Winning the Chips War

I've just returned from Wales with my children. As you can imagine on holiday all kids want to eat is fish and chips, ask most kids and it's their first and last answer. Walking around Tenby it got to that time when they start pulling on your leg wanting something to eat.

Tenby is a beautiful seaside town and is full of restaurants. However they all seemed to omit Fish and Chips from the menu and my kids insisted on fish and chips.

The first place I found watched me struggle in with three kids and a buggy, sit down find a baby seat and ask my what the kids wanted while the staff all stood around and waited. I went to the counter to order and was told in a very bored way that the "friar is broken we can't do anything other than cold sandwiches" it wasn't their fault to be fair but they could have intercepted me, offered 1/2 price sandwiches or a million and one other things, Tenby was packed and it was lunch, we left and struggled back through the door.

After a short walk we found a chip shop which looked open but didn't look ready to serve. My little boy was getting really hungry at this point and asked the shop owner "are you open?". The man said that they'd be open in a few minutes as they were waiting for staff. This is at 11.55, so 5 minutes to dinner time.

I thought about waiting but then spotted another shop around the corner. This was open, had a working friar, friendly staff, spare tables chairs and high chairs, was easy to get in and out of.

We sat down and a waiter took our order, they took notice that I'd a baby with me and gave me a spare plate to put his food on. They served quickly and the food was hot as well as delicious. While we ate I spotted that they had won awards for their fish and chips over several years didn't take much to see why.

On the whole the last shop didn't do that much more, I'm sure all the other place's food was just as good, but they let me down before they'd started.

I think the point is that when times are hard and choice is wide and almost endless businesses have to go a little further. Just sitting back isn't good enough any more as some of the bigger businesses have found to their cost. If you want to succeed then make the effort you'll be rewarded.

It's all about the added service

When times are tough like now do you remember the business that gave you an ok product but left you feeling a little let down and tell your friends about it? Or do you think of the companies who gave you that little bit extra and made you smile?

Even the smallest company can do a lot to ensure that their good deeds are passed on. Here's a small example of how a humble fish and chip shop could have left a great impression on my friend but instead left her really annoyed.

Feeling peckish she entered the local Fish and Chip shop, which by the way has a great reputation for good food, and sat at a vacant table. After sitting a while she was asked to move tables as they were expecting a lunchtime rush and as she was sat alone the tables wouldn't be used efficiently. A simple enough request. Just badly handled by the staff member making the request. Because as it turned out the rush never happened.

My friend ate her fish and chips and left, there was no apology for making her move for the phantom lunchtime rush, no free cup of tea, no extra slice of bread and butter, no voucher for her next visit, nothing other than a disgruntled ex-customer who may well have gone on to tell all her friends about the amazing way she's been treated in the Chip Shop.

But now what does that chip shop have? One less customer who's already started telling people about her experience. And each one of them will think twice before visiting that chippy again.

I guess the lesson is when times are tough turn up the service to 12. Empower your staff to go that extra mile because every customer counts now. There's no room for bad products or service anymore.

Watch the details when you cut costs

In time of recession what do most businesses do? They cut costs, they drop marketing and stop the ads. What kind of signal does that send out to hard pressed customers also in the recession?

• It says that you probably went under with the recession.
• That you have no new products.
• That you don't care about service.
• That you don't care about them.

That last one's a bit of a tough one but let me explain. If you have a friend for years and you've been through the good times together, they got what they needed from you and you made a nice profit out of them too. How will they feel if you suddenly don't talk to them anymore?

They feel hurt and find someone else to talk to or buy from.

Changing your friendship hurts too. A friend who suddenly stops offering you coffee when you visit changes in your eyes.

Business is the same, when the little things change customers are upset and look for others who can give them what they were used to.

So when you cut back, be careful what you cut back on and ask yourself how would you feel if your friend did this to you?

Here's a great post on watching what you cut back on.

Take heed! Customers really do care!

Real customer service from IKEA

This weekend I had to buy a new bed. Best one I could find was Ikea in Leeds. I like Ikea it's cheap yes but the quality is pretty good. I had a budget and their designs fitted it.

So off I went to Ikea to get my bed. Browsing the shop as always was easy and enjoyable. I ordered the bed and mattress very easily. Picked up the flat pack sections for the bed and paid. To get my mattress I had to go round to the collection centre. This looked pretty easy. Ikea had already got my money and I was confident that they wouldn't let me down when I picked up my mattress.

God I was wrong.

When I arrived the queue was massive, some people had been waiting for over 3/4 of and hour and were getting very irate.

But the was one beacon in all this. The smiling and very over worked lady handling all these angry and tired customers. As I stood there waiting in the queue she smiled and acknowledged each and every customer even speaking to the queue to apologise for the wait they were experiencing. The guy in front to me had been waiting for 40 minutes and when he got to the front he said he wanted to complain, rather than giving this man the usual response the lady I now know as Denise said "Certainly, just fill in this form and the customer service people will see to your complaint, I'm so sorry for the delay, I'll just have a quick check to see if your parcels are here." This instantly calmed the man who didn't bother to fill in the form. At one point Denise called for help from the front house staff at Ikea and was told they couldn't spare anyone.

