With the Christmas holiday upon us, customer service takes on a new dimension with all of the checkout lines, increase anxiety, hordes of people, of varying character, inventory losses, theft, anger, and a number of battles by angry shoppers reachingfor that last scarf...

 

Adding to the confusion is the methods of payments as well as where the new consumer will purchase their goods and services for the holiday season. In the fore front, Consumers are looking to change their buying patterns as well as how they pay for those services in different ways this year.

 

1^st, as Internet sales reach an all time high, as reported by UK-based Retail Decisions (ReD), a payment card issuer offering services in card fraud prevention and payment processing, indicated the purchase value of goods sold on Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased by 83% and 80% respectively, compared to the previous year. As such, the large box retailers like Wal-Mart, Sams Club, and a host of others adding "online only" incentives and special discounts for registered users of the online services, 2^nd, consumers are looking to manage their finances so that they not only save money through online purchases, but also avoid high priced interest rates on credit card sales. The last or 3^rd point, and I will go into further detail below, is to question if the sales transaction was of mutual benefit to everyone involved

 

With the increase in sales taxes being imposed by New York's waffling Governor on immigrant reform laws, online purchases are expected to double over 2006 Christmas purchases. Even as Automobile Sales get into the online frenzy - Online luxury Automobile Sales sites are offering special incentives and discounts for online purchases, this year will be a stellar year for online purchase - I plan on doing my share.

 

New Yorkers going Christmas shopping online at Amazon.com will find an 8.375% surprise at the virtual cash register, courtesy of Governor Spitzer, who is moving aggressively to collect Internet sales taxes that have gone widely unenforced.

Additionally a number of these online payments will be in the form of a debit card, credit card, or stored value card, with debit card usage on the rise.

 

Consumers prefer to pay their bills with their debit card rather than their credit card, according to Phoenix Marketing International.  When consumers were asked which card they would prefer to use for bill payment, debit cards were selected over credit cards by a nearly five to two ratio.  More than 1/3 of consumers said they would pay more bills electronically if they could use their debit cards.

Unfortunately, a number of industry groups and financial service providers have mixed reviews about using a debit card for purchases, in stores, or online.

...Be aware that thieves are inventing new ways to steal consumers' account information. For example, some crooks have learned to use "skimming" devices to steal credit card or debit card information off card-swipe machines... Many banks do offer a fraud guarantee, and your fraudulently removed funds are likely to be replaced eventually. The important thing to note is that the bank is not obligated to restore the funds to your account for at least two weeks while it investigates.

As a customer, there is an understanding that if a customer purchases a good or services from you, you in turn have an obligation to keep the customers information secure and away from thieves, disgruntled employees, or the like.

 

In return, your customer may become a valued repeat customer of your goods and services. Here's how...

 

As consultants, I tend to ask a lot of questions.  But one simple inquiry, asked multiple times, can often help me uncover significant insight into the root cause to a complex problem - Why? 

 

One great tip from Taiichi Ohno, widely identified as the founder of Toyota Production System, is to ask "Why" 5 times.

 

Typically you can uncover the reason a customer or a retailer is not satisfied with some transaction by getting to the root of the issue though asking a question in different ways.

 

As annoying as this may sound, if you earnestly want to resolve the situation to both parties benefit, it pays to keep digging.

 

As a recap, the 3 points that retailers should address:

 

1. If they sell a product or service, make it a pleasant experience either in you the brick-n-mortar or online store,
2. Be cognizant of the concerns your customers will have with purchase using online services, or face to face payment process, and make sure their information is kept secure.
3. Last - it is always a good practice to get a pulse check on how well you are doing. 10% of your customers may say something about how good or bad your services are, some greater percent of the other 90% will just not use your services, any longer.

 

Remember - it is always easier to keep a good customer than to attract a replacement for an unhappy customer that tells 10 of his acquaintances just how lousy an experience they had with your service.

 

Case in point - I used to love a local franchise restaurant close to my home and office. Several years back, 9 I think, I was having a salad, and bit into a piece of broken plate that was brushed into the bowl. I told the manager, and was comp'd the price of my salad, with no further explanation, and a half hearted apology. OK Free is good, but my tooth still ached...

 

A year or two later, I was having lunch with my wife and my mother in law in another one of the chains at a different location, and again, after ordering a salad, I bit into another piece of broken plate, this time cracking my crown, after several exhaustive attempts to get the restaurant to provide me their insurance information so that I could submit a claim to reimburse my insurance provider for the cost, as well as cover my co-payment expenses.

 

After the 5^th month of trying, I hired a lawyer to resolve the issue - 4 months later, I receive a refund for my dental charges, as well as notice that my insurance provider had been sent a refund, with no further information. After 7 months of frustration, I make it a practice to never go into that restaurant again, and have told a number of my friends of my experience.

 

Truth be told, the cost for my time, my attorney, and the frustration were more expensive than the actual procedure to repair my tooth, but as a consultant, I feel compelled to help management know when they have a problem in there business processes. I think that we all can agree that most people would have just not returned to either of these 2 location sin the chain, or stopped going to hte franchise all together, , but this proves my point. If your customer has a bad experience:

• Who are they telling?
• What is this costing you?
• How could you inmprove the process?
• What can be done to educate your staff on improving te customer experience?
• Will my customer base continue to grow through repeat shopping?

 

Think about an awful experience you have had, and who you have shared that experience with, and know that your customers are no different...So ask why.