Archive for May, 2010
At Starbucks, Customer Satisfaction Key To Strong Bottom-Line
Posted by Cordi in Practical Advice on May 26th, 2010
What a difference a year makes. In the second quarter of 2009, Starbucks was closing stores, laying off staff, and hunkering down to weather this deep and prolonged recession that has cut deeply into the latte budgets of the majority of Americans. This year Starbucks has returned as a darling of the stock market as defined by the price per share / earnings per share ratio.
Reacting to changing tastes and tighter family budgets, Starbucks made some smart changes in menu and pricing. Certainly those have made a difference in Top Line Revenue – particularly their pursuit of healthy alternatives to traditional fast food breakfast and lunch choices.
But these changes did not make the key difference. What kept Starbucks customers coming to stores — even if they ordered more plain drip coffee and fewer lattes was Starbuck’s atmosphere and ethos. At Starbucks the most important product is a great customer experience — each and every time you are in one of the stores or online at their website.
For example, a Sundays ago, I misplaced my old and battered Starbucks card — probably at the Campbell,Califoria store. A week later, as I was paying for my Sunday morning coffee (black, no room for cream), I asked the clerk if anyone had found the missing card. It was really a rhetorical question —expecting no answer — an awks sucks, gave it a try — question.
A few minutes later, the store manager came over to the table where I was sitting with a group of my friends. She brought the Starbucks Customer Service 800 # and suggested calling Customer Service right then. To make a long story short, a new card loaded with the remaining balance from my old card arrived in the mail by the following Wednesday. Like the old, the new card is now registered with Starbucks.com –
This commitment to the Customer — first and foremost — is at the heart of Starbucks enduring success. Unlike Direct TV(Customer Dissatisfaction Hurts Your Bottom Line) and T-Mobile (You Gotta Make Noise to Get Satisfaction from T Mobile), Starbucks grows its business by increasing its customers’ stickiness not with steeply discounted introductory pricing and short-term gimmicks.
As we’ve illustrated in these three blogs, its not the most expensive customer strategy that works the best, its the most consistent and the most sincere that gives a company a great reputation and an Excellent Bottom-Line!
You Gotta Make Noise to Get Satisfaction from T Mobile
Posted by Cordi in Practical Advice on May 25th, 2010
Below is a wonderful blog by my good friend, Craig Miller, of PeakPerformance peakperformanceshow@gmail.com
You should take three things away from this blog –
- The squeaky wheel gets the grease
- But, sometimes even the grease, can’t quiet the squeak
- T Mobile’s business model increases Customer Churn which is always bad for the Bottom Line!!!
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. We all know this to be true but all too often we give up way before we get satisfaction. Those in power, bank on this fact and purposely orchestrate a process that is intended to make you give up before they have to give in. This couldn’t be truer then with the cell phone companies. Do they believe in customer service? Yes, if you make enough noise and make it to the right people in the company. However, most of the time you get entwined in their intentional system of outsourced individuals reading from a, “what to do next”, sheet. It can be like falling into Alice’s hole and trying to get help from the Mad Hatter.
Recently, I fell down this hole while trying to get help from T-Mobile. We moved and the T-mobile coverage in our new house was spotty at best. Most of the time it was non existent. When I first called about this problem they filed service tickets and said they would look into it. They said they would call me back and of course they didn’t. I called them back multiple times and was told that the specific area that I moved into is a known dead area. They then said our area was a priority and that they were working on it. They would not give me a time line for how long this would take. Why pay for a service you can’t use I thought?
Because the T-Mobile service was insufficient where we moved I felt I had no choice but to cancel my 2 accounts. Since coverage is T-Mobil’s fault I was hoping I could cancel without being charged $200 per line for a total of $800. Yet, I was told by the customer service representative that if I canceled I would be charge the entire amount. Then the rep told me he could upgrade our phones for free to phones that could connect to the wireless router in our home. Then, do to the poor coverage, the call was lost and I was never able to get that rep back. I called back 4 times and every time I asked for a supervisor I was put on hold and then the call was cut off. Every time I called back the representative told me there was nothing they could do and then I was cut off. This lasted almost 2 weeks.
When I had experienced enough frustration I decided to take matters into my own hands. I did some internet research and located over 15 e-mails and phone numbers for T-Mobil executives. I wrote an e-mail detailing my experience and sent it off. Within 48 hours I was contacted directly by a T-Mobil executive and was told that they would cancel my contract as long as I sent the phones back. It is amazing how quick you get results when your “squeak” is loud enough and the right people hear it. I could have been stuck in Wonderland hell for a long time but instead I got my desired results and went back to a pleasant reality.