FreshDirect caters to customers wants

FreshDirect knows it has to keep up with its customers in this economy. As the largest online grocer in New York, they must keep up with the fast paced consumer base. So after a summer spent doing market research, they've now changed a few of their business practices and seen it pay off with larger orders and more repeat customers.

They've initiated a new system that can tell their consumers how fresh their produce is. Since customers ordering food online can't judge the freshness of the vegetables and fruit, a new five star system allows customers to see the quality of the next days produce as judged by the managers at FreshDirect. They've also changed their packaging, eliminating Styrofoam containers for 50% of their orders, and better packing their cardboard boxes so that a box doesn't arrive with just one or two items. They've also opened up more delivery slots for most popular time slots such as Saturdays.

Fresh Direct has made it a point to focus on the needs of their customers. Have you made changes recently that your customers have responded to? What were they?

Source: Internet Retailer

Customer Retention and Satisfaction Named Top Priorities

According to Bluhalo.com, customer retention and satisfaction have been named the top priorities for marketers in 2009. This stems from the understanding that companies are looking for ways to keep their customer's coming back and keeping consumer confidence in the product high during this tough fiscal times.

From Bluhalo.com,

The Marketing Executives Networking Group (Meng) and Anderson Analytics released their Top Marketing Trends for 2009 survey this week, which found that out of 62 identifiable marketing concepts, customer retention and customer satisfaction came out on top.

As a customer service professional how do you feel this will affect your business in the coming year? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Please share with us here or on LinkedIn!

Zappos.com Remains a Customer Service Rock Star

It’s no surprise that Zappos.com comes in the Becky Carroll’s list of top customer service rock stars of 2008 in her latest post in Customers Rock! Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com once mentioned to Becky that they are a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes. Their main focus is keeping customers happy, as Becky explains when a customer service rep recommended a competitor’s website to her when they told Becky that she would not have her sandals in time for Christmas. Few companies do this, and this is what makes them stand out from the rest. Is your company focused on keeping customers happy?

Go local for customer service

Recently at Business Week, Charlie Gaffney recognized the fact that levels of customer service are falling as companies are reducing their workforce. He brings up two ideas that are good for both a customer service perspective and your local workforce.

As the use of email has surpassed the use of phones, so it's a great time to turn to email for your customer service. It's also something worth investing in, because good customer service is a great way to advertise. Invest in your local community, and hire locals to work the inbox. Customers will recognize the easy and quick communication and great service they'll receive. You'll also be providing jobs for your community.

What do you think? Is your customer service located locally? How have you seen this affect your business?

Alaska Airlines focuses on customer service

Although Alaska Airlines is facing turmoil along with the rest of the airline industry, they're determined to maintain their high level of customer service. They recognize that they need to maintain and grow their customer base to stay ahead in the future. Information Week has the story. That's why they've come up with a new system to keep their customers informed as to their airline delays and a new innovative way to help customers reschedule their flights using Oracle's Siebel Loyalty Management. Their first test was on December 20, when a bad weather along the west coast, an automated service emailed their frequent fliers who had flights canceled, and allowed customers to alter their travel plans online, instead of waiting in line to deal with a customer service representative. They're looking to make the flying experience less stressful for their customers, and have developed this innovative service which will appeal to frequent fliers.

Happy Holidays from NACCM's Customers 1st!

We're going to be taking a much needed break from the world of design to celebrate the holidays with our family and friends. A huge "Thank You" to you, our loyal readers for your insight, news and communication about our shared design experience. We look forward to 2009 and all of its glorious opportunity!

Thanks again and have a very joyous holiday season.

Customers 1st in 2008

As the year draws to a close, lets look back at some of the most popular posts from NACCM Customers 1st in 2008!

Most came to us live from NACCM. Even if you weren't in Anaheim to experience the Customers 1st event, you could still be in touch with everything that was going on at the event. Enjoy the top posts of the year!

NACCM 2008: We Are All Storytellers

NACCM 2008: What's Your Red Ball

Day 1 Keynotes - It's all about people!

