Crap service

You know that you have good customer service when people rave about your service in an open forum.

I need a new head for my sailboat (that's a toilet for you land-lubbers out there). I won't get into the particulars of the why or the how, since that is the realm of my other blog, but suffice it to say that this is not an optional purchase. What is optional is my choice of replacements.

After a long and arduous research project (I tend to over analyze buying decisions) I decided to purchase a composting toilet rather than the standard store & pump-out variety. As with most products, there are a variety of vendors to choose from. They range from the inexpensive (around $500) to more elaborate and costly (around $3000). While there are definitely technical differences between them, they all accomplish the same [foul] task. 

So, how did I decide on a vendor? Google, of course. I read many reviews of these contraptions on forums and discussion groups. 

Out of my research came two obvious conclusions:

1. Everyone that has installed a composting toilet is happy with their decision. 
2. Everyone that dealt with the vendor Airhead Composting Toilets was exceedingly happy with their service.

You know that you have good customer service when people rave about their service experiences in an open forum. 

I can back up those claims by my dealings with Airhead. I had a few questions about installation space requirements and he was very prompt in responding, asked for clarifications before making a recommendation, and even offered to do a AutoCAD diagram of how it would look. 

The Airhead is more costly than their main competitor, which is similar in design by most accounts, but I am moving ahead with my Airhead purchase. I would rather buy from a vendor that has proven they have good service. 

Lesson of the day, if you are in the business of giving crap service, give good service and you will win the customers.

Question: How important is good service to your buying decisions? Comment below.

Penalizing returning customers. Bad idea.

Want to lose a customer quickly? Charge them $390 for returning as a customer!

Yes, that scenario is real.

Some companies have such a feeling of self importance that they think that it is a privilege for their customers to be served by them.

We have a small business client that uses a particular IT appliance in their environment. We were the reseller of that appliance and we continue to support them. Today, during the process of a normal software maintenance renewal, the vendor of this appliance came back to us with a quote of $293 dollars for the support of this appliance plus a "support synchronization fee" (late fee) of $390.

Now, I understand that there is some difficulty that arises from a customer that doesn't renew their support on time, and there is a cost to that. However, when the cost for the late fee is 1/3 more than the actual support cost. That's crazy.

To make things worse, this support is for a device that costs approximately $600 to buy new. So, that comes out to $683 for support on a $600 device. Nice.

We obviously couldn't put this in front of the customer. Small businesses today are struggling to keep their heads above the water and an unnecessary fee like this is not fair.

Our account rep went back to the vendor to argue our case. It took several communications, and an escalation to our partner manager, but eventually they removed the fee. That's great, but it should not have come to this.

Charging late fees to returning customers is ridiculous. If they were the only game in town they might get away with it. But they aren't. In two years, when the appliance is ready for refresh, we will be shopping around for better service from a vendor that wants the business.

Have any good example of bad customer fees? Comment below.

Local charity - Good causes and good marketing

People remember the good things that your business does. 

Giant Tiger #170 (Union St. Fredericton)

I was at a meeting last night and we were talking about buying food and supplies for an upcoming event. Someone at the table immediately piped up and said, "Giant Tiger will have all of that. Wayne is always good to us. Let's just go there."

Wayne Gallant is the manager of one of the Giant Tiger stores in Fredericton. (He also happens to be a close friend of mine and teammates in our adventure racing team, Team Bulletproof.)

One of the things that I find truly great about Giant Tiger (and specifically Wayne's store) is how much they give to the community. Hardly a week goes by where there isn't an announcement about a sponsorship or some other charity event that they are helping with.

For those of you not familiar, Giant Tiger (GT) is a Canadian discount store chain. Their specialty is rock bottom pricing. My expectation of a discount store, and it is probably common, would be that they need to keep costs to an absolute minimum and that things like community involvement would come a distant second. That doesn't seem to be the case with Giant Tiger. And it seems to be working for them.

Wayne has garnered a great deal of loyalty with the people that he supports. His support ranges from the IWK, Liberty Lane, local schools, Scouts and Girl Guides to a variety of sporting events like bike and running races. People who participate in these causes and events really appreciate his efforts and many pay it back in the form of loyalty to his store.

On the Giant Tiger website they state that they have "A progressive, value-oriented, no-nonsense approach to retailing." More companies should share these values. It pays off for the community and for the company. 

