DUDS « Phil's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘DUDS’

Small Charges from Big Companies – DUDS

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Welcome to this issue of DUDS – Dumb Unilateral Decisions

Big companies are nickel and diming us and it’s getting ridiculous.

I receive my Rogers cell phone bill in the mail. How old-fashioned and environmentally unfriendly of me, as a paying customer, to demand an invoice?! It seems that my monthly fees for three cell phones and an iPad data plan are not sufficient to warrant Rogers sending me a bill without charge.

Or, perhaps, they are profit challenged and need to scrounge for cash from their (temporary) customers?

$2.00 paper invoice fee

Next on the DUDS list is Pitney Bowes, with whom I spend more on ink than postage because they have the most profitable (for them) ink cartridges in the world. I just renewed my lease (at a discounted rate because I threatened to not renew — always negotiate) and received a friendly letter advising that I now have two choices because I must insure their (now used) postage machine. That’s funny, no one mentioned this during the renewal process. Oh, it’s probably in the fine print…

The $2.78 insurance 'not insurance' plan

Pitney Bowes offers a convenient insurance for only $2.78 per month. Actually, it’s ‘not insurance.’ They, or their marketing or legal department, calls it an ‘equipment replacement/damage waiver program.’ If I don’t want to pay them monthly, I can contact my busy insurance broker and ask him to confirm, in writing, that 1. Pitney Bowes et al are named as insured or loss payee, 2. coverage commences upon lease commencement, 3. includes theft (really?), and 4. my lease number. Of course, my insurance broker, who is a good guy and an expert, would not be paid for this service.

I guess the finance people at these big companies are taking the economic challenges to heart. Instead of innovating and providing more value and services to their customers, they are charging us more for what they used to do for free or what we already have in place and are paying for, like insurance.

Big companies seem to be getting more disconnected from their customers every day. Rogers and Pitney Bowes, are you listening? I didn’t think so.

Tags: Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, Phil Symchych, Pitney Bowes insurance not insurance, Rogers $2.00 paper invoice fee., Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | 4 Comments »

DUDS: How to fix a cooktop in only 54 days

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

“The stove doesn’t work,” said my wife. “Uh-oh” I’m thinking, “kitchen stuff.” This wasn’t starting well and it wasn’t going to end well.

The largest, main burner on our cook-top stopped working. “We’re supposed to host Christmas dinner and I need all my burners,” exclaimed my wife. She called the warranty company – because the repair man told us to always buy an extended warranty on today’s electronically sensitive appliances – and this commenced a lengthy exchange. She provided the serial number and the warranty company needed to send out the local service representative to take a look. Two weeks later, the service rep showed up, made a diagnosis, and left. Then, nothing.

My wife called the warranty company back. They never received any information from the service rep. My wife called the service rep. He said that he faxed the information and will resend it. We waited, and waited. My wife called the warranty people, to whom she wished a “Merry Christmas” because the season was upon us and we, well, my wife, weren’t cooking anything on the main burner. The warranty company still hadn’t received any information.

We called the service company, again. Eventually, my wife helped everyone figure out that the service company had the wrong fax number and sent our information to fax purgatory. Finally, my wife connected the service company’s information with the warranty company.

This is why consulting is so easy, sometimes. Large companies lack management skills and processes and don’t test their own products and services. Small and medium business managers can run circles around any big company manager who has a single department specialty and is busy protecting his turf, but I digress.

Our local company sent the information for the third time. We appreciated their persistence. My wife was now on a first name basis with the warranty people and had elevated her concern to the supervisor. The repair was finally authorized, then scheduled and, finally, performed.

Total time: November 24 to January 17. Only 54 days to fix a burner.

Tags: business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, SME, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co., why are big companies so slow
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Krazy Kaizen Kaput

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Beware of the fanatics!

Toyota has experienced an extensive period of record recalls and a fall in status as a blue chip company. Apparently, the blue comes from bruises these days.

Toyota’s fanatical pursuit of kaizen, which they describe on their website as the “continuous pursuit of improvement in work procedures and equipment,” seems to ignore the obvious: what about the product?

Peter Drucker says the purpose of a business is to serve a customer and that economic reality is external to the company. Toyota thought they were an engineering company, in love with their micrometers, and forgot that the product had to make their customers happy and keep them safe.

