It’s the Christmas shopping season — our first without Steve Jobs. Still, what a perfect time to talk about Apple. It goes without saying that Apple is redefining and reshaping the retail experience via the company’s growing roster of stand-alone stores. But there’s something even bigger going on here, akin to how online show retailer Zappos.com is turning the traditional rules of e-commerce upside ... Read More
There are 2 objectives for story telling:
First, to reveal the kind of company you are by communicating the vision behind your products — to show how your company is relevant to the customer’s needs, wants and expectations; to show that you can be entrusted with their needs because of who you are, what you believe and what you want out of the ... Read More
By Chip Bell, Co-Author of “Wired and Dangerous”
It all happened in a matter of minutes late one Sunday evening at my desk. I was on-line ordering promotional visors for our new book from Stitch America in Bremen, GA. I had selected the visor color, style, and words to be stitched in a particular font and thread color. After loading in my credit card information, I ... Read More
Do you want to purchase products that a provider believes will make you more productive?
Or do you want the marketer to understand your situation and work cooperatively with you to solve your business or personal problems?
Either way, you don’t want to be sold. That’s where so many companies have it all wrong.
When I have a problem, I go to the Internet, the blogosphere or my friends on Facebook or LinkedIn for recommendations that have worked for them. I have more confidence in my friends than I do in company sales reps commissioned to sell me what they are selling.
That is unless it is Apple or Zappos or one of the growing number of companies who culturally understand the importance of delivering a great customer ... Read More
The Scotti family had watched the decline in CD sales and the rise of alternate channels like Napster. Rather than give in, they created a bold customer experience unlike anything anyone else was doing. Customers were telling each other, “Don’t buy that one, I can burn you a copy for you.
Buy it, Burn it, Return it.
Scotti’s customers can buy a new or used CD, take it home and listen … and then if they love it, they can burn it into their iPod. If they return the music within 10 days, they get a 70% in-store credit.
Now customers visit one of the four stores in New Jersey, check out all the new music and take home their favorite CDs. While they are in the store they can look over other related merchandise like limited-edition ... Read More
Enterprise is an example of a customer experience leader doing financially better than its competition – by paying more attention to its staff.
Enterprise hires more college graduates than any other company in America. Why would a college graduate want to work in a car rental outlet? This runs against Harvard Business School logic. But, you see, Enterprise pays 50% more than the competition for a starting position, and if you’re good, within 10 years you could be taking in $200,000.
So you ask another question: How can Enterprise offer such low prices in the industry and still pay more to its staff? The results speak for themselves … the founders are now worth $10 billion. This pattern makes you think differently about what drives success and ... Read More
They eliminated restricted visiting hours
Now recognized for commitment to patient and family and one of the best places to work in Oregon, they are out-growing most regional hospitals their size by a large percent. Modern Maturity magazine named ... Read More
“We’re just basically out-competing everyone,” says John Mackey, explaining the success of his Whole Foods “organic” supermarket chain, as quoted by Seth Lubove in Forbes (2/14/05). “Safeway and Albertsons have annual sales ten times as large,” as Whole Foods, “but are valued at only $8 billion apiece.”
Whole Foods is valued at $6 billion. Winn-Dixie has “six times as many stores” as Whole Foods and “three times as much in sales,” but “is valued at just 10 percent of Whole Foods’ market value.” While “profits are expected to fall 31 percent at Safeway and 6 percent at Albertsons for 2004,” and A&P, Pathmark and Winn-Dixie “piled up a total of $195 million in ... Read More
Research by Conference Executive Board recently found that loyal B2B customers spend 31% more with their suppliers than the average customer and are 50% more likely to try a supplier’s new products. Customer loyalty is “an attitude that ... Read More
Let’s review a few of the facts from a gap point of view:
