A Consultant's Chronicles

Line of the Week 10-25-09

This week's line of the week belongs to Rebecca Mead of the New Yorker. She's written a brief article that explores the age old question "what do women want" except this time it's from a business perspective.  Apparently companies are so perplexed by this issue that they have engaged the services of a consulting group that examines retail behavior. They assigned consultant & author Micheal Silverstein to the task [am I the only one who thinks this is just a wee bit ironic?]. Clearly, understanding this demographic is essential in an era when it is smart business to cater to women. Silverstein noted that according to his findings, women want to be Swedish. Why? Apparently the Swedes not only have an egalitarian workforce in terms of money & treatment but they also value having ample vacation time in addition to truly sharing childrearing duties & household chores. There is of course a glitch. Quoting Silverstein, Mead writes:

" Swedish social policy might be a hard sell in America- much of the Midwest barely has IKEA..."

On its face, the line seems a tad flippant but I'd have to agree with its underlying meaning. However, you'd think these companies might consider looking for their solutions a little closer to home. Hiring a woman to help them discern what women want might be a good place to start. Just thinkin'  

Nokia Smartphones: Correction

Recently I wrote a post about how Nokia's top-of-the-line smartphones are too expensive. It was my understanding that their problem centered on a shortsighted business plan, which did not include a relationship with a carrier for their "A-line" of smartphones. As a result their product was sold "unlocked" to be used by all carriers but at stratospheric prices when compared to their competitors. However, after conversing with someone more intimately familiar with Nokia I discovered that in fact there are other more complicated technological reasons involved.  Therefore one of my criticisms of the company was off the mark so in the interest of fairness, I felt it important to post a correction. 

They Still Need A Better App Store

It remains the case that they are also busily scrambling trying to get up to speed with their app store, which is something I correctly pointed out in my earlier post. If I am going criticize a company, it's got to be for the right reasons even if the essential bottom line is the same: Nokia is lagging behind its competitors losing dedicated customers like me in the process. Now can they catch up? The smartphone market is evolving so rapidly that I think the safest answer is "yet to be determined at press time."

Nokia Smartphones: The Cost In Dollars Makes No $ense

Let me start out by saying that I have been a dedicated Nokia user for several years. I simply like the intuitive interface over many others I've tried. Like many others I appreciate the elegance of the iPhone but I like my carrier & don't want to cancel out a warranty on a new phone by buying an "unlocked" Apple. Thus until recently I found myself in a smartphone dilemma.

Nokia's Smartphones Left In the Dust

Nokia makes some absolutely dazzling smartphones with nifty features predating the iphone. However, for reasons known only to them when it comes to their smartphones, they have just started working with carriers in order to make the price more palatable. Sadly, they are not doing this with their A-Team of smartphones. Like many small business owners, I have to consider the bottom line when making such purchases. Not only are they behind the curve in terms of working with carriers but as many recent [& sometimes] scathing articles point out, their app store is also sorely wanting particularly when you consider what they are asking for the phones [upwards of $400-900].  The tragedy is Nokia has such a fabulous product when it comes to the phone & a camera [any phone with a Carl Zeiss lense has a legitimate camera as opposed to a phone with photo capabilities]. However they are getting aced out because of what seems like easily fixable problems: carrier cooperation [beginning now but slowly] & an inferior app store; neither seem insurmountable. The question is how long will these changes take? The answer it seems is already too long. By the time they get their act together, Nokia smartphones will be left in the dust because according to the "gadget gods," right now the smartphone wars are between the iPhone, the new Palm Pre, the Google MyTouch [already positively reviewed & coming out next month] and RIM's ever-present but less glitzy Blackberry.

Leaving an Old Friend Behind

Putting all of this into fiscal perspective, for the price of one comparable unlocked Nokia smartphone, you could buy an iphone, Blackberry, Pre, or a Google phone AND a netbook. Currently Nokia is busily playing catch-up in the US because but until Nokia changes its fundamental business plan "its dollars make no '$ense.' " As for me, I've opted for the new Google MyTouch but not without some sadness because it feels a little like "leaving an old friend behind."

