Well, it is February and here in the Northeast we were blanketed with over 5 feet of snow as we begin to shovel out of the blizzard of 2010.  But it has been weeks since the storm and now we are in the middle of the “big melt down”.  With the first glimmer of sunshine the dreaded thoughts of warmth and oh yes, bathing suits begin to come to mind at that same moment, Valerie Bertonelli appears on the television with her fantastic body in a Jenny Craig commercial, so I think Why Not?

Having been thru Nutra System, I was skeptical because I did not enjoy the taste of their food, I also know that I did not have the self discipline to conquer this goal on my own via their “do it yourself program” so I researched my closest center and worked up the courage to pop in.  I thought a center closest to my office would be better for me so I downloaded their $ 20 coupon, put their address in my GPS and began my journey to talk to a consultant.  I was feeling positive, strong and great because I made a decision and I committed to the process.

I wasn’t familiar with the area so I called the location to ask specifically where they are located (now I am on my way and only minutes from the area).  The gentlemen who picked up the phone seemed nice enough but when I asked him what center he was located in, his response was “I am with a customer and can call you back in 20 mins”.. I explained I was on my way only to be asked, “what number can I reach you at”.  I simply said, I will have to call you back.  I felt like a jackass.  

Lesson Learned– From a branding experience, you would have to think that Jenny Craig knows how difficult it is for a woman to commit to weight loss.  If losing weight was that simple, we all would be thin.  The problem here is was that the front line employee was challenged with delivering on the brand promise.  Although not confirmed, he was most likely alone in the location and limited to the tasks he can perform therefore trying to remain focused on his current customer in his store, was not successful at making me feel as though I mattered and brushed me off as insignificant or that my time didn’t matter. – Remember Branding is in the perception of the customer.   

There are a few recommendations I would provide to the folks at Jenny Craig onbuilding customer loyalty:

1.     Re-evaluate your customer touch point strategy – ensure that every piece of your organization that potentially touches a customer supports your brand promise.  In this case, there was no instructions on the website that lead me to believe I couldn’t just “pop” in and when I called, the associate simply should have just given me the shopping center.

2.    Reinforce your brand expectations to your employees. – often we forget that we need to train, train and retrain our staff.  Don’t assume that the front lines are always on top of the customer experience.  Sometimes they do need to be reminded of what is expected of them and as my motto goes “inspect what you expect”.

I haven’t given up on Jenny Craig so stay tuned for upcoming posts on my Jenny Craig Experience and I encourage all of you to publish your comments both good and bad.  Together we will build the brand.

Until next time!

For the past three years, Forrester has published a report that details the responses of over 4,500 US consumers and their experiences with certain companies.  Based upon the responses they created an index for 133 firms in 14 different industries.  The top of the list Barnes & Noble!
 

Here are the full 2010 CxPi rankings…

Take a look at the list and let me know if you agree with the results.  Looking at this list, it looks like retail is in the lead for really focusing on the customer and using strong customer service and creating a strong experience for their customers.

Barnes and Noble is a day trip for my family.  We look forward to going and spend hours in the store.  First in the cafe where we enjoy a cup of coffee and a treat and then quickly we disperse to our area of interest only to meet up at the cash register where we are always greeted with a smile.  So from my own personal experience, I agree that Barnes & Nobel's customer experience is #1 in my book.

What do you think?

Labor Day weekend, a retailer's last ditch effort to entice customers into stores before the holiday shopping season begins and hectic fall schedules start.  This time of year there is a flood of coupons, incentives and flyer's hitting the marketing via direct mail, email and customer loyalty programs.

As a long time Macy's customer, I was excited to go shopping and I was armed with my 20% off coupon, my list of items and of course, my Macy's charge card.  Dan and I separated - he went to housewares in search of a slicer and I went to Women's clothes in search of a new wardrobe but it was Dan who hit the jackpot with a customer service experience.

As he was in search of his item, a gentle older women approached him to offer assistance.  Not only was she informative and friendly, she also encouraged him to open up a Macy's charge card where he would be rewarded with an additional 15% coupon plus the 20% coupon being offered to current Macy's members.

I completed my transaction with the lovely assistance of Rachael who ironically was with me when Dan called me with his new deal.  At first, I was too busy to pick up the phone as I commented to Rachael how men just don't like shopping and I was sure he was calling to leave.  When Dan found me, he told me about his deal and took my bags back to Rachael where she transferred my purchases from my credit card over to his for the additional savings - almost $ 60!

This little old lady who went out of her way to help Dan select his slicer and convince him to open his charge is a great example of a customer service champion and of Master Strategy # 6:  Make it Easy for Your Customers to Do Business With You!  She was an absolute pleasure and made our shopping experience fun and fabulous.

Now, Rachael, who also was wonderful, summed it up best as she re-rung the purchases on Dan's credit card "she should have picked up her phone"....lol.

So the morale of the story is..... Treat your customers well and always pick up your phone!

 I recently had the tragic experience of purchasing a new T.V. In my world, nothing can compare to the anxiety of making the right selection.  Electronics are not my "thing", so in a world where I am basically blinded, I feel all my power is transferred over to the sales associate.