Have you seen their advertisements that brag that they drilled holes in a screw head to save weight? Who let the engineers into the boardroom and in control of strategy?

We own a Toyota Highlander, purchased new in 2007, and I’ve owned five other Toyotas. I still remember my disbelief when I called the dealership and asked what I was supposed to do with my vehicle. The lady replied that she didn’t know and that I should contact the manufacturer. Fortunately, and purely due to luck, we had taken out the questionable floor mats and replaced them with all-season rubber mats that could handle kids, french fries, coffee and snow.

The major lessons for business owners:

Keep focused on the customer, always.
Don’t fall in love with your internal processes.
Make sure your business strategy and focus are aimed at increasing value to your customer (as opposed to reducing costs).
Nobody likes bad news. People rationalize. Make sure you can see and hear the truth.
Accept responsibility quickly and communicate what you are doing about fixing the problem.
Your ego is not a good decision-making tool.
It’s OK to over-react to problems, because you’re taking action and can prevent the problem from growing.
Have a trusted peer or advisor that will tell you the truth and is looking out for your best interest.
Beware of fads, buzz-words and attempts to replace the hard work of strategy, thinking and customer satisfaction.
Shop yourself.

Toyota was an excellent company and can likely regain its powerful position if it kaizen’s itself and realizes that it needs to kaput the kaizen.

P.S. We have a Toyota Highlander for sale.

http://www.symcoandco.com/

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, leadership, marketing, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co., Toyota recalls
Posted in Strategy | 1 Comment »

Blame the customer – Brrr, it’s cold in here

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Today, I have a pair of DUDS (dumb unilateral decisions) to share.

We just purchased new double doors for our kitchen as the old doors were 20 years old, had no “R value” and no “Low E” argon gas between the glass panes. Apparently, all new products come with initials.

Bill, an experienced carpenter with a ton of common sense, installed the double doors by himself, on a very cold winter day. He removed one door to make the frame lighter and easier to maneuver. It wasn’t his first day on the job. Unfortunately, when Bill left, so did the common sense.

The next day, we awoke to find water running down the middle of the door frame that contained the metal locking mechanism for the divided door. The water turned to ice on the lower part of the door. Our old door never had ice on the inside.

As Canadians, we like winter (for the first 100 days) but we prefer it stay outdoors.

Winter inside the house

We called the home centre where we bought the door. They shall remain nameless at this point in order to give them a chance to rectify the situation (I hope). The store advised this might be a ‘warranty’ situation with the manufacturer. Immediately, I smelled a corporate run-a-round. I advised our guy we ordered a door, not a fridge, and we don’t want a cold water dispenser and ice maker.

Then, I spoke with the warranty department of the manufacturer. The nice lady explained that their inspector will have a look at our door, and that we likely have a humidity problem. She must have psychic powers to be able to assess our humidity levels over the phone.

Smelling another corporate run-a-round, I advised her that our old door didn’t make ice, but the new one does because the metal strip in the middle transmits the minus thirty degrees Celsius temperature into the house. It’s our good luck to install a door when it’s bitterly cold outside and test its R-value and Low E (and my patience).

Both the store and the manufacturer have to go through the process of inspecting the door – I guess to figure out how they can blame the customer.

I have advised both parties that we expect a full refund for this door, and to replace with a better quality product, and to pay only one installation charge.

I’m frustrated because I’m dealing with employees who are not empowered to make decisions. I’m sure they are intelligent, honest and hard working people. It’s their managers and their company strategies that need fixing – after they fix our door!

I even heard a radio advertisement for the manufacturer that exclaimed their products are energy efficient. Sure, as ice makers! There was no electrical energy directly consumed in creating chilled water and ice.

The most successful luxury car dealerships, and many private businesses, thrive on customer problems because they get to fix the problem, exceed the customer’s expectations, and strengthen customer loyalty. Business is based on long-term relationships.

Right now, no one is fixing my problem. Water is running on to my floor. These two major companies aren’t even coming close to acknowledging my expectations, and my loyalty is dropping faster than the temperature.

How you treat your customers when things go wrong says a lot more about you, and your potential for future profitable growth, than any corporate vision statements plastered on the wall, fancy logos and expensive advertisements.

