Tag Archives: companies

Thoughts

It’s about expectations

Many of us have heard this before, but it bears repeating. Customer or user satisfaction depends, in large part, upon the expectations you set, as a service or product provider. Promise something you can’t or don’t deliver, and satisfaction goes right down the drain, no matter what you did right.

A great friend of mine put this another way: under-promise, and over-deliver. It’s plain, simple, and it should be the golden rule that companies use when they think about their products and services. I don’t mean you should set your sights on mediocrity, or that you should settle for the lowest common denominator. But you should ALWAYS make sure you promise only what you can absolutely deliver, and if you do anything above and beyond the call of duty, it’s icing on the cake, and it makes the customer ecstatic in a viral sort of way.

Have you heard of Micro Center? Neither did I, till a couple of weeks ago. Their website is certainly underwhelming — at least it is at this point in time, but I have a feeling that’ll change. I got a flyer in the mail from them, inviting me to the store for a free gift. I went in and was blown away. Their store has the coolest and best floor layout I’ve ever seen! It’s clean, well-lit, beautiful, stocked to the gills with cool technology, and everyone is friendly! Did they promise any of that in their flyer? No, they just promised the free gift and mentioned the new store. They delivered on the free gift just fine, and their store atmosphere was the icing on the cake that left me ecstatic.

And guess what? They have an in-store pickup option as well. I ordered a few CF cards from their site today, and went to pick them up in the evening. But do you know what they did? They didn’t promise a 20-minute turnaround. They actually put some thought into it. Their staff is new, their store is new, their systems are probably new or re-designed, and they knew they couldn’t deliver on something like that. They said the order would be ready for pickup in a couple of days. Was I disappointed? No. I got the price I wanted on the products I wanted, and as long as they were going to make good on their promise, I didn’t care. But I thought I’d test the waters anyway, and Ligia and I got in our car and drove to the store tonight.

When we got there, the same cheery atmosphere awaited us. The people were courteous and smiled, just like the last time we visited. We went to the customer service counter, where the representative looked up our order and explained that it wasn’t ready yet. No problem, I’d expected that. I asked if I could pick up the items from the store shelves and come back to the counter. She said yes. I browsed through the store, found what I needed, brought the stuff back to the customer service counter, and the representative fulfilled the order. She fiddled a bit with the computer system since it was new, but she was courteous and helpful, and I didn’t mind waiting an extra couple of minutes. In the end, I walked out with my order fulfilled, and the kicker was this: the price was the same as on their website.

It’s about setting the right expectations, plain and simple. Do what works for you, and more importantly, do what you know you can do! Under-promise, over-deliver, and you’ll have happy customers. Even if you go just a bit beyond what you promised, it makes a huge difference!

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Reviews

L.L.Bean gets it right

L.L.BeanMy first shopping experience at L.L.Bean was sometime in 1996, when I purchased a winter jacket from their catalog. There were two choices in the fasteners for the hood, and I picked the one that didn’t work out. I called them a few weeks later to ask if I could get the other fasteners, and to ask how much they’d be. Their answer floored me: they’d be free, and they’d also be shipped to me for free. Wow.

Furthermore, the customer service rep said that if I ever didn’t like the jacket or it started to come apart on me, I could send it back for a refund or an exchange. I still have that jacket, and can’t bear to part with it. It’s just as sturdy as the first day I got it, although the colors have faded a little with time.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we dropped by the L.L.Bean store at Tyson’s Corner to get some winter boots. As I was about to try mine on, the clerk offered me a brand new pair of heavyweight socks to try with the boots, so I’d get a better idea of the fit. He literally pulled them off the shelf, broke apart the packaging, and handed them to me. Wow.

It just so happened that I found the medium width a little tight, and was worried it might bother me later. No problem, the clerk said. I could order the wider size along with the regular and try them both out, then bring back the one that didn’t fit right. I said I wasn’t comfortable bringing back merchandise that I’d already worn, but he said it would be no problem, that the right fit mattered more. Wow.

I ended up getting the heavyweight socks I’d tried with the boots as well. They fit so nicely, and the quality exceeded my expectations. Ligia ended up getting the same model boot in her size, and heavyweight socks to go along with them as well. Not only that, but we bought two more pairs of shoes.

While we were there, we saw a beautiful high-back sofa, but weren’t sure what finish we’d want on it. (We’d been looking for just such a sofa for the longest time.) The store had only one finish in stock. No problem, said L.L.Bean customer service when we called. We’ll send you out some swatches for free, and you can call and order the sofa when you’ve decided. Wow.

Calling L.L.Bean is an epiphany onto itself. You don’t get robots or prompts. You just get a live, friendly, helpful human being, usually after just a few rings. What’s more, they already know who you are when you call. If you’re calling from the same phone number you’ve listed in your L.L.Bean account, their CallerID system pulls up your account for the customer service rep. Wow.

When you put together fantastic customer service and beautiful, well-made products that last, you’ve got one company that deserves our business. If they keep on like this, L.L.Bean can count me as a lifetime customer.

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Lists

Great ads

I liked the Volkswagen “Unpimp your ride” commercials instantly when they came out. I’ve always liked clean lines and elegant cars. I think “pimped” cars are in truly bad taste. The mods are almost always done for the wrong reasons, and usually only to show off in garish fashion. The poor cars end up looking worse than before and make me cringe when I see them. Imagine my delight when Volkswagen decided to poke fun at the people who pimp their rides!

Meet Hal, the IT system admin depressed because Steve, one of his faithful servers, died… I don’t particularly like Hal or the ad itself, but it is effective and sticks in your mind. This was done in the style of the Apple ads, and was for Symantec’s Backup Exec software. Back when I used Backup Exec, it only did file-level restores, and was kind of difficult to use. Let’s hope the new version advertised here works better.

I don’t drink Coke and I don’t play GTA, but I thought this ad was pretty cool. It’s always nice to see the bad guys turn good. Two words also come to mind: synchronized serendipity. This ad is very watchable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkn1Ci9zqcY

Here’s another Volkswagen ad, this time for the Phaeton. The Phaeton is probably a pretty amazing car, and the Phaeton plant is a pretty amazing place full of innovative engineering, but unfortunately, the price is too high for the VW brand. It would have been much better to build Audis like this. After all, they’re the same company. But the ad is amazing. I’ve never seen shadow play this good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIODJsnqXE

Another Bud Light ad, this one about the best men who hired an auctioneer for their friend’s wedding. The beer ads are always pretty good, and not surprisingly so. Given the amount of money that Budweiser throws at their advertising, the ad agencies have to make sure they come up with the good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcVYexixsmA

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Reviews

Beware of GISOL

➡ Updated 11/4/2008: See FOX News expose GISOL for the crooks they really are, and watch the two people behind the scam literally run from the camera. Watch the video on YouTube or below, and make sure to read through my original post about them, as well as the over 300 comments posted by other people who were each scammed by GISOL. My thanks go to Mike of Report-Gisol.com for doing the legwork to get these criminals on TV.

These same crooks have been calling me from private phone numbers, harassing me, and trying to intimidate me into letting them post responses on my website. They’ve tried repeatedly to post comments on this post and on my other post about them, and I refuse to let their lies go through to the live site. They need to be in jail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rm43tNGx8I

I wrote a post over a year ago detailing my nightmare experience with GISOL, a supposed web hosting company whose performance was missing in action and whose promises were stuffed so full of lies they were busting at the seams. I encourage you to read about what I had to say, but more than that, to also read the comments. You see, my story struck a chord with other users who were lied to and swindled out of their money by the thieves at GISOL, and they left poignant comments detailing their plight.

Today, another poor soul left a long comment explaining what happened to her, and I was so incensed I needed to do something more. I dugg my own post, and if you have a Digg account, I encourage you to digg it as well. Also, forward the link to my post to your friends and other folks who you know. Let’s get the word out about that rotten apple called GISOL. They should NOT be in business. They’ve got an F rating from the Better Business Bureau, tons of complaints have been filed against them, yet they’re still around. It’s just not right. Let’s tar and feather them, and let’s run them out of town.

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Thoughts

Google to buy FeedBurner in next 2-3 weeks

I thought it odd that I got no reaction whatsoever from the FeedBurner folks when I compared their site stats service with Google Analytics back in April, and deemed FeedBurner superior. I keep in touch regularly with a couple of folks from FeedBurner, and when I write about them, I usually get a little note by email or a comment on my post. But I got nothing this time. I thought, “Hmm, something’s gotta be up. What’s going on between FeedBurner and Google? Did I ruffle some feathers?” The complete silence was unusual. I could hear virtual crickets chirping away…

Fast forward about a month, and I find out this afternoon from Beta News that Google and FeedBurner are in acquisition talks. The quoted price is $100 million. It’s a sane price, not a make-believe one, like the one paid for Doubleclick or that other ad company that MS purchased (those prices were absolutely and ridiculously inflated). I actually believe FeedBurner brings much more value to the table than those two companies combined, so the $100 million is a real bargain. I hope for FeedBurner’s sake the price is more than that in the end.

Anyway, if this does turn out to be true, I’m happy for the FeedBurner folks, and wish them all the best. May they teach Google a thing or two about feed management and other such fun stuff. Cheers, guys! Thanks for the awesome service!

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