 

Corporate Tax Cuts & Job Creation: 'Who's Zooming Who'

There is absolutely no shortage of things to write about today but since jobs [or lack thereof] are on the minds of so many, I've decided to write a post about something I just read in Business Week about the drug company Pfizer. Apparently in an attempt to make the best use of their high value employees' time, they have developed a subsidiary company called Pfizer Works where they can outsource specific & mundane chores like number-crunching, creating PowerPoint presentations, etc. The essence of the plan is to outsource specific tasks. It's all done very methodically because employees document via work order each assignment, i.e., what they want, need, and the deadline for the job. Conceptually it actually sounds pretty good. After all, why pay employees who receive large compensation to do what is rote production work. This is the kind of thing that is the small business person's dream. If you are getting the impression that I am setting you up for some kind of "but" in this, you'd be right.

Why Not Reward Companies That Create Jobs Here At Home

Pfizer Works has 2 outlets: one is in Chicago & the other is in India. Excuse me? There are lots of competent unemployed folks here who would love those jobs so why send them to India? I happen to know of 2 small businesses in san Jose that specialize in making elegant PowerPoint presentations.  Why not keep all of Pfizer Works here? Increasingly I have a hard time seeing large corporations get big tax breaks for sending jobs overseas particularly since part of the argument for those cuts is that the companies create jobs. Right now we have a surplus of people who would happily take those jobs. Why should big business be rewarded for creating jobs in another country? Although it's a less extreme version [compared to a comapny like AIG], it strikes me as yet another example of rewarding corporate bad behavior when those very same "carrots" could be used in a more positive way here at home. That my view...   

Bills & Email Overload: 'Postcards From the Edge'

I was clearing off my desk this weekend [no small feat might I add given the mountains of papers] when an idea whose time has come struck me. While I know tons of companies from banks, utilities, credit cards, etc have been trying to convert us all to paperless statements & bills for quite a while now, I have not quite gotten onboard. It's not resistance because I use this method for some bills but definitely not anywhere near half of them. Why? The reason is simple: email overload!  Like so many others, my email boxes [yes that would be plural] are overflowing to the point of periodically needing to declare "email bankruptcy." Therefore a statement in my email box is not nearly as salient to me as a reminder as a paper bill in my old fashioned "snail mail" box. However, the mountain of papers & clutter created is ridiculous; it's become a nightmare to the environment & me!

Then it hit me-postcards...remember them? They could even use recycled paper. If you bank online & pay bills that way, they could send one little postcard with all your bills in a two week cycle; for example, American express-2/28; PG&E-2/27 & so on. Given the reminder, you can pitch the card & get your statement online. It's not quite as mindless as auto-bill-pay [which in my view is great for efficiency but not so great for bookkeeping] but it will relieve me of mountains of papers to catalogue/store [even in my computer]. I think it is the best of both worlds: functional, efficient, & less damaging to the environment.  Where's the downside?  What's your opinion?

After The Nightmare Called the Geek Squad:Your Options & Theirs

After my horrendous experience with the Geek Squad, I moved on to another place here in the San Francisco Bay Area called Central Computers. While they are by no means as slick as their big box competitor Best Buy [the parent company to Geek Squad] & they don’t sell dishwashers or any other appliances, when it comes to computers they are the "real deal." They offer a full range of computer services so you can buy a new computer, have one made to your specs, have your computer repaired, buy parts for it, & rent a computer if you are visiting town or yours is being repaired.

Half the Cost Of the Geek Squad

Their prices are roughly half of what the Geek Squad charges on average & they offer a personal touch to their service. There are several locations including one in SF & a couple in the south bay. There's also a location in China too if you "happen to be in the neighborhood."

