January 1, 2009
Starbucks, in my opinion, is one of the more well-managed companies that is doing a lot of things right. I always feel welcome and believe I get value for the prices I pay for their products. (Their plain coffee is no bargain but I don’t ever drink that.)
Unfortunately, they fall into the same trap as many other companies. They let the techies run their website. Techies hate human contact and will do anything to avoid it: bury the contact information, FAQs, you’ve seen it all.
If only they understood that customer contact of any kind is something to be valued. You can find out what your customer thinks, fix a problem, or maybe even sell something. Sometimes an ordinary conversation is all that’s needed.
Oh, yeah, Starbucks. They offer “automatic replenishment” on all of their cards. When a card balance drops to, say, $15 they will automatically add money from your credit card. This is a good thing for Starbucks, keeps the revenue flowing, helps keep the customer from thinking about price. You pay with the card, it’s free. The card is automatically loaded, you never have to think about it. Duh.
But there’s a bug in the website when you try to set this up. To tell them about this bug required plowing through endless phone menus and then waiting. How about a “just talk to me, press 1″ option?
Those pesky customers. Always wanting merchants to make it easy for them to spend money.
Bob Bailey is a Message Builder who helps executives and organizations say more with fewer words.
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January 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
In this day and age it is all about the user experience both physically and virtually. There is so much competition out there that you have to make everything an inbound effort – how to keep your customers coming and coming back. What sets you apart, what experience will create a positive viral buzz – like most of this post.