Customer Is the King - Essay Example

1. is the King As a of management, I was told by that grey haired of mine that is the king’ and that companies go out of the way to ensure that their customers are delighted. Armed with this knowledge, I took my girl friend to the retail store to buy her a birthday present. We felt on top of the world as the janitor opened the door and saluted us. We were greeted by a whiff of scented air and light instrumental music. My date with her had kicked off in style and I was looking forward to the wonderful evening ahead. The smiles on the faces of the salespeople made us feel at ease and the search for her birthday present began. To be candid, after a while, I felt that she was taking hell lot of a time looking at different stuff. After what seemed ages to me, she was still undecided. Whatever wardrobe of the store had been checked, had been rejected on one or more of the following grounds; colour, texture, out-of-trend, size of print, and God knows what all. The initial euphoria was slowly but surely giving way to boredom and restlessness. Me, the boyfriend, was becoming disinterested. And then there was this bloke, on the other side of the counter; yes the salesman, who was as cheerful as he was at the beginning of the encounter. I recalled the lecture. If I was the king, my girl friend was the (would-be) queen. The salesperson will do whatever it takes to ‘delight’ the consumer. Coming back to the gift: high involvement product; clothes and that too for a female; obviously it will take time. She will choose nothing but the best; I reminded myself and put up a plastic smile on my face. (Good boy-friend behaviour). 2. Two hoots to Recession What Recession? Lack of demand? Customers tightening their budget strings? Fewer foot- falls than last month? No, not at all, said the owner of the shop selling artificial jewellery for gals. If you thought the economy is reeling under the pangs of recession, you got it right. However, if you thought that demand has waned across sectors, you probably got it wrong. “When the lady living in the corner house can wear a new necklace at the kitty party why can’t I?” Call it ‘keeping up with the joneses’, ‘snob value’ or ‘herd mentality’, there are some aspects of consumer behaviour from which ‘recession steers clear.’ No offense to the fairer sex, the aforesaid discussion is aimed at highlighting the fact that predicting consumer behaviour is like ‘predicting the unpredictable.’ What else explains the roaring success of the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program initiated by the Obama administration at the peak of recession? The $1 billion allotted for the program was utilized within a week of the launch of the program. The government pumped in another $2 billion keeping in view the benefits that the program accorded on the economy. Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius and Toyota Camry, in that order were the top 5 brands bought with the Cash for Clunkers funds. Somebody may argue that the huge rebates propelled consumers to buy these cars. Obviously yes, but these discounts were not on necessities, but on cars which most economists would say, is a product that would not be purchased during periods of recession. True, but that is economics, not consumer behaviour. 3. Mobile advertising: A sine qua non The sombre discussion at the company review meeting was interrupted with the sounds of SMS blaring ‘beep beep’ on the subordinate’s mobile. Poor guy was already being spanked left, right and centre. The boss’s frown got bigger, the pitch louder and the words harsher. Another ‘beep beep’ Put it on SILENT mode dude, yelled the subordinate’s inner voice. The rest of the meeting was only a ‘bang bang’ affair, recipient remaining the same though. Ordeal over, the poor chap came out with a gloomy face and sheepishly looked at the messages. METAMORPHOSIS!! The grin was back, the misery forgotten. Why not? ‘Shake your body at the newly opened disc with drinks on the house’; the message was really inviting. Welcome to the world of influencing consumer behaviour through mobile advertising. The DND (do not disturb) funda is a villain. It is meant for the old… the out-dated. To the subordinate and to the scores like him, DDD ‘Definitely Do Disturb’ is the hero… the stress buster…the panacea… a means to keep abreast with the latest that is happening around. The UCB sale, the latest stuff introduced by Allen Solly, new places to hang out; know it all, stay connected with the world wherever you are. Our friend, the subordinate is lost in day dreaming. Gals, booze and loads of fun in the pipeline!! What would have he done in a world without the ‘beep beep.’ Oh! There it goes again ‘beep beep’. Enthusiastically he looks at the message: “Let’s meet at 8 tonight to discuss next months plan: Boss.” Who said life is fair? 4. Queues, long queues, wonderful queues The present day generation just does not like waiting. Work needs to happen fast, really fast. There is no room for sloppiness, lethargy. That’s why the bank with maximum number of ATMs is chosen while a bank with shoddy Internet banking service just does not become the preferred bank for this GenNext. The advent and success of QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants) a la McDonalds says it all. This speedy service entails absence of queues. No queues = no waiting time. And then there are instances when consumers (across generations) hunt for queues, long queues. They do not mind standing and waiting in these queues for hours on end. No qualms… no regrets… no impatience. The concept of speedy service takes a backstage. The wait is worth it, for at the end of the line, is the ‘apple of the eye,’ the Apple, the Apple gadget, the Apple iPhone 4 if you talk of recent memory. The waiting phenomenon in case of the immensely popular iPhone was not age specify, gender specific or country specific. The young and the old, men and women around the world including the U.S were seen in serpentine queues outside Apple stores. If you think only the brand name and the hype created around it were responsible for the queues, consider this. After a few hours of drive on the highway, you feel hungry…want to have some food. You spot a few outlets offering lunch. No familiar name (No Mc D), no branded stuff. Where would you go? To the one that has a queue, probably a long queue, for it gives a feeling (read perception) that the place is good, the food is good, and the crowd is good. Waiting for the right stuff, does not really matter. 5. Hello, Hi, and a Smile only Service with a smile is the present day mantra for most firms. The five letter word makes a lot of difference, positive difference to productivity, efficiency and camaraderie. The new recruits are trained and groomed to ensure that they smile. Which is why we encounter smiles; plastic or otherwise, every time we venture out to the market. I recently saw a salesperson employed in a store in Indiana greeting a foreign customer in the latter’s language. The smile was writ large on the employees’ face (the training effect). The foreign words however were being uttered with great difficulty. To me the salesperson was stuttering and stammering rather than greeting the customer. I am not even sure whether the customer really understood the gesture or not. From the employee’s perspective, who probably was obeying orders, was it overdone? There cannot be a clear cut unambiguous answer. Everything else remaining the same, another customer may have acknowledged and reciprocated the gesture. On the other end of the continuum, somebody could have felt offended. So where does the salesperson draw the line. A ‘Hello’ or a ‘Hi’ and a Smile would invariably suffice. Going beyond that entails a risk-reward trade-off, simply because each customer is different. 6. The VCR During my stint in college as also in the university, I saw folks discussing and thrashing out the little details before buying a laptop or a motor cycle or for that matter, any other consumer durable. All the 5 ‘Ws’ and the ‘H’ was answered before the final payment. Made sense! And these very people ordered low ticket items; toothpaste, soap, food stuff like flour, pulses et al over the phone. Made sense again! The reason appeared clear. The consumer decision making took more time in case the product in question was purchased once or twice during a life time, more money was involved and the product was technologically advanced. On the other hand for FMCG (fast moving consumer goods)…who has the time to think so much? All these consumer behaviour concepts so to say, fail and fail miserably when it comes to my dad. The TV, the refrigerator, the washing machine, the AC have all been delivered, installed without any member of the family having visited any store whatsoever. What’s more these were ordered over the phone. No, we are not stinking rich. We belong to what one may call the average income household. The order goes to the same shopkeeper. When a product mal functions, this particular shopkeeper replaces it with a brand new model and takes nominal money (according to dad) from us. He has been supplying such stuff to us since time immemorial. Call it relationship management or to use an analogy, I can say that this shopkeeper is the family doctor. And yes, the VCR (video cassette recorder), the one that is gathering dust in the attic was also sold by him. Just that VCRs are a thing of the past now. New technology is just too good, so they are gone. Gone from the production schedules, gone from the shelves but has not gone from our home. Why? 1. Because there is no exchange scheme. 2. It sells for a few $s as scrap. 3. My dad bought it for money that “meant a lot at that time”. Where does it go? My great grand children might decide to send it to the museum. 7. The leech in the soup Hey, don’t get swayed by that swanky looking restaurant. That’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The ambience may be fantastic, the cutlery may be new, the waiters may be smart and the aroma may be intoxicating. ‘Never judge a book by its cover’. Do remember; a well done up restaurant is not necessarily a hygienic one. Alas! The customer does not have any other parameter to evaluate and decide what’s “good” and what’s not. If the food is good, everything else is o.k. If the ambience is good, go ahead and charge more. If the ambience is not top-notch but the food is good, charge a little less and you are still doing good business. The “moment of truth” occurs when one actually visits the kitchen of a particular restaurant. To me the measures deployed in the kitchen to ensure that the food is hygienic should separate the men from the boys. It is juvenile for a restaurant to think they can get away with what is not visible. In reality, what happens behind the scenes is of monumental importance and the customer knows it. If there is a leech in the soup, the customer may get angry, but will settle down once the dish is replaced and an apology is tendered. However if there is an apparently invisible leech in the soup; cutlery being washed in dirty water, kitchen not clean, toilets stinking, cooks not bothered about cleanliness, customers will not give a second chance. There are no replacements of this soup, it is only customer churn. 