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Number
58: June 23, 2004
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This week in Katydid:
Don't
You Want My Business?
One nice thing about being a marketer is that we become expert
consumers. We constantly analyze ad campaigns and we question deals. We
know that discounts "for a limited time only" will be
available again. We are consumers and we know everyone wants our
business; so, it's a little bit surprising to run across a company that
doesn't seem to care.
Our tap water in Arizona is not great. Oh, it's healthy. I get
regular notices on how few counts they find of cryptosporidium
and other delightful creatures. I'm willing to believe it's safe to
drink, but the taste is awful. It has a high mineral content and alkali,
which gives it a soapy taste; and in the summer when the temperatures
soar over 100 degrees, we get algae blooms in the reservoirs. They kill
the algae with chemicals, but I can still smell it, which does nothing
for the taste.
All this is to say most everybody here has bottled water delivery for
drinking water. About a year ago, we got tired of schlepping water from
the store, and started to look for services. One company was entering
our market and I thought they did a terrific job. They brought free
half-gallon bottles to our neighborhood with a nice discount for
joining.
The water is bottled from a source in the mountains, which generally
means high on the water table, and generally free from all the stuff
that percolates through the rock. (Growing up in Las Vegas that includes
things like nuclear
fallout from above- and underground testing. I'm one of the few
people raised in Vegas that still has a working thyroid).
The free sample gave me the kick I needed to do my homework. I
compared prices and water quality with other bottlers. However, the free
samples gave me the feeling that I'd get good service with this company.
Also, they had six-gallon bottles rather than five, so I was getting
more water for about the same price. In the end, all things being equal,
I wanted to give my business to the company that reached out to me, even
if the price was a few cents higher per gallon than the other companies.
They delivered on schedule and generally provided great service for
about a year, when suddenly I started getting my water in five-gallon
bottles instead of six. I waited for an explanation. I waited to see if
just as suddenly I would start to receive my six-gallon bottles again.
Perhaps it was a fluke with their supplier or something.
I didn't call their customer service because I'd already made up my
mind and because I was curious what they would do. After a couple of
weeks and no contact from the company, I cancelled my service with a
note to my delivery driver. I waited again to see if any effort
would be made to save my business, but nothing came.
What strikes me is that it would have been so easy to retain me as a
customer. I was already enjoying the water and they had several good
cases they could make for the change in service. They could have said
that the upward-spiraling gas prices made it more expensive to deliver
water. Reducing the size of the bottle would reduce the weight of the
truck, and the increased transportation overhead could be absorbed
without an increase in the total charge. They could have said that
customers requested five-gallon bottles because they were easier to
handle. Instead, they said nothing.
Now, assuming that the sales and marketing departments knew about the
transition (which may be an unsafe assumption considering how many times
I've been blindsided by other departments), they may have debated the
best course of action. Sending a pamphlet explaining why the service
would be cut back could make more customers aware of the problem than
would have noticed on their own.
It seems they opted to say nothing and see what would happen. They
were betting that few people would notice and fewer would contact the
company. If anyone was irate, they would likely call customer service to
complain. They were counting on customer service to win their business
back.
Having spent many years in technical support and customer service
training, I know there's no worse scenario that trying to be the
catchall for problems like this. You end up fielding hundreds of angry
calls that take a lot of time because you have to calm them down, you
have to let them explain how lousy you are, and then you have to offer
something. But most of the time you have nothing to offer them but
excuses, and the customer demands a refund.
To make matters worse, when you're in the board meeting discussing
the high churn rates, the other teams point to customer service because
they're the last point of contact. "It is your job to save their
business."
Marketing needs to be responsible for the entire life cycle of the
customer. While it costs less to retain a customer, it should be no less
important than landing one. In fact, because of the lower costs, it
should be more important to retain that customer and save your budget
for better things.
Because I'm a marketer, sometimes I assume that everybody "gets
it." My experience with the water vendor reminded me that some
basics slip by even established companies. In your business, do you stay
informed about changes to your products or services, and do you
communicate with your customers and your service departments? Because
it's their job, do you let support handle the job of communicating with
the customer, or do you help with message and tone, so they don't make
matters worse?
Marketing must be a resource for every department, and every
department must realize that they too are in marketing. It's an easy
trap sometimes to say, "We might lose a customer, but we'll be okay
overall." Just imagine though what would happen if the customer had
a bigger
soapbox to stand on. What effort would you make if the customer were
Larry King, Oprah Winfrey, or some
web geek with time on his hands?
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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