November 27, 2006
Sears, Lies and Process Measurement
This weekend I got into the holiday spirit and bought an air hockey table at Sears. When I went to pick up the table a day later, I was very impressed with the customer pick up area. The electronic scanner allowed you to log in your pick up request and this information was transferred to a scoreboard above the warehouse door and to an employee in the back. They had a sign promising five minute delivery of your item to you or you would get a $5 gift certificate and a board showing that 100% of yesterday’s pick ups and 92% of the previous month’s pick ups had been completed within five minutes. Since it wasn’t crowded, I was confident that I would be in and out of the store in plenty of time to watch the end of the Florida/FSU game.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
All Things are Not Equal
Your customers value certain things more than others. This is common sense. But if you look at most customer satisfaction surveys you receive (and maybe some that you send to your customers!) most of them only ask the most basic questions about your last interaction with the business but fail to ask key questions about the customer’s future intent. And the customers that are completing the surveys may not be representative of your customer base.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2006
Frequent Shopper Cards: Loyalty Strategy or Price Discount?
There is one school of thought that frequent shopper cards are nothing more than a price discounting strategy. You know the game. Go to a store a certain number of times and make a purchase of a minimum dollar amount and the 10th one is free. Or get a point for every dollar you spend and once you reach a certain threshold you get a gift certificate.
At the same time, retailers and consumer oriented businesses continually use this strategy as a way to drive repeat business. It is almost a surprise when a company does not offer you a chance to sign up for their frequent shopper program. The question is do these programs work? Do they build loyalty?
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 01:41 PM | Comments (1)
June 20, 2006
A Little Customer Magic
Use Institutional Knowledge to Maintain Customer Satisfaction
A few weeks ago, I renewed my season tickets for the Orlando Magic. My sales rep, Leigh, was very helpful in getting me seats that met my budget and preferences. I though everything was set for the 2006-7 season—except for the Magic’s desperate need for a legitimate shooting guard (but not J.J. Redick!)—then Dave called.
Turns out Leigh got a promotion and I got reassigned to the new rep. Ever eager, he told me about a seat selection event at the arena where I could take 30 minutes and select the best available seat in my price range. Being 75 miles away from the arena, I declined to attend because I was happy with the seats I had selected with Leigh.
Much to my dismay, this is only the beginning of the story.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2006
Good Service is Good Medicine
Last Sunday morning I awoke to find my 10-month old daughter howling. Little Katie had a nasty allergic reaction to a penicillin-based antibiotic and was about to take a quick trip to the emergency room (she is fine). During the 90 minutes that followed, it brought to light the important of the service aspects of a medical practice on the perception of the quality of the medical care received.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2006
“Service with an Attitude” or “How to Lose $1,000 Without Really Trying”
For the last three years I have been a loyal customer of the Sun Shoppe, a cute little coffee shop/restaurant with free WiFi access and friendly service. I visit the store about 4 times a week and spend about $5 a visit. My $20 a week adds up to about $1,000 a year which, after today’s experience, I am going to spend elsewhere.
About a year about, Marc sold the business and things began to change. The first thing to change was the decorations (a major upgrade), then the atmosphere changed. Instead of being greeted by the friendly owner, customers were greeted by a series of ever changing college students. Over time, the changes in the staff resulted in a significant downgrade in the quality of the service. But at least they had free WiFi access.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 03:10 PM | Comments (5)
January 31, 2006
Aligning Internal Policies with Customer Needs
As a consumer, do you ever get the feeling that some of the companies you do business with are more concerned about meeting their internal needs rather than your needs as a customer? Are companies putting more restrictions on you as the customer because their internal systems and processed are out of whack?
My recent experience with Merry Maids is a great example of how some organizations create policies without considering the impact on the customer. And it is a great example of how easy it is to get internal policies aligned with customer needs with a little bit of forethought.
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Posted by Greg Robinson at 01:15 PM | Comments (3)