8. That’s the in thing What’s this hoopla about Facebook? What the heck are those 750 million people (more than double the U.S. population) doing out there? And what is happening to the corporate world? What is this social media advertising all about? Socializing redefined? Did I hear that? That appears plausible. But really, I would call it an addiction, a waste of time yours and mine. Imagine there was this guy in school, in 6th standard, three decade old story. We were never the best of pals. Just that we were in the same class and so we knew each other. School over, he went his way, I went mine. Lo and Behold!! Lost and Found story unfolds on Facebook. So much so that I even know the colour of his inner wear. Yup, socializing redefined. And then there is this research done that suggests that teens spend hell lot of a time on this largest social networking site. AH! They have so many games to play even if the there is no friend out there. I would still term it as a sheer waste of time. My pals tell me I am wrong. Why do you think that advertisers find this a good platform? Why is Google with its Google+ hankering after this piece? Why do you think those 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook? These questions make me ponder; may be I am off beam or just outdated. This social media is the in thing. For advertisers this is the way to get viral, to have positive word of mouth, to influence decision, to get exposure. That’s not a waste to them. I may have a different opinion, but that does not matter to the world of advertisers and to the world of consumers. 9. What goes behind the scenes? I never realized what all goes behind the scenes while bringing that product to the retailer’s shelf. I’m not talking about the logistics but I’m referring to decisions regarding size, colour, shape et al of the brand. This enlightenment, so to say, occurred when I happened to meet this dude who was more than happy to share his experiences as a marketing research manager. The journey was long and he had loads to share. I was all ears!! He talked about test marketing, the McCafe, McLobster by McDonald’s, taste tests…KFC trying hundreds of flavours before finalizing the ‘prince charming’ for its Chinese market. He spoke about how customers perceive different colours and again referred to that red and yellow fellow.... yup Ronald Mc Donald and the role he played in attracting guests to the restaurant. Lots of checks are put in place before the product is rolled out, he mused. What brand name to use, should a celebrity be roped in to advertise, what size should be the package, et al. everything is questioned! Different techniques for different aspects though surveys and focus groups emerged as common tools from his talk off. I was awe struck. “It really is a science,” I concluded. He disagreed! Talk about consumers, you can never be sure. And then he talked about the ‘New Coke’ fiasco. Millions spent on advertising research, millions of customer’s surveyed, focus groups roped in. Everything suggested that the new product would sell... like hot cakes…not to be…it bombed. Moral of the ‘expensive’ story: When it comes to consumer behaviour, you as marketers’ can never be sure. The reality is that even the customer’s aren’t. 10. I would love to pay less for that The parking lot was full. Another Audi screeched to a halt. A young man pompously came out of it and made his way to the elevator. You could feel that air around him as he whistled his way through. Once in the mall, he looked here and there and started moving towards the Dockers’ showroom. He came out empty handed. Maybe he did not like anything. The same thing happened at Levis’ and Tommy Hilfiger’s showroom. Curiosity kills the cat!! I wanted to know what’s happening. Money should not be a problem for him, there was a lot to choose from, and therefore variety was a non issue. He was visiting only apparel stores which meant that the intention was to buy clothes. I decided to take my query to a logical end and so I kept track of him; albeit without his knowledge. In he went to the Wrangler’s showroom. It took less than 30 minutes for him to come out with his hands full, not less than 4-5 packets he had in his hand. The mystery deepened. The need for that elusive answer was getting desperate. I thought I’ll approach him and have the answer straight from the horse’s mouth. Then my phone rang. It was my cousin…wanted to know where I was. He wanted me to accompany him to Wrangler’s for their SALE had just got bigger. Everything fell in place. The answer was ridiculously simple: Freebies, discounts, sales etc. not only attract the hoi-polloi; they exert a pull on the ‘who’s who’ as well. 11. The ‘uninvited’ and the ‘God sent’ Individuals vary when it comes to their shopping or buying behaviour. Differences occur on account of age, gender, socio-economic status, occupation etc. There are individual whims and fancies, the risk appetites are different, the motivations of individuals are different and therefore