The Geek Squad: 'Been There Done That'

They told me that they spend very little on advertising because the online reviews & word of mouth supply them with a steady stream of customers keeping them very busy. “What a shock!” Of course the fact that CompUSA, Circuit City, & the Good Guys have all vaporized can't exactly hurt.  The key point is that people aren't flocking to Best Buy. Instead when I tell friends my story, they commiserate because they have "been there & done that;" which is also the gist of some comments left on my earlier post.

Slick PR vs. Street PR

The Geek Squad has two choices: it can continue to sit on it's slick PR while being eviscerated by their "street PR" or they can actually take the negative online buzz about them to heart & make some badly needed changes [minus the useless comments offered to their customers when they complain]. Who knows, if they manage to turn their ship around, they won't need to shell out the big bucks for media-based PR. At any rate, in terms of their customer service, where they go from this point forward will say as much [or more] about them than what they have done in the past.

The Best Advertising Money Can Buy

Convenience, efficiency, a good price, & customer service with a personal touch...no wonder why Central Computers barely needs to advertise while the Geek Squad needs the slickest stuff Madison Avenue can crank out. Based on their performance it would seem that the Geek Squad believes in the best advertising money can buy while others believe in the best service at a reasonable price! What's more appealing to most customers? Hmm, let me think....

The Geek Squad: Pay 46% More To Get 100% Less

Wherever you look, you see PR for the Geek Squad [an affiliate of Best Buy]; very effective PR might I add. There’s only one problem, very recently I have learned that the PR is the best the Geek Squad has to offer. After checking it out, it looks like many others have arrived at a similar conclusion.  When it comes to doing the job, to be charitable, they over-promise & under-deliver, a cardinal sin in business. To be specific, they don’t deliver at all.

The Precipitating Event

Recently my laptop was infected by a nasty virus [more on this in another post] which forced me to find someone to de-bug it. I checked around a bit but like so many other people, the Geek Squad’s PR made an impression so I called them. I spoke with a representative who seemed both knowledgeable, sympathetic, & best of all familiar with the problem. So far so good. She gave me 3 repair service options: they could send someone to my home-too expensive; I could bring it to my local Best Buy-it would take too long to repair because their policy is first come first serve; or they could fix it remotely. Aside from the convenience, the best part about this option was that it would be done fast [although the price was $50-100 more than others were charging]. I figured the extra cost was the price for speed & in the end would save me the cost of buying or renting another system. At the time I didn't realize that their prices were simply higher than everyone else's. We arranged for me to call early the next day.

My First & Last Experience With The Geek Squad

I called them the next morning as planned only to learn that they no longer offered the service. Excuse me? As of when? Yesterday…as in the same day I made the arrangement for the service! What was their solution to the problem? An apology; how is an apology going to resolve the issue? Customer service is one of many topics I cover when providing training to companies so her attitude & do-nothing approach to problem solving was hardly a surprise but so frustrating. One of the things I try to emphasize is that while apologies are nice & appreciated, they mean absolutely nothing to the customer if you make no attempt to fix the problem! I tried to suggest a resolution since this seemed to be beyond her skill-set. I asked if she could contact my local Best Buy & given the circumstances, have my system bumped to the front of the line so hopefully it would be repaired today as promised [or as quickly as they could do the job if for example they had to send it somewhere else]. Asserting that she couldn't do that, she said what she could do is call to find out how many people were ahead of me. How that was going to solve the problem was beyond me. In addition, given that I was talking to a representative based in Boston & it was 8:30 in the morning in CA, that wasn't even viable since Best Buy wasn't opened yet. When I asked to talk with the supervisor, she said "the supervisor will tell you the same thing." While I forced her to hunt down the supervisor, we got cut off ending my first & last experience with the Geek Squad.

The Customer Is Always King [Or Queen As The Case May Be]

In an earlier post, I tried to remind managers why "the customer is always king [or queen as in this case]." Basically, customers are your best or worst PR because they talk [let's see, aside from telling "a few friends, here I am telling you]; we live in the age of 24/7 reviews. I paid far closer attention to online  reviews the second time around & discovered another large company comparable to the Geek Squad [when it comes to computers]. In fact much to my amusement, they had a price sheet comparison with the Geek Squad revealing that on average, the Geek Squad charges 46% more than they do on most jobs. Let's see, pay 50% more to get 100% less....what's wrong with that picture??!!