Maybe they should spend less time on initials and more time on customer service!

I’ll keep you posted.

http://www.symcoandco.com/

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, competition, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, leadership, marketing, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business, SME, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Room service – another DUD in the hotel industry

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

There’s no answer when we call room service. Twice.

The reasons we hold strategy sessions in the hotel’s meeting rooms are for convenience, service, and food quality.

I go to the desk in the lounge only to find a room service attendant delivering food to the next room. We’re in luck!

I ask the young attendant, Daniel, ‘would you please take our room service order?’

“No” he replies.

I’m almost speechless, but manage to stammer, “No??!!”

“I can’t take your order. You’ll have to call my manager” Daniel instructs me.

“Are you with room service?” I ask, wishing I was at the Ritz Carlton, where every employee ‘owns the problem’ and is empowered to resolve it, including spending cash.

“Yes I am but I can’t take your order. Please call my manager.” Daniel persists. Gee, we’re in a room and we want service. How difficult is the ‘room service’ business model?

“Mr. Daniel, we’d like to call your manager, for several reasons, but no one is answering the phone in room service. Here is our order. Please take care of it.”

I’m amazed this is happening as I thrust our written order at Daniel. He tentatively takes it and then scoots down the hall like a mouse who just saw a cat. A hungry, angry cat.

The manager comes up, apologizes for the delay, reviews our order, and the food arrives in about ten minutes. Then the bill arrives. For a few bucks, they could have credited some of the bill for our inconvenience and elevated my respect for this fine hotel.

I spend thousands at this hotel each year for my premium membership, weekly client lunches, monthly meetings and the occasional dinner. I even recommended this hotel for a national symposium which was held last year with over 200 people attending and where I spoke on business growth. Maybe I should have spoken on customer service.

My client, also a premium member, and his management team, were similarly unimpressed.

The best comment was “I wonder if this is happening in our business?”

When things go wrong in your business, and they will, what are your processes for acknowledging the customer’s inconvenience, accepting responsibility and resolving the situation.

These are actually great opportunities to differentiate yourself from your competitors and strengthen customer loyalty. If you treat you customer well, they will actually brag about your great service. If you don’t, they’ll tell several people about your lousy service.

Never waste a customer mistake by ignoring or downplaying it. Celebrate your opportunity to provide a fantastic solution and you will strengthen customer loyalty, revenues and profits.

http://www.symcoandco.com/

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, competition, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, leadership, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

DUDS Oven Repair

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Welcome to another installment of DUDS – Dumb Unilateral Decisions by big companies.

We cleaned the oven. Well, OK, my wife pushed the ON button on the auto-clean function. This turns the oven up to super-high of about 4,000 degrees where all the burners are glowing, the heat incinerates the contents stuck to the walls, spews acrid smoke, heats the whole house, but is labour free!

Apparently, the high heat can cause some problems. After the cleaning, the oven wouldn’t work. So, we called Sears, where we bought the oven. And the conversations go like this:

My wife, the Beautiful and Smart Kerry (BASK) calls Sears: Our oven doesn’t work. When can you send someone to fix it?

Sears: The soonest we can send someone is Monday, but the technician will need to call you to confirm.

BASK: OK.

Then, the technician calls, and confirms an appointment for Monday. Monday comes, the technician calls in sick, and the appointment is rescheduled to Wednesday.

Me: Let’s call someone else. So we call a local repair company (Hurst Appliance Repair, recommended by Coast, where we bought our new cooktop) and they arrange for Wednesday, promising to call us in the morning to confirm.

My wife calls Sears to cancel.

Sears: I’m sorry, you can’t cancel the appointment as we’ve already ordered parts.

BASK: How could you order parts? Your technician hasn’t looked at anything and doesn’t know what’s wrong. Please cancel our appointment.

Sears: You can’t cancel. We’re sending the technician.

BASK: Send him if you want. We’re not letting him in and we’re not paying.

Sears: Oh. Well, then, I’ll have the technician call you.

BASK: No, we’re done here, and we’re cancelling the appointment.

Sears: OK. Thank you for calling Sears!

The local guys, Hurst, call at 7:59 on Wednesday morning and confirm for 9:30 later that morning. They show up on time, do a great job, and the oven works.

