, and so, when in the area a while ago, I stopped in. To call it a retail store doesn't do it justice. The restaurant on-site had a waiting list an hour long...luckily they gave you beepers so you could shop (and spend) while you were waiting. Their wine selection, tea selection and coffee selection were all the largest I'd seen in any single store. They had demos all over, fantastic prepared foods, spectacular displays and seasonal sections that are continuously rotated throughout the year. Shelves were impeccably maintained, associates were everywhere, and checkout lines were efficient, well-staffed and friendly. In short, it was a staged experience, not a "store." People went there as a social event as well as wanting to shop. Think about other places like that...locations like FAO Schwarz in NYC. The store and the products are part of a self-reinforcing ecosystem. People don't walk in thinking about price...they walk in thinking about the experience. Increasingly frustrated consumers and business buyers are showing renewed sensitivity to this service-oriented mindset. We have been through a period of deep cost-cutting as companies sought to improve the bottom-line by reducing the cost of doing business. In the last year, many companies have refocused themselves on differentiated top-line growth as the way to improve the bottom-line. While there remains a sensitivity to price, increasingly time-pressured buyers are much more likely to seek out suppliers or retailers who can deliver "value" which means not just products...but the service to go with it. Or, they want an "experience" — shopping that goes beyond procurement. A great lesson for both retailers -- and the manufacturers who supply them products. How is "value" being created throughout the process of design, manufacturing, distribution, retail sales and support??? OR how are you working together to make the retail location a destination in itself???
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October 11, 2006
May I Help You? Thoughts On Customer Service.
Great post on customer service on Seth Godin's blog, titled "To [or] For". He describes an experience in the White Plains airport that is very easy to relate to.
[His post is particularly resonant with those of us from the Westchester County (NY) area old enough to remember the old Westchester Airport...an oversize house alongside a tarmac...not really what you might refer to as a "terminal." The new terminal may be bigger and better looking, but one might question whether it is any more comfortable (especially during peak travel times.)]
This is a great topic for manufacturers and dealers. Customer service, as I wrote about recently, is one of the keys to Dell's woes today, and remains woeful in a remarkable number of high profile companies. Ted Leavitt taught us all years ago...the sole purpose of a business is to acquire and retain customers. Whether you are reading this with an enterprise perspective or a dealer/broker viewpoint, you need to ask yourself if you spend enough energy focused on delivering something "for" someone and not "to" (or even worse..."at") someone.
To paraphrase George Santayana, "If we fail to learn from our mistakes (and those of others), then we are destined to repeat them."
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