Posts tagged Customer Satisfaction

My wife and I bought a new car a couple of weeks ago and a few days later the inevitable customer satisfaction survey came in the mail. In all, I’d say it was a pretty good experience and the sales and service teams probably would have earned a “4″ or “5″ out of “5″ on all of the survey categories… except, every single person that we worked with (I’m not kidding, every single one!) asked us to rate them an “excellent” on the forthcoming survey. The requests ranged from the reasonable (“if there is any reason you don’t feel you can rate us as excellent, will you give us an opportunity to try again?”) to the downright embarrassing (“if you don’t rate me excellent, I won’t earn my bonus”). This is a clear case where the “road to hell is paved with good intentions”… It’s obvious that the dealership employees aren’t really interested in customer satisfaction, but rather the financial incentives that are linked to the satisfaction scores. Yes, I am a firm believer in rewarding desired behavior, but a commitment to the customer needs to be ingrained into the culture of the organization first. Otherwise, you’ll get exactly the behavior that you pay for. I’m sure the manufacturer would be appalled if they understood what was really happening with their satisfaction measurement program.

To contain costs, Borders recently announced that it changing the rules of their customer loyalty program. Under the old plan, customers that spent $50 got a 10% discount on their entire purchase on a day of their choosing in the following month. Pretty straight-forward and a very good deal (particularly for frequent book shoppers) According the the WSJ, with the new plan…

each time customers reach $150 in purchases at Borders superstores or Waldenbooks stores, they will receive $5 in Borders Bucks at the beginning of the following month. They can then use that $5 until the end of that month, at which point the offer expires. Users will be contacted by email and urged to print out a $5 coupon, although those who forget will be able to use their $5 credit by presenting their Borders Rewards card in stores. Customers will be able to earn Borders Bucks online after Borders opens its own Web site next year.

After blaming the old rewards program for a 3% drop in gross margins as a percentage of sales in the fourth quarter, the company suggested that making the program “simpler than ever” is something that we as customers should “celebrate”. As an avid reader, I like the in-store book buying experience. Spending a few hours on a Saturday afternoon browsing the shelves and reading my new purchases over a latte is somewhat of a guilty pleasure. With the old Border’s program, I definitely found myself going out of my way to shop there even though my local store is smaller and not as well-appointed as the B&N across the street. In the future, despite (or, more aptly, because of) the simplicity of the new rewards program, I think I will be celebrating across the street.