Paying for knowledge

Me: "Can you help me with a plumbing question?"

Sales guy: "You can ask me anything, I know it all."

I am a do-it-yourself kind of guy. There are not many projects around the house that I won't attempt. Our current project is a bathroom refit. This isn't a minor paint job but a full gutting and rebuild. part of this obviously includes a significant amount of plumbing. I am no plumbing expert!

I have learned over the years that, like most businesses, some building supply stores are cheap and some of them have good service and expertise. The two rarely meet. Unfortunately I was lured into one of the large box stores by their cheap prices. I needed a lot of supplies and figured that I could save a buck.  

Since I knew that I needed help on my current (PEX vs copper) plumbing question I went directly to the stores "service desk". There was a young man (boy?) at the counter chatting with his co-worker (potential girlfriend?). So I ask him, "Can you help me with a plumbing question?". His reply was, a smug, "You can ask me anything, I know it all." 

Now, that response should have been enough to clue me into the fact that he would be useless, but I humored him. It took approximately 10 minutes for him to fumble through a "solution" to my problem. In the end he didn't have one that gave me any confidence that he knew what he was talking about.

Rather than settle for his half baked solution I decided to venture over to Simms Home Hardware. I know from experience that they are not the cheapest in town but that isn't what I needed right now. I needed a solution. 

They didn't disappoint, it took the man all of 30 seconds to hand me the 5 pieces that I needed to complete my project. He was confident, knew his subject and understood my problem. That is what I needed.

This experience was a firm reminder of why the cheapest price is not necessarily the best solution. It is hard to pass on cheaper prices but good advice pays off every time. 

If you are in a business that is not trying to be the lowest price in town, have good service and you will have me as a customer.

Tim Hortons - Why go bigger?

Who am I to question the marketing savvy of Tim Hortons. After all, they are a Canadian institution. They are a cornerstone of Canada itself, right?

They have just launched a new endeavor to renew their cup sizes, increasing the size substantially, to compete with their competitors.

My first impression of this is that it was ridiculous. Why would a company that is incredibly successful in every market that it enters change itself to be more like its competitors? Then it struck me, they have saturated the market. They literally can't squeeze any more people into their stores.

If you have tried to stop for a coffee any morning, any time near 10am or any time mid-afternoon, you know that they are at capacity.

This begs the question, if I am a national chain that is at capacity for customers and I want to increase profits, what do I do? I make the existing customers buy more. I increase the sizes of the items.

This is a brilliant move for Tim Hortons. Although, it is probably bad for the health and well being of the gullible, over-caffeinated,  customers that will buy the new monster size drink being offered.

I think I'll go make myself another coffee.

"Closed" can be an opportunity

"They would have lost our revenue and might have lost our loyalty to a competitor.  That is not what happened."

Often times, while I am travelling to Charlottetown PEI, I visit my favorite local restaurant/brew pub Gahan House. The other night was no different.

A colleague and I planned to go for a bite to eat and some of their stellar beverages. When we got to the restaurant we were disappointed to learn that they were in-fact closed, due to a renovation.

It is common for restaurants (or at least the ones that survive long enough) to eventually need a face lift. Normally we would have been met with a simple "closed" sign and we would have moved on to another restaurant. They would have lost our revenue and might have lost our loyalty to a competitor.  That is not what happened.

Instead, Gahan's had a pleasant woman, a server a presume, standing in the doorway of the closed restaurant with a stack of coupons. Since the parent company (Murphy Group) owns another restaurant across the street, we were pointed to The Brickhouse and offered a coupon for a free pint of Gahan's beer that they keep on tap at the sister restaurant.

We ventured across the street where our server took some time to explain to us that the Gahan House would be open the following week, that they would be maintaining the same neighborhood pub feel and that it would only be an improvement on the admittedly great pub.

These simple actions had three important affects:

• It maintained loyalty to the Gahan beer brand and restaurant.
• It coaxed me into a sister property that I had never before visited.
• It created a positive introduction to the new property (free beer!)

The Brickhouse had an easy job from this point forward creating new (and maintaining old) brand loyalty. 

As a side note, the Vegetable Beggar's Purse was excellent, the sweet and salty chocolate cake was great, and the Gahan's Red was, as anticipated, perfect.