Speaker Profile: Frank Capek

Service Innovation

At Customer Experience Crossroads, the recently talked about a new customer service innovation. The CAA came to replace a car battery in a timely manner at the customers house, instead of the customer having to wait for hours inline at a store. Services like this gains trust from

Service innovation: Save your customers time. Save them hassle. Take the service to them. Result: Induce loyalty. Provide a new service that makes money. Earn unpaid media.

Cultivate your current customers

Robert G. Howard at CustomersThink recently wrote an article on cultivating your current customers. Often times, they're lost in the focus to attract new customers. If a company focuses on them, then the revenues generated from the existing customer can lead to a higher lifetime value at your company.

He related several ways you can do this for your customers:

1. Relate: Relate with your customers through regular and meaningful contact, observations, and ongoing interactions.
2. Retain: Retain your customers by creating barriers to switching to a competitor and create an atmosphere of exclusivity.
3. Expand: Expand your relationship with your customers by offering complimentary products and services on an ongoing basis.
4. Innovate: Keep your customers excited and engaged by surprising them with new product innovations or special bundles that are tailored just for them.
5. Analyze: Analyze your customer behaviors and cultivation activities to predict and anticipate future wants and needs.

Dell begins to charge for American customer service

In a recent article in the Washington Post, the reveal that Dell is instituting a new customer service policy. For customers who buy a new PC, they have the option of paying $12.95 a month or $99 a year to receive a North American customer service representative as well as less than a two minute wait time. However, if customers choose not to pay this fee, they'll receive customer service representatives from India or the Philippines.

What do you think about this? Don Reisinger shared his opinion here. Should consumers have to pay for customer service? Or is Dell defining the line between technical support and customer service?

Abercrombie not following the market

We've written a lot recently on this blog about keeping your customers by giving them great customer service, and avoiding slashing your prices. One company has decided to do this. According to Customers Think, Abercrombie and Fitch will not lower their prices. They want to take the lower sales volume for a higher profit, and maintain the reputation of upscale clothing. Read more about this story at the Wall Street Journal.

Sprint to cut call centers

KansasCity.com reports that Sprint CSO Bob Johnson could be planning to close as many as 20 call centers in 2009. They are expecting a 20% drop in calls about billing and handsets due to improvement in Sprint service. Johnson also cites that customers call Sprint at a very high rate, more than any of their competitors.

What do you think about moves like this? Although Sprint has improved their service, do you think taking away their customer care continue to affect the reality of the situation in a positive light?

Good customer service can go a long way

This morning, I came across this story about a great customer service experience with Dice Electronics. Dan Kusnetzky, blogger at ZDNet, was having problems with his GPS/XM Satellite radio output device. He called customer service, and they instantly replaced the device with no troubles at all. Now, not only do they have a happy customer, but thanks to social media, thousands of other potential customers have now heard how about their excellent customer service.

Value from CRM, even in today's economy

William Brand recently posted six ways for you to derive value from your CRM in the coming year, even with the current state of the economy.

1) Emergence of the social customer
2) The imperative that CRM strategies deliver business value
3) The requirement to fully cost justify CRM investments
4) The necessity to reduce risk of CRM initiatives
5) The need to get more value from customer information
6) The battle to redefine vendor pricing and licensing agreements

Build your company on culture

Russ Vernon recently contributed a piece to the Ohio Journal that examined how you can focus keeping loyal customers throughout this hard time. It's important that you stay relevant to your customer base, and keep your focus on your customer. You need to seek gaps that are in your market, in addition to you hiring processes, training and great customer service. So use all of these things not only to sell a product to your customer, but value as well.

Customer profitability today

At Customers Think, they've addressed a common issue -- why does customer profitability decrease as sales revenue increases? In today's current economic environment, companies are trying to keep up sales, which often leads to special buying programs, prizes, rebates, and quality purchase discounts to sell to more customers. The customers who buy at this time are the customers who only buy when the prices are low, and rarely lead to a consistent profit. The price slashing cycle leads to the same number of products sold, but a decreased amount of revenue, creating a vicious cycle. Attracting new customers is necessary, but customers who do not turn a profit are problematic.

What do you think? Have you come across this in your customer base?

