New Customer Service Standard
Does anyone out there remember when stores used to stock their shelves and racks at night when there were few, if any, customers? Those days, customers could push their carts up and down the aisles all day long, unimpeded by the many stocking dollies piled high with goods waiting to be put on shelves.
Not today! Now we customers seem to be in the way of employees trying to stock shelves…and it’s obvious they would rather we were not around while they were working. Of course these are only the employees—management must want customers or they wouldn’t have a job long. I just wonder why they work so hard to make it difficult to shop at their place of business. Is that what they call customer service?
It doesn’t seem to matter whether the store is large or small; making it difficult to shop must be the new norm of customer service. Night shift work must no longer be acceptable I guess. Driving by these places at night, it is obvious that no one is busy stocking shelves for tomorrow’s customers.
Oh well, we’re only the customer.
I wonder what Stew Leonard would say about this issue?
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Talk About Customer Service!
Just read Seth Godin’s blog, and watched a video he made three years ago, titled “This is Broken.” If anyone has any interest in customer service, customer communication, or customer relations, this is a must watch video. Check it out here:
Small Business Can Learn From Big Business
I just read a comparison between the market values of the two largest U.S. automakers and Japan’s two largest automakers. The market value of GM and Ford combined is $8.1 billion. The market value of Toyota and Honda combined is $146.3 billion—over 18 times greater than the U.S. big two.
Why is the American auto industry on life support, while Japan’s is alive, healthy, and prosperous? Most of Japan’s cars, that are sold in the U.S., are built in the United States. Japan’s auto makers belong to the same U.S. unions, pay the same wages, charge comparable prices for their products…and yet, they are many times more successful. Why do you suppose that is?
To find the answer I think we only have to look as far as the customer satisfaction surveys conducted by J. D. Powers, Consumer Reports, and the like. American automobiles just do not satisfy the consumers as well as the Japanese automobiles do, and they haven’t for a long time. According to the surveys, Japanese autos are better designed, higher quality, and just built better. In other words, Japanese automakers provide more value for the money.
How does this apply to small business?
Value for their money is also what our own customers and clients search for. It doesn’t matter if you are a one-person web site design studio, or General Motors…if you do not provide the best value for your customers or clients money—you will fail. It is as simple as that. Maybe it is time for all of us to take stock of what we are delivering to our customers and clients.
Toyota does it; Honda does it; Costco does it; Avon does it—why can’t we?
What Can We Learn From Costco?
In their November 2008 issue, Fast Company magazine featured an interview with Jim Sinegal, CEO and cofounder of Costco. While most retailers are whining about the economy, in August Costco had an increase in same-store sales of 9%. The reason for this is very simple; there are no secret programs, or special incentives to buy there…just good old-fashioned business sense. Here are the key points in Jim’s interview that we can all learn from.
- Don’t gouge your customers. The interviewer pointed out that some suppliers still balk at Jim’s policy of not marking products up more than 15%. So much for supply and demand marketing.
- Treat your customers well. Jim: “Customers shop with us for value. They don’t shop with us for cheap prices on cheap merchandise. They expect us to deliver value on quality….The final analysis is, the customers vote at the checkout.” This is something for all of us to remember.
- Treat your employees well. Wall Street complains that Costco treats its customers and employees better than they do their shareholders. They pay their workers an average of $17 per hour, and 90% of health insurance costs, for both full-time and part-time employees. Yet, revenues have grown 70% in the last five years, and their stock has doubled.
- Know your competition. Jim: “Hardly a week goes by that I’m not in a Sam’s.” Do we study our own competition that closely?
- Try new things. Sales on Costco’s e-commerce site are expected to hit $1.6 billion this year, a 33% increase over 2007. Coffins are one of their big e-commerce sellers. Who would have thought?
- Do not be afraid to fail. Jim: “You don’t have enough space in your magazine to talk about all the things that we’ve tried that didn’t work out.” How bold are we about trying new things?
- Manage by walking around. Jim: “You know, there certainly are days when I’ll visit 12 (stores). I will be traveling to our warehouses every single week between now and Christmas…I try to approach the visits from the standpoint of the customer. Does the building have the right goods out? Is it well stocked and clean and safe? Nothing is a bigger turnoff than poor housekeeping.” Spending quality time with our customers and employees is going to be one of the keys to surviving this recession.
- Be innovative. Jim: “We just reconfigured our cashews. They were in a round canister, and we put them in a square canister. It sounds crazy, but we saved something like 560 truckloads a year of that one product.” In today’s chaotic world, innovation is not optional.
- Keep overhead low. Jim answers his own phone and sends his own faxes. I read somewhere else, a while back, that Jim uses the same desk, in the same small office where he started 25 years ago. Many of us can take a lesson from that.
Obviously, Costco is a reflection of its CEO and the values he brings to his business. But then, aren’t all our businesses a reflection of the values of the owner?
Something to think about.
For Want of a Nail…
Almost every day I encounter another example of what contributes to the failure of small businesses, or at least what makes them miss real success. Today was no exception:
I stopped at a Saxby’s coffee shop that I had been into a few times. During my last visit the clerk at the cash register gave me a plastic “coffee card” and said the next time I came in with my coupon and “loaded” the card with $20 I would get a free cup of coffee.
So, today I gave the card and the coupon to a different clerk and told her to load up $20 and I’d take my free cup of coffee. The clerk informed me they didn’t do that. I said “…one of your clerks gave me this card the other day and said you did do that.” The clerk rudely insinuated that I was lying, but the Barista was standing close by and said, “Yeah, we do that.” That’s when the clerk stomped over to the manager’s closed door and knocked. The manager came to the door and spoke with the clerk, telling her “no deal”—the customer can give us his $20 to load the card, but no free coffee. I paid for my cup of coffee and left. Will I ever return? Not likely, at least not until they advertise “under new management.”
Obviously, considering my penchant for coffee, a free cup of coffee has absolutely no effect on my coffee budget. A free cup of coffee, a “sample,” or a friendly “thank-you” are simply gestures…they tell the customer they are welcome and appreciated and that the business wants them to come back. These kinds of gestures are inexpensive and much more effective than hundreds of dollars worth of advertising.
What was wrong here?
- The manager of this small business stays holed-up in her office instead of spending time out on the floor with her employees and customers. The few times I was there, I never saw the manager come out of her office.
- The manager obviously had not adequately trained her staff. Each clerk had a different understanding of the store policy—not to mention the rude approach of the last clerk involved.
- The manager missed a great chance to make a long-term loyal customer, and she blew it—she missed the importance of the “gesture.” She made me think she didn’t care if I every returned or not. Success does not come from taking your customers or clients for granted, or treating them with disdain.
If this were an isolated incident, it would be ridiculous to even mention it, but, unfortunately, disdain for customers seems to be the norm—it happens to all of us way too often. If you have a small business, you cannot afford to treat your customers with disdain. Show your appreciation for their business with an occasional “gesture.” Sometimes a friendly smile, or a pat on the back and a “thank you” is all it takes.
“In this age of email, supercomputer power on the desktop, the Internet, and the raucous global village, attentiveness—a token of human kindness—is the greatest gift we can give someone.”
—Tom Peters
Each of us is only one customer or client, but remember the old rhyme: For want of a nail, a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe, a horse was lost, for want of a horse, a battle was lost, for want of a battle, a kingdom was lost?
So, for want of a customer…..
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