This was a big mistake in the long run for Ikea. The customers who had a happy warm feeling about their new piece of furniture were now only remembering the bad and boring experience they were now having. This was the experience that they would remember. I'm sure the marketing and PR team fro Ikea would be fuming.

Denise even helped a man who's baby needed changing because the nappy dispenser in the toilets was broken. She then made sure she spoke to the mother of the baby to ensure that they were all ok.

I'll be writing to Ikea to let them know about the hard work Denise did. I hope they take note and advance her to head of customer service were she clearly needs to be.

Are all cutomers created the same?

I've just completed our marketing plan for 2007 and presented it to our sales team. These things are always a bit tricky, until you've finished you never really know how they'll go. This went OK, a few blank looks but most people got the idea and took it on board.

In simple terms I segmented the database of customers based on spend and frequency. Pretty basic stuff.

One question stuck out though.

"Shouldn't we treat all our customers the same, though?" one of the sales team asked.

She had a point of sorts.

Yes we should treat all our customers as friends and be as courteous and helpful as possible. After all without customers we have no business.

But, not all customers are created the same. Some are worth a lot to the company and some aren't. The value of our service varies wildly from orders of £6 right up to orders in the millions or pounds. This is great because we've worked out how to work in the long tail.

But to achieve this we've automated our services. If you have a small order then you can pay online, you still get the same professional delivering the service but we have less admin and we make a decent profit. The customers are happy because they got what the wanted and we're happy we supplied it at a decent profit.

Were some people get stuck, is that they have been brain washed about customer service, which is great, but they forget to put that into perspective. They are quite happy to spend an hour with a customer with a job for £40, and basically oversell the service.

How would you feel if every time you ordered a Big Mac the counter staff went into a depth about how they made the burger, the bun the sauce, what McDonald's over all strategy was on everything in the world? You'd just say, "give the burger!"

Not all customers are the same, sorry. Some are worth more, it's capitalism.

Wok This Way - Chinese Delight in Sheffield

Wouldn't you love your Chinese take-away to entertain you as well as feed you. Wok This Way in Walkley in Sheffield manages it at every point.

First the name, I defy you not to smile when you say it. It's the perfect name, it's probably not unique but I don't care.

The shop front has a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory feel, you walk in and the place is empty other than the lady at the counter. You place your order and suddenly the two chefs appear. They fire up the Woks and flames and pots and ladles begin to fly. Again that smile creeps across your face.

Then it's all over, the foods freshly packaged and off you go. I'm sure they deliver too, but that way you miss the entertainment and the whole feel of it.

If you visit Sheffield, then you need to Wok This Way.

They just need a website. I'll add the phone number and address when I get home tonight.

Leaving an impression and making a sale

Today I did the sales shopping. With two young children this isn't easy, after several hours and lots of shops it's even harder.

I needed some new jeans so we ended our day in Debenhams sale. I found a few bargains one was a great coat. It should have been £70, but was reduced to £32 and then reduced further to £25. It was a total bargain so I took it to the till.

The assistant scanned my label and £32 came up. I said that the label said that the coat was £25 so the assistant checked with the girl in charge. She said "That's been marked with a red pen, we only use Black, I can sell it at £32 but not at £25."

It was busy, and still a bargain at £32 so I bought it anyway.

Later my wife pointed out that she thought the assistant had inferred that we had tampered with the label, without saying as much.

I'm sure the manager didn't mean any harm, but that perception is there now.

I wonder why with a full shop the manager didn't just sell the coat at the price marked regardless. She would have had a very happy family of customers and not left a bad taste in our mouths.

She was busy, but for the sake of a few quid she could have had a raving fan not just a happy shopper.

Google are human! At last I can call them!

After all this time, someone at Google has a phone number! At last there will be someone to speak to, even if it's only for Adwords it's a start.

I just got this email, you'll get one soon. But in case it gets lost in Spam here it is:


Hello,

Thank you for advertising with the Google AdWords program.

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide you with the best service possible, we are pleased to offer you the opportunity to contact our AdWords specialists by telephone. You can now call our dedicated local rate number.

If you are calling from the UK, please dial: 0845 358 0038, alternatively if you are calling from the Republic of Ireland, please dial: 1890 94 3980.

Then, for fastest service please follow the instructions below:

1. To expedite your call, press 2 to enter your Customer ID. This number is located at the top of every page in your AdWords account, next to your name and email address.

2. Press 3 if you do not have your Customer ID available and would like to be transferred to the next available AdWords Specialist.

You can reach our AdWords Specialists by phone Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, between the hours of 9a.m and 6p.m and on Tuesday and Friday from 9a.m to 5p.m.

As always, we are happy to assist you in any way possible.

Please also feel free to contact us via email at adwords-uk@google.com, and we will reply within one business day.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords UK and Ireland Team