The next generation's customer service

I found this article at Business Week which addresses how PNC Bank is attracting new customers daily. They're attracting 130 new customers a day for their simplistic new checking account called "The Virtual Wallet." They've spoken to the Generation Y by giving them a simplistic way manage their money online, with three simple options Spend, Reserve, and Growth. They've also limited the number of checks they can write in a month, and charge for transferring money over the phone.

Do you see this as the customer service of the future? PNC Bank has created a system where the only way they interact with their customer is through a website, but it's very popular with the young consumer, who will domoinate the market in 20 years. What do you think?

What the Mind Believes

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

Last week I had the honor to chair the North American Conference on Customer Management’s Customer First conference in Anaheim, CA at Disneyland. What a treat. (You can read more about it in this week’s tip)

One of the several speakers I had the honor to introduce was Robert Stephens, the founder of the Geek Squad.

http://customers1st.blogspot.com/search?q=robert+stephens

http://www.geeksquad.com/

I was so happy to have a chance to spend a few quiet moments with Stephen in the ballroom before the sessions began. I’ve been talking about Robert for years in my speeches and retelling a story I heard a famous speaker tell years ago. I wanted to hear Robert tell the story and add a few details.

I was shocked (not to mention embarrassed) to find out that I have been “lying” about the origins of the Geek Squad for years. Robert was gracious about it and shared a few moments with me before it was time to introduce him. I was thrilled to talk to him personally, so I didn’t read the printed introduction that was given to me in my chairperson pack.

Up I go to the stage with my printed introduction in hand. He’s an impressive guy and so I decided to read some of his interesting credentials before adding in my personal thoughts. Right there on the paper it said, “In 2002, The Geek Squad acquired Best Buy and opened Geek Squad precincts in all Best Buy US and Canadian stores.”

I saw it on the page, but before opening my mouth, my mind decided this could not be so and so I said, “Best Buy acquired the Geek Squad” instead, figuring it must be wrong. Nope, it was right and I was wrong.

Later in the day, after I had made a personal apology to Robert, I apologized to the entire audience, explaining what I thought happened.

Because it seemed so impossible to me that a midsize service company could possibly buy a “big box” store, I assumed that what I saw on the page was incorrect. Talk about the old adage - when we assume it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me”. I’m still embarrased.

Because I wondered if this was happening to others as well as me, I asked the audience how many of them thought that Best Buy had bought the Geek Squad rather than the other way around - half the audience did.

It’s a great example of seeing what we want to see. When our belief system is strong it simply won’t let in information to the contrary.

I am truly humbled by the experience.

Robert taught us that what we need to create today is an “Authentic Experience” and I’ll tell you - my embarrassment was an authentic as it gets. Yikes.

Robert, I learned so many valuable lessons from you last week - the most important of which were those I learned about myself.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi was a keynote speaker and conference chair at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

Customer loyatly goes a long way

In a recent article at The Motley Fool, they look at how some stores have made it their goal to focus on the customer, and as a result are having an easier time with the current recession. They also state that over the course of five years, companies lose 1/2 their customers, and of those 2/3 claim that customer service is their reason for leaving.

Some companies realize the value of keeping customers, and are reponsible for such statistics as increasing customer loyalty by 5% can increase your profits by 25%. These stores include Best Buy, Nordstrom, Amazon, and LL Bean.

Customer service help? $15 please

With a struggling economy, many companies are trying to find the extra dollars to keep going. At The Consumerist, they tell about the latest fee at Mervyn's, a department store that's currently closing all its locations. One customer called to pay her bill over the phone, and was informed that she'd have to pay $15 for any service over the phone, whether or not she was calling to pay her bill or addressing another issue.

Even though the company is going out of business, they're still not treating their customers with much respect. What other ways have you seen customer service falter due to the current economic situation?

What may be stopping you from customer centricity

At the Top Marketing Blog, they recently looked into why some companies who are looking to develop customer centricity may be failing.

-They may be failing to understand the customer. Who is your customer? Do you realize that 20% of your customer base generates 80% of your profit?
-They may be failing to support an external customer centric strategy by not having an internal customer centric strategy. It's important to have your employees at the center of your company first so they can then turn into the face of your customer-centric company.
- They may be failing to identify the moment of truth. Companies may have problems measuring their customer service strategies.

