After a long day of keyboard interfacing a curry was called for…duely ordered I was told 20 minutes before I could pick it up…great

Went along just before my 20 minutes were up and shock horror,it wasn’t ready….

Normally I would have been a bit put out but this time I wasn’t.Why?

Well as soon as I went into the restaurant I was given an apology followed by an honest explanation which took the sting out of the situation. This showed me two things.

One, they knew who I was as soon as I came in and two that they were honest enough to admit their mistake and they looked after me whilst the order was put together. I am happy and will come back,they will  make sure that they don’t make the same mistake again.

My only problem now is that I’ve got too many free side dishes,how many bhajis can a man eat?

Just couldn’t wait

Just been on the phone to an old mate who yesterday left Holiday Inn without paying…

His meeting had been very good,met some nice potential clients who liked the problem solving approach and all was well.

Slight disappointment that the staff on hand were very slow in getting teas and coffees organised but didn’t expect to get any special service just be looked after.After all this is a national chain of hotels that makes good money on business folk popping in for meetings over tea and coffee so why should they treat every customer as special?

Well they should and they don’t…

After an age in trying to get the bill he decided that he had had enough and he just went….

The reality of this is that Holiday Inn don’t give a hoot.Why? Because they already have his card details and will  simply charge him what is owed,they have no interest at all in the fact that his customer experience was rubbish with poor service and luke warm drinks.

They don’t care that he may tell a zillion people of his poor experience because they have been paid,the transaction has been completed and it’s a closed issue as far as they are concerned.

More customers should go without paying, its a sure fire way of seeing just how fast the people serving you can move when they need to….

Walk A Way without spending

Customer experience feedback often never even begins because customers get fed up and can’t be bothered to wait to be served…they go away empty handed.

I have noticed that in our local Waitrose the single basket paying area is so poorly laid out that customers wait in a long line that snakes across the other tills which makes life harder for other shoppers and looks a mess.It probably deters other shoppers..

I also noticed that some shoppers gave up before even joining this line which means that Waitrose missed out on some sales.these could have been fairly small but aggregated up across all stores and every day this will mount up.As a rival says,Every Little Helps…

So how much does the retail sector miss out on as a result of Walk A Ways? I have no idea but it’s millions of pounds without a doubt.What about the combined loss in leisure sectors? More millions..

Maybe better attention to how customers shop could prevent lost sales?More staff, better layouts,better customer feedback systems…

Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice

The above is taken form Wikipedia and says very clearly what KM is all about.

I have been wondering recently what has replaced KM as the burning management issue.Clearly KM was such a powerful tool that it can’t have stopped being effective.Can It?It was the buzz word only a few years ago and changed the way companies were structured and the way that they operated.

Was there a sudden fall from grace that led to all KM departments being disbanded? Have the principles remained but the name changed?

It is a concern that Management fads come and go and absorb so much time that the drive of an organisation is turned inwards.Outward facing progress always is in terms of internal reorganisation. Should that be the case or should companies keep the pedal to the metal and keep going?

Losing sight of where the company is going is a real danger if valuable time is spenttinkering with the engine rather than driving. Is there a metric out there that maps the lost energy devoted to system management V market performance?

So what is the new KM?

Anybody care to venture an opinion?

Switching..

Research published recently has shown that 30 customers a minute are switching energy suppliers…30 a minute that’s 12,600 in a n average 7 hour working day, 63,000 in an average week, over 250,000 in a month and a staggering 3 million a year. That’s what I call churn!

Imagine if this number were added to all those who switch banks, mobile phone suppliers and ISP’s…it’s hard to imagine the staggering amount of customers that are on the move.

It would be good to understand this ocean of motion and get to grips with the core reasons people leave or switch.

Price clearly plays a part in the process.Given that most people are inherently lazy and that “customer inertia” normally takes over if any task involving changing takes more than 3 key strokes, then there must be several “push” factors at play as well as “pull” factors.

The Push elements cover all aspects of negative service experiences and include; rudeness, failure to respond to customer calls, poor billing services and failure to take notice…the last factor can be so annoying. My own experience of constantly being ignored by my ISP threw me into the arms of another..

Pull elements are normally price orientated and often get new customers hooked only to find that the same poor service starts all over again…not always the case but often true.Sometimes the offer is just too compelling to ignore, Talk talk rings a bell here…There are of course times when offers far exceed the ability to fulfill and years of positive marketing are destroyed, who can forget the Hoover free flights offer…

I have considered switching my gas and electricity again but somehow the thought of all those key strokes or phone calls just doesn’t appeal…another cup of tea while I turn the heating up may do the trick…

What would stop you from switching?

We would love to hear about your good and bad customer experiences… spill the beans!