James the Customer Experience Guy

My Other Blogs – James Meléndez / Jaime Patricio Meléndez

jamesthewineguy — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:23:08 +0000

Visit my other blogs:

jamesthewineguy.wordpress.com

jamesthebeerguy.wordpress.com

jamesthefoodguy.wordpress.com

jamesthespiritsguy.wordpress.com

jamestherestaurantguy.wordpress.com

jamesthetravelguy.wordpress.com

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jamesandthecity.wordpress.com

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northamericanfoodproject.wordpress.com

The World’s Worst Store – University Art – San Francisco, California

jamesthewineguy — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:14:56 +0000

I am a quintessential shopper; I like to understand the retail proposition and see what a retailers offerings are with respect to competition and customer experience. Do they understand their customer? Who are they attracting? Who are they not attracting? What is the assortment? Is there a sense of passion for the business? Product? Visual Merchandising? Or does it happen to operate but without a reason for being? Soul-less? Passion-less?

I have traveled many places and always seek out interesting retailers of every category- food, wine, apparel, home, art, etc.

•    The retailer’s soul can be found in every touch point (or there lack of) – what is the name of the business?
•    What are the products?
•    What are the assortments?
•    How complete and relevant are the assortments?
•    What is the merchandise mix?
•    Is the private label program in your benefit—i.e. do you get value products or just cheaply produced products?
•    Are all the proprietary brands you need in stock?
•    Are the sizes you need available?
•    Are they competitively priced?
•    Does the retail proposition leave you many more things to buy then you intended?
•    That you could go time and again and never get everything you want?

And these are just a few of the marks of a retailer’s business proposition.

With this being said; on a visit to the University Art’s San Francisco in late June of this year (2008); I found the above to be a soul-less business that was pronounced with a customer experience that is by far the worst; the store was dishelved; had no ambiance or music; no way finding; there was no visible marker of passion or excitement. I have visited thousands of stores both chain and independent and there are visible signs of the raison d’etre; on any and all measures I could not see how this store was able to make their lease payments; the customer service was horrible; the worst I have ever experienced; to call it customer service is a complete misnomer; there wasn’t any; and in fact it was hostile; I cannot recall any time in my life where I would cite any store visit as hostile but it is certainly this store; if Pretty Woman was filmed in San Francisco it could have been filmed here and the “please leave” would have been cited. I was starred down by a beady character on the second floor office; and the cashier had the same beady eyes. Their approach with me was like I have never experienced before; and frankly would never step foot in this store ever again; and I wish I could have returned every single product I have ever purchased from this store; I have never said that about any retail store I have been a customer. Given today’s retail environment being offensive to customers does not work in a retailer’s best interest. Sometimes a business needs to be reminded why they are in business and this is one of them.

I then went to Flax Art and Design on Market Street to make my art supply purchases; this is a compelling retail store for art, design and gift products in an exciting retail space with product arrays and extensions that make you want one of everything. This store is wondrous, competitive prices; beautiful gift-wraps, extensive art supplies, cards and all delivered with plenty of associates to help if you need someone but also you will not be stared and scared away. A great example of two opposite customer experiences; demonstrating that there is competition and that will be the benchmark that sets business apart. That will either make or break them. Rare is it that there is little competition; and in this category is filled with many retail players; understanding and appreciating customers is key; customers are earned one at a time and the opposite is also try—are also lost one at a time; losing or gaining a customer is essential; by gaining a customer; a business must not loose it’s footing and it is much easier done by belief that you will always be number one; for a losing business there is a myriad of loss that is accompanied that “our customers don’t understand us!” What? Would a business actually ask this question? And the correct response would be that it is out-of-touch and truly a recipe for disaster; that is why some business succeed and many fail. Loosing a customer should make a business work smarter; but the opposite is true—they either work harder or not at all.

Flax Art and Design and University Art are two tangible business with radically different customer experience trajectories.

Peets Coffee & Tea–A Seamless Customer Experience – 9.3 – James Meléndez / Jaime Patricio Meléndez

jamesthewineguy — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:59:31 +0000

Peets Coffee & Tea has an excellent customer experience model. The brand integration across all of it’s channels is seamless. In whatever manner you experience Peets it is one of the few models that matches the experience as well as it does.

When I have either contacted their website or called their 800 number–each person I have dealt with understands the nature of the call to the extent of reaching a solution. It is one of the best 800 number call centers I have ever experienced. I do not think they outsource it–it does pay to have in-house customer service–there are larger reasons to own and operate your own service if you are a business owner or in management of any company.

I think most if not all companies have a commitment to good customer service and experience. I cannot picture any company saying the seek mediocre to poor service, however, most companies seek the opposite course. The course of good customer service in the boardroom is weakened when it comes to the execution. Good intentions does not always occur in fact rarely occurs. The reason for failure is a need to control customer service agents rather than truly having their hand on the pulse of their customers needs.

Most companies operate as if they are three or four (retail or face-to-face, 800, website and other medias) increase liability for a degraded customer experience.

Customer experience is Peets Coffee & Tea bench strength along with a well-defined brand and an excellent product.

I believe it was last year where Peets had a polaroid camera to take a photo and make a comment on you and your Peets experience. What I was struck by was how deeply connected each customer felt towards Peets. One customer wrote: “Please come to New York.”

Peets may have fewer stores but the lines especially in the Financial District is large. You could find a Starbucks with a much smaller line but for a compelling coffee has it’s devotees–their Peetniks–who wait in a long line.

Peets picks great talent; every store I have been to has very bright, efficient and nice associates. I do enjoy the classical music and the in-store experience. I wonder if this is what Alfred Peet had intended and without ever having the opportunity to meet him I think he would be pleased that the dark rich roast and fine beans experience live up to the raison d’etre. Having visited the original Vine Street location I think the in-store experience has been distributed authentically to the original concept.

Your Company’s Customer Experience Position: Your Customers Are Asking for this Subtly…Are you Listening? – James the Customer Experience Guy – James Meléndez / Jaime Patricio Meléndez

jamesthewineguy — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:37:00 +0000

I thought of one brand and found it hard to assign it to one of my blog themes; that brand is Apple. I was originally thinking of Apple in terms of brand, then customer service; but they were all building up to customer experience.

I have subscribed for sometime that corporate functional groups like marketing (and / or brand management) and customer service and website each have a unique and often poorly constructed business models. More interesting is how senior executive leadership fails to make the necessary connections to realize that seamless customer experience is what the customer sees and that corporate fiefdoms do little to service customers. That while a business might not see the ill of it’s disorganized ways the customer base ends up looking for business that fit its needs. More often these are not dramatic shifts but more slippery are those that are not detected or patterns are not recognized. Too often most organization do not posses the proper business intelligence skills to uncover subtle yet remarkable changes. Most business believe they have the answer and their customers will see it their way (the business’ way that is).

Customer Experience is a natural corporate evolution. For businesses that have an eCommerce business it is interesting to see who owns this function and how often the function that owns it is usually a corporate function that should not or whose relationship is so un-related and far removed.

While marketing is important, as well as brand management and customer service; these intimately related functions should be organized and held by one group—Customer Experience. After all that is what customers experience?