Increasing Sales By Promoting Your Return Policy

There's a well-known axiom in business: "charge what the market will bear." However, in an economy on a downward trajectory when consumers aren't spending & unemployment is the highest it's been in over 15 years, what can a business do to stay alive particularly the automotive industry? Last night I just got a glimpse at one answer. Hyundai is now betting that essentially they can hook you with a "safety-net" policy.

Creative or Creatively Desperate

I was watching '24' [love 'em or hate 'em, Bauer is back!] when one of their new commercials came on with a very novel pitch. They pledge that if you buy one of their new cars & lose your job in the coming year, you can return it. Now I have a hunch there may be some "fine print" attached to that pitch but I like the underlying acknowledgement that the old rules of the game no longer apply. I'm also now told that GM is offering a "two-for-one" policy of sorts. After years [dare I say decades] of "sticking their heads in the sand" [truer for the American automotive industry than it's foreign competitors] they have made a significant shift in their business strategies. It's a lesson every business will have to learn & embrace just to stay alive. Whether is it 'creative' or 'creatively desperate' marketing, it is reflective of our new reality.

Dazzling Your Customers & the 80/20 Rule of Business

There is a kind of business basic "rule of thumb" known as the "80/20 rule" which has its origins in Pareto's principle. Essentially this rule reflects the fact that 80% of a company's business comes from 20% of its customers. As a result, it pays to work extra hard keeping the customers you have rather than having to invest time, resources & energy finding replacements. Regardless of the business be it live or online, most of us have had the experience of being dissatisfied with either the service or a product at some point. Recently I have discovered that I am not alone in feeling far more frustrated with how the problem is handled than the original problem itself. The customer service industry even has a name for this: it's called "service recovery." Most of the time I feel like if we could just simply recover "real service" a solid chunk of these problems would be gone.

Tips For Great Customer Service

To that end, here are some quick tips  to facilitate  great customer service as well as service recovery [or what I'd rather term as dazzling your customers]:

• Don’t compromise integrity
• Dazzle the customers w/service.. & treat all of them w/equal dignity & respect
• To misquote a now famous phrase, “it’s the service–stupid!”
• Always look for the best [employees]
• Always refine & grow
• Speak, listen, respond…& respond to what was actually said
• There’s nothing like teamwork
• “Think outside the box”-quality is derived from what the customer needs
• Think fast, act fast
• Demonstrate that you care, & give back
• Finally, remember, that “Mr/Mrs Corporate” doesn’t want to talk to
  talk to customers so they pay you to do it. Therefore most of the time
  their frustration is NOT personal so don’t take it that way. Your job is to facilitate NOT retaliate.
  
  

Banking As Rocket Science: Redux

Who says you can't fight City Hall? After the combined efforts of my earlier post & a call, Citibank has acknowledged their online banking policy is inherently flawed. While Citibank corporate had no hand in this, their customer service department definitely stepped up. What was the end result? They sent me a new ATM card via UPS Saturday delivery enabling me to do online banking. This action reflects two key things: solid customer service & good brand management.

Direct feedback clearly paid off here although I was easily assisted by a policy at odds with itself. However, too often I hear people grouse about a company without ever telling them about their problem. As one of my clients maintains, business today is a "conversation." Absent such a "discussion," not only is a customer left dissatisfied but it also prevents a business from providing a resolution that satisfies both parties. As a business owner, while I always strive for customer satisfaction, there have been a few times where customers have had minor issues. Sometimes it was something as simple as misunderstanding my strategies. Given that I regularly deal in issues where emotions run high, it's important that I always explain things in greater detail when asked &/or own and correct my mistakes. It has been a winning solution for me.

However as a general rule, if any of us is going to complain when feeling dissatisfied or mistreated by a company, we certainly need to give them their appropriate due credit when they are responsive to our needs. Thanks Citibank!