Dilbert nails it – as he often does. When I worked at Kodak management went on a kick to remove the work “problem” from our conversations with customers “call them opportunities.” This might be fun to show when you cover marketing orientation (that total company effort thing) or customer service. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
Stanley Bing’s experience provides an example of how at least some customers might react to extreme relationship-building efforts of many companies today. Bing describes being overwhelmed with the frequency and type of post-sale contact he received following his recent purchase of a Toyota RAV4. Interesting food for thought in “Toyota, I love you. Goodbye” (The Bing Blog, May 4, 2011). This might add to a discussion of CRM, lifetime customer value, customer service, or consumer behavior.
Over the last decade or more, the airline industry marketing has focused on the four P’s: price, price, price, and price. The argument was that this was all customers cared about and price wars dominated the industry. In a price war the low-cost provider wins — so most of the airlines cut back on service. That is changing now. Delta Airlines is trying to regain customer loyalty by offering better customer service. Read all about it in “Delta Sends Its 11,000 Agents to Charm School” (Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here).
Fits into a discussion of differentiation, customer service, and the service industry.
OK, we love Zappos here at Teach the 4 Ps (see previous posts). Yet it is great to see examples of how “knock your socks off” customer service fuels positive word-of-mouth. Read the post over at The Consumerist, “Zappos CSR’s Kindness Warms Our Cold Hearts” (January 17, 2010) for yet another example — be sure to read the comments, too. Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
Hiring people who know horses and/or farming gives them a leg up when serving Tractor Supply’s customers. This article, “Tractor Supply Makes Hiring The Right Staff Pay Off” (Investors Business Daily, January 7, 2011), provides a nice example of customer service and personal selling. The article also highlights something we talk about in the cross-functional chapter in Basic Marketing — the importance of marketing working closely with HR. For your students, this also shows them they have a competitive advantage working for a company they are passionate about – so this is also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.
Zappo’s and its founder Tony Hsieh are on a roll. The company is highly successful by having customers at the focus of its operations. Hsieh’s recent book, Delivering Happiness is on best seller lists. The book is on my “to-read” list. The company continues to grow rapidly, even during the current economic slowdown. The man is onto something — and it is worth sharing some of his ideas with your class. The company is renowned for customer service, which we cover in the selling and sales management chapter — so there is a great fit with this video.
When I talk about customer service, I like to share the statistics that suggest consumers share bad experiences with 9 people and good experiences with one. I also like to tell students that you have to be careful you don’t incite a customer to tell many, many more. About 10 year ago, Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison vented their frustration with a particular DoubeTree Club Hotel by creating a PowerPoint presentation — “Yours if a Very Bad Hotel.” The story is true and still one of the best.
In a YouTube world, angry customers can find an even bigger audience, especially if they create a clever customer service video. Over at MintLife.com, they have collected the “Top 5 Viral Customer Service Complaint Videos” (September 16, 2010) for your viewing pleasure. We have posted before about “United Breaks Guitars” – but these links give you something else to show in class. You could generate an interesting discussion about how such videos increase the cost of failed service.
Can you believe a company that replaces its products before you even ask? Well that is what Rogue Wallet did. Check out this story over at the Consumerist blog, “Rogue Wallet Replaces Entire Batch of Bad Wallets, Stuns Customer,” (September 15, 2010). Is this a smart move? Too much customer service? Of course all the positive publicity coming from this post at the Consumerist and other word-of-mouth might offset the costs. We also posted this over at “Learn the 4 Ps.”
Many companies are adding more customer service to their marketing mix — including Walgreens, American Express and — believe it or not — Comcast. This article, “Customer Service as a Growth Engine” (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2010). My link should take you to a Google search result — click for the article. This is a back door for non-subscribers. To start a class discussion, you might ask students why these companies are increasing their emphasis on customer service? You could ask what each of these companies could do to improve customer service? I like to break students into small 3-4 person teams to answer these questions — giving them five minutes to answer the questions. I will then call on different groups to offer one answer — and have them turn in the paper with their team’s answers.
In our books we talk about customer service in chapter 2 and in the personal selling chapter.
Have you been following Zappos over the last few years? Well we have. The online retailer (not just selling shoes anymore) is known for its “Wow” customer service and quirky culture (see “Zappos knows how to kick it,” Fortune, January 22, 2010). They have recently come out with a new television advertising campaign (see below) and they are moving into video sharing [note: link broken]. Looking for more? Link through to read more about Zappos and its founder, CEO and “2009 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year,” (Success Magazine, March 2, 2010) Tony Hsieh.
I like to talk about Zappo’s when I get into retailing. I like to show students how one or two retailers have developed marketing strategies that work — and walk through the target market and four Ps. I start by confessing to my students that fifteen years ago I told students that shoes would probably never be sold over the Internet because of the need to try them on (what did I know?).
You can walk through the marketing strategy — starting with big efforts at customer retention — so a major target is current customers. Especially with shoe buyers, customer retention is key — since their returns will be much lower than new customers. They keep customers with phenomenal customer service. Prices are reasonable. For Promotion, the great customer service generates word of mouth. Promotion also utilizes advertising (see example below — that probably targets new targets and customer acquisition) and now I can add a discussion of online video. Place befits a quick tour of the Zappos website – where you can demonstrate more Promotion with the customer reviews of several products. you can also talk about free shipping and returns when you are talking about Place policies. And Product is interesting as the firm has a very wide selection and now sells a lot more than shoes.
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