Thursday 31 December 2009

The last place you want to go, Dixons.co.uk: A service story


I might be showing my age here or a slight snobbery (or both) but I must confess that Dixons had well and truly fallen off my shopping consideration list.

Whether it was the memory of those pretty horrible stores where some spotty teenager would grunt at you whilst surrounded by electrical detritus or the confusion over Dixons stores becoming Currys digital, unless of course you were in an airport, I can’t really pinpoint the point when they fell off my radar but suffice to say it, they had.
Recently they made a resurgence into the public consciousness with their witty, irreverent and rather risky ads:
 

And although I smiled at their boldness – it kind of reinforced the view that it offered a less than satisfactory experience. After all, they make the achingly cool place sound kind of nice…
Anyway, I recently met with some senior members of DSGI who were telling me about the efforts to reinvigorate Dixons and the virtues of their service offerings:

 - Free delivery = Check
 - Price Match Promise = Check
 - Installation and removal of old appliances = Check

Good on them I thought.

Fast forward a few days and my lovely Mum decided she wanted a new TV, and of course she needed it within a week as the Virgin Media people were coming to install new services. So, as my better half offered to trawl the web for a good deal I happened to say “oh check Dixons, they’re supposed to have good delivery options.”

Later that day, with a good deal found, we placed an order on Dixons.co.uk.
Magically they were able to deliver that week. The only downside so far was that whilst they could tell us the date of delivery, they couldn’t tell you the slot or even better, let you choose one.  Mum had an appointment that she couldn’t miss so I figured we’d take the risk and hope we could resolve any issues once Dixons were able to confirm the slot.

The night before the delivery was due, my Mum received a phone call from a lovely lady called Nicky* she informed Mum that they would be delivering the TV between 7-11am. At this point Mum told her that she had to leave at 9.30am for a hospital appointment, and asked if the nice lady could call me to rearrange. Nicky said it would be no problem to sort out but that she would call her back to confirm.

I then received a voicemail from Nicky* telling me that due to Mum’s circumstances they would arrange for delivery between 7am-9am and that she would try me back later to confirm. She also then phoned Mum and informed her of the times.

Now this may sound all fairly straight forward but what impressed me was that Mum wasn’t treated as simply one of a number of deliveries that had to be made, or as if she was a pain in the ass but instead she was treated with kindness, empathy and most importantly as a human.

Fantastic service.

But it didn’t finish there. The next morning at 7.30am I received a phone call from the delivery drivers telling me that they would be delivering within half an hour.
So, I called Mum to let her know but, I’m too late she’s had the same call from the delivery guys herself. Later on I received a text from her to tell me it’s all delivered, no problem. When I saw her later that morning, I quizzed her…"What were the delivery guys like? Rude? Impatient? Drop it off on the doorstep?"  "Nope, not at all" she replied, "they were lovely, polite and helpful," brought it straight in and popped it down right where she asked them too.

I must say I’ve been impressed, Dixons service way surpassed my expectations (hence writing this post) and for me they have placed themselves well and truly back on my consideration mix. Well done Dixons!

Things to crack:
1. Allow users to see delivery options when ordering
2. Allow users to select delivery slots – preferably in one hour slots but if 4 is all that’s possible then go for it
3. Align service proposition with brand – it did confuse Mum why Curry’s called her regarding her delivery when she thought we’d ordered it from Dixons.
(I know, I know but it confused her and I’m sure there are others)

*Nicky - I'm sure that was her name but I may be mistaken. 



Tuesday 29 December 2009

Customer Engagement & The New Consumer Demands


As a planner I'm always looking for ways to create customer engagement for clients. Typically we do that by finding ways to meet customer demands in ways that create an emotional connection, or value, or of course, both. As 2009 comes to a close there were two reports relating to these topics that were published. I am proud, honoured and slightly surprised to have been a contributor to them but thought I should mention them here:

The first is the 4th Annual Customer Engagement Survey Report from cScape and E-consultancy. “It is the most comprehensive and influential report  available on customer engagement, based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies and agencies. Companies can benchmark their customer engagement strategies and tactics, and see how others are adapting to changing customer behaviour and increased use of social media and the mobile channel.” As the most comprehensive survey of its kind it includes commentary from experts such as Jim Sterne, Dr Dave Chaffey and none other than my talented colleague Richard Wand.