Reaching Gen Y

At Customer Experience Matters, they recently discussed how to get Gen Y's attention online. They focus the importance of immediacy, and how online websites need to reflect the the most current information available to keep their attention.

They provided three strategies:

1. Refresh and update content constantly. Changing content frequently and updating feature page elements on a regular basis give users a reason to return over time.
2. Expose value immediately. Delivering clear calls to action and interactive cues help draw young visitors into experiences right away.
3. Provide frequent feedback. Presenting notifications, rewards, and other feedback to users throughout an experience keeps them alert and engaged.

What other strategies would you suggest?

Keeping your customers in tough economic times

Over at CustomerThink, they recently wrote a great post about what you should do in these tough economic times to retain your customers. As you'll see budget cuts to the sources that bring in your customers - like marketing and advertising - it's critical to keep the customers you currently have. Took keep them through these difficult times, you must keep your customer service quality high and give them no excuse to switch to a competitor.

Passionate customers deserve a passionate brand

Matt Rhodes took some time to examine the relationship between brands and their loyal customers. He points out that often times, the customers are more passionate about the brand than than the brand is about them. The brand needs to find a two-way street to start recognizing these loyal customers, who can often be a solid source for word of mouth marketing. Opening up and using social media can be a great way to do this. It can open up communication, and let you show your customers you appreciate them.

Sparks fly as we dream big about Service Design

The best thing (for me) about conferences is what happens between the sessions - the conversations we have - the connections we make. We take things from various sessions and from our own experiences, share them with others and make new connections - and new ideas fly off like sparks as our community starts to connect.

A lot of those sparks this week were about Service Design.

As customer management professionals we are obsessed with perfecting the services we support:

• Getting our people psyched to best represent our company to the customer
  
• Getting the right metrics in place to drive the right behaviors,
  
• Getting the variation out assuring an experience that is repeatable
• Getting the cost of servicing down while keeping the quality up.

Sometimes it feels like we are on a treadmill that will never stop - improve, improve, improve. It’s hard, but it’s a good thing. At our best we embody what Deming was talking about with his first of fourteen points -“Create constancy of purpose towards improvement.”

But is that all there is?

From the buzz this week at the Customer 1st Conference - things are changing.

A thread running through many conversations this week has been about Service Design.

Don't just make the service better, remake the service. We are talking scary but cool – the infamous blank slate. And this conference was charged with the possibilities.

Of course improvement and redesign are related, but the change in emphasis is on what we are improving. We are more focused now on improving the customer experience than on the processes we currently use to deliver service. That great customer experience may not require ANY of the processes we currently spend a lot of time and money to make just a little bit better.

And yet, that great experience may be the key to the loyalty we almost mystically seek even while we argue a lot on how it can really be measured.

From Bill Price's opening thoughts on Sunday that maybe "the best service is no service," to a talk I heard yesterday on GSK's approach to semi-automating internal IT service delivery (I highly recommend you download this talk) - to a dinner table conversation last night about what's next in service - the possibilities for re-inventing service seem endless and the results for the customer can be what Tom Peters taught us to call WOW.

As I chatted with others this week on this topic I heard a lot of excitement, but also a bit of fear. Are the teams we lead a part of this brave new world? How do we as leaders get out in front before this wave (whatever it is) overtakes us. And there was a recurrent counterpoint in these discussions - the mantra from Day 1 - "Remember, it's all about the people."

In each of these conversations the paradoxes and the possibilities seemed to resolve towards the end. As with most problems, the answer lay within a clear statement thereof.

We weren't talking about one thing. We were talking about many things, many types of customer experiences - too often all mixed up together and measured with averages we know in our gut don't mean much.

Some experiences are and need to be very people intensive - those Disney magic moments. For others, like the GSK IT Service Catalog we just need to put the power into the customer's hands and let them do the driving.

The key, many said this week, was dreaming big about the customer experience, wondering what it could be...and then asking if you had the best service design to deliver it.