each one behaves differently. However, all of us, as individuals, could still be divided into groups and we could safely say that all people in one particular group tend to behave in a similar fashion. From the perspective of a shopkeeper, shoppers could be categorized as follows: People who walk in the store because they have nothing better to do. They need to kill time and probably the salesperson wants to kill them. At best, they are the uninvited guests. Then there are the extremely frugal types. Hard nuts to crack! They ask toooo many questions and end up buying something but that something is close to zilch. This specie is indeed very finicky. The prudent types look for a fair deal. All they try to ensure is that their hard earned money is not squandered. Will compare and contrast products and will pick up something that best fits their need. And then there is this GOD SENT category. Flaunt they must!! Price doesn’t matter to them, the word NEED does not exist in their dictionary. ‘I WANT’ is the only dictionary word they know. And the shopkeeper really WANTS only them. 12. The pain of the IVR Talk of customer services these days and just about every organization has a cell, customer service cell. The behemoths cater to the large numbers through the call centres which are invariably outsourced. For the uninitiated, outsourcing results in cost cutting. And that is that! The good points of outsourcing this customer service start and end with that. OK, that’s for the company. What about the customers? The ‘not so well educated’ and the ‘not so tech savvy’ really have a hard time understanding Interactive voice response (IVR). If by hook or crook they manage to reach the customer service executive, the language barrier (remember … outsourcing) spoils the party. That probably explains why these people, in the first attempt, visit the brick and mortar structure of the organization, only to be directed to the IVR. In certain instances, time required to reach the customer service executive is more than the time required to reach the outlet of the company. So one would rather go and ‘vent out those feelings’ in person. At least you know whom you bombarded and the employee knows that you mean business. Be rest assured, the employee will go that extra mile to resolve your complaint for he does not want you back in the store, does not want the other customers to listen to that flowery language of yours. 13. If something can go wrong, it will Businesses are quality obsessed these days. So while quality could have been used as a differentiator (how is product X different from product Y) some time back, it is no longer the case today. While companies hanker after quality and turn all the stones (leave no stone unturned) to achieve what that management guru would call Six Sigma (99.99966% accuracy). Forget this figure man...isn’t it as good as 100 percent? No it isn’t. The concept is Motorola’s brainchild and has its own set of critiques. Let’s keep it simple though. 3.4 defects per million is what this model suggests… pretty minimal. But then there are those who are not even remotely close to this figure; maybe even unaware that a bird called ‘six sigma’ exists. Still there would be companies where blunders, goof ups abound. Looking at these companies one may write a book titled, “What not to do to achieve Six Sigma” The whole point is that things can go wrong. Murphy Sir agrees with me. Oops, I agree with Murphy Sir. “If something can go wrong, it will,” he said this long back for sure. Back to business: What is the problem if some defects occur? Customer safety is definitely one. However another pain for companies is that many customers tend not to complain. Their tacit form for protest entails switching to a rival brand. The vociferous ones spread a bad WOM (word of mouth). The ones who do come back and complain and manage to get the issue resolved show a tendency not to use the brand again. That’s a huge price to pay, might as well try and catch that bird named 6 sigma. 14. Kid’s day out He was fantastic at negotiations, could read faces and make sense of what body language meant and had a strong acumen for selecting good products. In nutshell he was the ideal candidate to take on a shopping binge. One would not return home disappointed. But as they say; the ‘best may not be good enough.’ Time passed, he married his childhood love and now has two children, aged 2 and 7. He is a changed ‘shopper’ now. He no longer bags the best deal. In person, he would confide that he frets going to the market now. For him spending time with children is good fun, but only at home or in the park, not in the MARKET. The younger one is invariably in the lap and has the potency to turn @ 360 degree the moment he sees a shop that may have something of interest to him; toys, clothes for kids, ice cream parlours, bakery, confectionary et al. The elder one, on the other hand, hunts for video game parlours, sports stuff and even book stores (he has a penchant for reading). More often than not, one of the two is pointing a finger in a particular direction. And the ‘father shopper’ the erstwhile ‘super shopper’ is invariably seen putting these little fingers down. Those astute skills of a shopper remain buried inside. These two cute little devils are pretty vociferous that they don’t let dad talk (negotiate). The bloke on the other side of the counter knows it, and makes hay while the sun shines. Read More