USU Customer Service Seminar…

The first speaker was a fellow who had won The Apprentice on TV with Donald Trump. A summary of what he said would be as follows…”Do whatever is popular and that you feel people will want to see you do. It is not the substance of greatness but the appearance of greatness that matters.” It was a good reminder that you do not always need to follow correct principles to be successful in the short term. Sometimes we see companies or people who operate in this way and we are tempted by the short-term results that we see. Nothing really great was created on the foundation of appearances.

A fellow from Proctor and Gamble was there and had some great market data. It made me jealous that he had access to so much information. Most of it was from AC Nielson and IRI. He talked of the current economic situation in our country and a few things Proctor and Gamble are expecting to happen.
1- The “low income” bracket will be the fastest growing segment of the economy. People are going to be shopping more on price than they have in years past.
2- Stores like Whole Foods (maybe Real Foods) will struggle because people have fewer dollars to spend and it needs to stretch farther than it has in times past.
3- 27% of people will spend less on groceries than they did when the economy was more sound
4- He stressed the critical role of shelf presence and being able to tell our story to the customer at a blink of an eye.
5- Low income people will splurge on brands they love.
6- Two moments of truth- when she chooses and when she uses the product.

A good presentation on customer service by Richard Hanks, a couple key thoughts….

Our customers do not see our quality and service the same way we do.

If I put my head in the over and my feet in the freezer, on average I am warm… Customers do not experience averages- they experience their individual encounter with the company.

He suggested that we need to ask them more frequently. As Doug, Blake and I talked about it, I think we disagree with him. We feel we need to build a system so focused on the customer that we do not need to ask. I do not think Nordstrom’s is always asking “How are we doing?” they know how they are doing deep down and people continue to rave about their service to others.

I feel we should stop doing customer surveys and build a system of customer service that is beyond questioning.