Customer Service and Surveys
Technology is a wonderful thing. It allows you, as a business owner, to purchase software that actually tries to simulate an actual relationship with your customers. It’s called CRM which is short for Customer Relationship Marketing.
Chris Baggot tells of an experience he had with a business who has bought into the “CRM” model. OUTSTANDING POST!
Shortly after reading this post, my son relayed another CRM story.
In case you've been living without electricity for the past three months, there are two new gaming consoles which have just hit store shelves in time for Christmas: the Sony Play Station 3 and the Nintendo Wii (pronounced we).
Many, many avid gamers put down deposits months ago to secure their game system. One retailer which accepted such deposits was GameStop. In order to reserve one of the highly treasured systems, customers were required to provide contact information. The thought was that when the game system was in, that Gamestop would use that information to contact said consumer.
Well, one of my son's friends put his name on the list. That's when the fun began. My son was highly entertained by his conversations with his friend during the past week. It seems Gamestop was calling his friend frequently, though not to tell him that his treasured system had arrived. Instead, Gamestop was calling to ask him to participate in a customer satisfaction survey. After the third such call, my son's friend became enraged, hurling curse words at his unsuspecting tormentor.
What's ironic is that their relentless pursuit of his opinion actually served to destroy the fledgling relationship with the gaming retailer.
Remember, this is a teen age boy who is REALLY into gaming. What could have been an opportunity to have this young lad singing Gamestop's praises turned into a story MY son has yet to tire of telling. The phone would ring; his friend would see Gamestop on the caller id, pick up the phone and then begin cursing a blue streak at yet another survey.
The advertising agency owner for which I worked two decades ago used to preach that a satisfied customer will tell three people. A dissatisfied customer will tell twelve. Remember, this is during the days BEFORE the internet and blogs.
Even with my kids begging for the hottest consoles this Christmas and said consoles bringing two to three times their retail price on ebay.com, I’m still not convinced it would have been worth enduring call after telemarketing call to secure the system on a pre-order basis.
Chris Baggot tells of an experience he had with a business who has bought into the “CRM” model. OUTSTANDING POST!
Shortly after reading this post, my son relayed another CRM story.
In case you've been living without electricity for the past three months, there are two new gaming consoles which have just hit store shelves in time for Christmas: the Sony Play Station 3 and the Nintendo Wii (pronounced we).
Many, many avid gamers put down deposits months ago to secure their game system. One retailer which accepted such deposits was GameStop. In order to reserve one of the highly treasured systems, customers were required to provide contact information. The thought was that when the game system was in, that Gamestop would use that information to contact said consumer.
Well, one of my son's friends put his name on the list. That's when the fun began. My son was highly entertained by his conversations with his friend during the past week. It seems Gamestop was calling his friend frequently, though not to tell him that his treasured system had arrived. Instead, Gamestop was calling to ask him to participate in a customer satisfaction survey. After the third such call, my son's friend became enraged, hurling curse words at his unsuspecting tormentor.
What's ironic is that their relentless pursuit of his opinion actually served to destroy the fledgling relationship with the gaming retailer.
Remember, this is a teen age boy who is REALLY into gaming. What could have been an opportunity to have this young lad singing Gamestop's praises turned into a story MY son has yet to tire of telling. The phone would ring; his friend would see Gamestop on the caller id, pick up the phone and then begin cursing a blue streak at yet another survey.
The advertising agency owner for which I worked two decades ago used to preach that a satisfied customer will tell three people. A dissatisfied customer will tell twelve. Remember, this is during the days BEFORE the internet and blogs.
Even with my kids begging for the hottest consoles this Christmas and said consoles bringing two to three times their retail price on ebay.com, I’m still not convinced it would have been worth enduring call after telemarketing call to secure the system on a pre-order basis.
posted by Kathy at 3:29 PM
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