Some highlights are:
  • 55% of company respondents regard customer engagement as essential for their organisation
  • The presence of companies on social networks has almost doubled from 23% in 2008 to 44% in 2009
  • 31% of respondents say their interest in customer engagement relates to emotional investment in their brand
My piece within the report looks at the need for organisations to be more ‘ballsy’ when considering their ventures into new or social media spaces but the full report is definitely worth a read. To download visit:



My contribution to the second report came as a little more of a surprise. I was pointed to the new report from Paypal titled  “Online Retail: the new consumer demands” naturally I was intrigued and downloaded a copy. Being slightly old school I printed it off to read on the tube home. Very quickly I realised that those clever folks at The Future Laboratory had undertaken the report. However, on reading I came across several comments by myself and after the initial surprise I remembered doing some interviews whilst I was in Dublin at a Google conference.  Anyway, it makes for interesting reading, other than the obvious “growth in online shopping” the report also reveals that:
  • Four in ten (41%) city dwellers surveyed have increased their reliance on online shopping over the last year, despite having easy access to local shop
  • Quicker, more reliable home delivery services (16%) and greater choice (12%) has helped persuade an estimated 15.6 million people living in urban city areas to move more of their shopping online over the last 12 months
  • Glaswegians and Mancunians have moved more of their shopping online than anyone else
For a full copy of the report click here

Work Hard & Be Nice To People - Anthony Burrill



I ventured to the Selfridges sale recently and while in the changing rooms was struck by this print on the wall. Not only do I like it aesthetically but it tickled me to hear the chap in the changing room talking to his colleague about how hard they had been working and how he couldn't wait for his break, and then transforming into the epitome of helpfulness when a customer was about - perhaps the message had struck a cord.
 I noticed on the print that this was the work of Anthony Burrill and I was pleased to come across more of Anthony's work at www.anthonyburrill.com and in particular his work for The Economist, and pleased to hear that he'll be part of the If You Could Collaborate exhibition in January 2010.







Monday 28 December 2009

Nippaz with great attitude - A service lesson.

When pasty pink or fluffy wuffy bunnies just don’t cut it my favourite place to shop for the increasing number of children appearing in my life is www.nippazwithattitude.com  Witty, irreverent and not a bunny in sight...my particular faves are:













So recently I found myself in need of their goods and services. I placed the order, later I realised that I couldn’t remember if I had included a message or not.  On most occasions, I would have shrugged my shoulders and thought ‘oh well you muppet, must try harder next time’ but just as this was going through my head I received a personalized email order update email:










and so I was prompted to email them to see if they could check for me, to my delight I got the following reply:









FANTASTIC! They help me out and offer me a better discount – got to love that for service.

So to the big boys, take note: Personalised, considerate, helpful and timely service really does secure brand loyalty and creates advocacy.

Magic Moments...

In my conversations with clients I talk a lot about getting the basics, brilliant and then making those magic moments. Unsurprisingly in many instances clients are focused on the magic moments because it’s all shiny and new and the basics, well surely they look after themselves right?” – Wrong.

A recent example of something that should have been a brilliant basic but made it onto my list of magic moments is the recent email I got from Wired. Now whatever your opinion is of the mag I don’t care. I like it a lot and enjoy getting my copy through the post and spending then next few hours with it. So when they sent me this email





So whilst I’m sitting there cursing the postal service because my copy of NMA or Retail Week may be late, or that thank you card I sent won’t arrive on time, the people at Wired were thinking ‘Oh no, our wonderful subscriber base will not get our shiny lovely new edition on time, and their paper experience of all that is digital may be impacted” so they did something about it. Without a carrier pigeon in sight, or personal delivery, no handing out of free copies at London Bridge tube, just a simple email. That’s all it took. One single email saying, yeah we know but our hands are tied.

Simple.

And in return for that simple email they gained more brand loyalty from me.



Oddly enough I got home that night and there in it’s white Conde Nast pack was the latest copy….magic indeed.
 
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