The new technician advises to NOT clean your oven right before an important event (Christmas dinner) as the heat can cause problems. I advise that cleaning your oven should be done in the summer when you can open all the windows and sit outside enjoying a cold drink while the hot oven incinerates itself.

Business lessons:

Don’t do something disruptive, like loading new software or changing processes, right before an important deadline. (I swear that my printer can tell when a report is due)
If one of your people can’t meet a deadline, provide someone else, or provide some value for free to preserve the relationship.
Don’t tell your customers what they can and can’t do. They’re the boss. And, they have choices.
Beware when the marketing is more effective than the service.

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, marketing, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, Sales, small business, small business consulting, SME, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Getting greedy

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

We’re renovating some office space and need to paint the inside walls prior to moving in.

We obtained a quote to paint the space a couple of months ago in the amount of $2,450. As we negotiated terms and leasehold improvements, time marched on.

The market has heated up and demand for painters has increased. We got a recent quote from a different contractor for $7,566. Almost triple!

Apparently, some painters believe that price is established using supply and demand. Maybe the oil cartels can do this macro-economic pricing policy but it doesn’t apply to the local painters.

Here’s the problem with stupid pricing – it decreases customer loyalty and encourages new entrants or do-it-yourselfers – which will decrease demand (according to the painter’s theory). This will further decrease prices.

We’re either going to hire some students to paint the place or ask the landlord, who is an honest and great guy, to paint the place.

Supply and demand don’t set prices for our services. Value sets the price.

Focus on value and the price will take care of itself.

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Business Success For Life, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, leadership, marketing, oil cartel, Phil Symchych, Pricing, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, supply and demand, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Pricing | No Comments »

DUDS: Same kitchen, different menus!

Monday, October 18th, 2010

We have a new addition for DUDS: Dumb Unilateral Decisions by big companies. This time, it’s one of my favorite local restaurants.

I’m a regular customer at our local family pizza restaurant with a two initial name of a U.S. city in the north east, rhymes with a petroleum company that had a little oil gusher problem.

It’s a busy Monday. Daphne and I are working through lunch to put a project together.

So, I phone up for a lunch take-out order.

Me: “May I please have the salad and pizza bread combo?”

Them: “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s only available for dine-in. It’s not available for take-out.”

Me (hungry and incredulous): “Really?”

Them: “Yes”

Me: “OK, I’ll have a salad and a pizza bread please.”

Them: “Sure, that will be ready in ten minutes.”

Lessons for business:

If you have an in-restaurant menu item available, make it available for take-out, too.
Give your customers choices.
If you customers like something, make it easy for them to buy it however, whenever and where ever they want.
Don’t intentionally frustrate your customers.

OK, ten minutes are up. It’s time to pick up my lunch. Maybe I’ll give them a copy of this article as a tip!

Update: When I picked up my meal, they had actually charged me for the in-store menu item that I wanted in the first place. Kudos for them and some good front-line decision making. Another lesson – always empower your front line people to make the customer happy. Now, I’m happy.

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, competition, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, Restaurants, Sales, small business, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Stuck in traffic

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

I was stuck in traffic at the check-in counter at Dollar rent-a-car. After standing in a short line that wasn’t moving, with a star-gazed clerk at the helm, and her customer talking to his banker about his credit line or character or something, I cut to the front of the line (hey, this is difficult for a polite Canadian, especially in a foreign country) and asked the clerk if there was any way to speed this up.

“Do you have a reservation?” she asked.

“Yes, I do.” I replied, and, much to my amazement, she proceeded to process my reservation before the people who were ahead of me and are now behind me in line. The original customer was still yapping on his phone. This assertiveness stuff really works!

I had booked the reservation on-line and selected the daily insurance of $11 per day, even though one of my credit cards had some basic coverage. She then asked me if I wanted the full insurance for $34.95 per day. That’s more than the price of a small car rental.

I declined the full insurance and observed that my on-line insurance request didn’t register on the reservation (apparently I was below the minimum threshold and needed to be up-sold manually). I settled on the liability insurance for $12 per day, just to be safe. A second driver, also $12 per day, wasn’t required by me so I declined it, and had to initial every one of my declined services.

Hmmm!