The retailer of choice was Best Buy and we were in search of a new flat screen that would have all the bells and whistles, fit in our armour and have a long life when left on 24/7 (we work out of our homes and the T.V seems to always be on.

We must have been fine prey for the sales associate who approached us and we were so thankful to have somebody help us make this decision but to my surprise, he wasn't educated in the products he was selling and was unable to clearly direct us down our path.  His focus was pushing us towards a "deal".  A returned product that was in an "open box" that would sell for $ 170 cheaper.  At first, we considered it because "hey, in this economy, we do everything we can to save some money".  But as we went further into the discussion, it became apparent that the sales associate didn't know why it was returned, if there were any warranties and if it had all of its components. 

It was went he reached behind the TV on display and pulled out a manual, wiped off the dust and said "at least it has a manual", that we realized we were getting that particular T.V. on display. - we decided the savings wasn't worth the risk and the associate wasn't really demonstrating value.

To end our Best Buy experience, we proceed to the checkout stand where the associate was engaged in a conversation with a couple of others associates while he was ringing us up.  No eye contact, no smile, and no acknowledgment that we were even standing there.

I just wanted to scream - "Hey, we are standing right here making a major purchase", but we just laughed and walked outside the store.  If Best Buy truly wanted us to have a wonder experience in thier store, they would have educated thier staff on how to treat customers.

Why? Because our faith in retailers' ability to maintain a connection with their customers and provide strong customer service is tested everyday.  We have not come to expect bad service and are thrilled when we receive exceptional service.

Best Buy experience - D-

I recently got into a huge argument with friends at a dinner party after the guys referred to the waitress as "babe".  Although I was not offended, I mentioned that I didn't feel that was appropriate after reading the waitress's body language.  This started a huge debate (including me polling my peeps on twitter), so I ask this question "Is calling somebody babe still acceptable"?

My friends argument was that we live in a society that is too politically correct and that they did not mean to offend and only used that phrase as a term of endearment since they couldn't remember her name.

My other friends argued, that it was just not inappropriate for them to be referring to that particular waitress as "babe", since she was obviously in the same age bracket and I believe that it is usually more acceptable for an older person to use when interacting with somebody younger. The debate on twitter was comical!  Women all around were offended and the men were not.  Each stating the same excuse - term of endearment intended for kindness not rudeness.

There also seemed to be a clear divide about the appropriate age, so we called over the waitress and asked her the question " Did my friend offend you when he called you babe?"

Her response was simple, she said, "not me, but I did catch it and it did make me pause", "I know tons of women who would be offended"

So I ask you this - Do you think it is okay to call somebody "babe" and does their age matter?

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If you are an avid Facebook fan, chances are you have seen the above phrase being passed around over the internet, in emails and on social networking sites over the past couple days.  Upon investigation, it appears as though this isn’t a new policy at all. The terms and conditions (please note the revision date of May 1, 2009) clearly state:

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings:   you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).”

So the question is “what does this mean to you”?  My response is simple, exactly what the title of the article implies: Facebook has rights to your content including all statements, videos and photos and you are NOT entitled to any money for use of your content.

Next time you answer the question “What’s on your mind” or post that embarrassing picture or comment on a video, remember that you truly have no privacy in a public forum such as Facebook.    If your personal image is important to you, I would suggest you review the Facebook privacy policy and reset your settings to protect you.

How do we protect ourselves and our content? 

First, take a look at your privacy and applications settings. 

·         Go to "Settings", "Privacy Settings", "News Feed and Wall" ,open the tab "Facebook Ads",

·         Select "No One" in the drop down

·         Save your changes

Okay, as everyone knows, since I am so public on twitter, Facebookand <A class=zem_slink title=LinkedIn href="http://www.linkedin.com/" rel=homepage>LinkedIn</A>, I am in hyper-drive trying to get ready to dash down to Texas for a couple of days for the PRSM board meeting and hurry back home to get the family moving and down the Jersey shore for a few weeks of R & R.

One of the first things you must do is go to the bank, so I hurried over to the local TD Bank North and entered into their drive thru, placed my deposit in the “chute” and waited for the teller to acknowledge me, as they do.

To my surprise, another car ( a minivan in fact) with a suburban housewife toting two small children in the back whips around and comes up to the teller window in the drive thru.  Because you can hear every other conversation, you can imagine my surprise when the women exclaims, “I don’t need anything, I just came to tell you something”, to the teller – and she proceeded to tell her scandalize story of somebody doing something to someone they both knew.  I was appalled! 

Not because the women told her story, but because the teller let it go on, and on, and on while she casually leaned on her elbows to listen to the story, while I am waited for her to count my deposit

The 5 minutes this little exchange took felt like an eternity to me as I glared at them thru my car window.  The teller didn’t think that making me wait while she talks to her friend was wrong.

What kind of message is that?  I mention that the bank was formerly known as Commerce and that TD Bank North recently purchased them, wouldn’t you think they would be going out of their way to treat their customers as though they are the most important asset they have or maybe TD Bank North just doesn’t care about its customers!  What do you think?  Share your stories with me.