The car rental places seem to have taken a page out of the movie theatre playbook and charge more for the peripherals than the basic product. I inquired about the GPS and that was another $10 per day. I declined…my iPhone would work just fine, and it did. I could have paid $58 per day just for insurance, GPS and a second driver, before the cost of the car. You can rent a lot of vehicles for less than that. I wander what a bicycle costs to rent?

It would have been cheaper, faster and less stressful to hire a limousine to drive both ways (which I usually do), door to door, no gas fill-ups, no insurance hard-sells, and no exasperating slow moving line. By the way, it only costs a few bucks more to hire a limo, which is clean, well-maintained, and the driver can usually act as a tour guide, compared to a squeaky, dirty taxi.

Lessons for business owners:

Make it easy, fast and fun for your customers to do business with you.
Offer bundles that make sense to the customer and simplify decision making.
Realize that you are competing with the customer’s time, attention and patience. We have other choices. You aren’t competing against the other similarly managed car rental companies, where managers change jobs like cows wander the pasture.
Don’t ignore customers standing in line. They’re paying your wages.
Training and measurable performance standards can improve service.
Again, this is an international company whose executives, I’m pretty sure, haven’t shopped their own business lately. I bet they took a limousine!

Tags: business, Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, leadership, marketing, profit, profitable growth, small business, small business consulting, SME, Strategy, Symchych, Symco, Symco & Co.
Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

DUDS in the Hotel Business

Friday, September 24th, 2010

DUDS – or Dumb Unilateral Decisions by managers of big businesses – has a new member.

My wife’s association was holding its annual conference at a local hotel that is part of an international chain and shall remain nameless (hint: rhymes with Ramada). I attended the dinner on Saturday evening where the food was very well done, served buffet style, which allows for second helpings of the desserts, I mean, salads. The chicken and salmon were excellent!

Unfortunately, their service was inconsistent. The restaurant had a limited menu of things that were predominantly basic or breaded or deep fried. One of the servers in the restaurant told her guests that she had never worked as a server before and was helping out. Obviously, she had never been trained as a server, either. This is too bad because the cooks could really dazzle if they had the chance.

The restaurant only accepted cash or cheques! No Visa, Mastercard, or, let’s get really crazy, American Express. (My business accepts all three forms of payment. My brother has been known to accept fresh game and home brew as payment in his business!)

The bartender, I kid you not, said he had never opened a wine bottle before and that he was subbing in for someone else. Well, I couldn’t risk him ruining a perfectly good $28 bottle of something or other with cork bits, and of course the conversation had already used up more than my capacity for charm and patience, so I demonstrated the fine art of opening a wine bottle, and proceeded to tip myself for such a fine demonstration.

I am a member at another hotel where I hold meetings, take clients for lunches and run seminars. They aren’t perfect (nobody is) but they are highly responsive, and that’s the best you can ask for. The servers are trained, the food is consistently good, and they know how to pronounce my name (they get extra points for that). If you want a great experience, I recommend the Hotel Saskatchewan – it’s where the Queen or the Rolling Stones or even Justin Bieber stay. Justin was reportedly practicing on the piano in the lobby last week; my daughters are crushed that they missed him.

When the service is lousy, or the menu is boring, or the people aren’t trained, I blame management.

This is why it is actually easy for privately held, owner-managed businesses to compete and win against the big boys and girls.

So, in your business, I hope no one is complaining about your employees, the service, the menu, the wait times, the responsiveness, the quality, the communication, the pricing, the invoicing or that you don’t accept AmEx.

Tags: Business Growth, business owner, business owners, Customer Service, DUDS, entrepreneurs, Phil Symchych, profit, profitable growth, sales training, small business, small business consulting, Strategy, Symchych, Symco
Posted in DUDS - Dumb Unilateral Decisions | No Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘DUDS’

Small Charges from Big Companies – DUDS

DUDS: How to fix a cooktop in only 54 days

Krazy Kaizen Kaput

Blame the customer – Brrr, it’s cold in here

Room service – another DUD in the hotel industry

DUDS Oven Repair

Getting greedy

DUDS: Same kitchen, different menus!

Stuck in traffic

DUDS in the Hotel Business

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

ARCHIVES:

CATEGORIES:

RECENT COMMENTS: