Are You One-to-One – or Wan-to-One?

As this issue of DIRECT goes to press, the second issue of our new sister publication, 1to1, is also getting ready to go to the printer.

Shameless Plug Alert

1to1, for those of you not in the know, is DIRECT’s new co-venture with the good folks at Peppers & Rogers Group. Read it, know it, love it – and drop me an e-mail to let me know what you think about our latest offspring.

This concludes our test of the Shameless Plug Alert system. Had this been an actual Shameless Plug…huh? It was? Never mind.

As I was saying, we’re up to our hoo-hahs getting 1to1 out the door at the moment, so you’ll forgive me if I have one-to-one marketing on the brain. But as I edit article after article illustrating examples of excellent customer relationship management programs, I’m reminded that there are many companies out there that just don’t get the concept.

Mind you, I wasn’t always a customer service advocate. In college, a co-worker at a summer job instructed me in the finer points of CAD (Customer Avoidance Department). The finely honed skill needed here was the ability to hide in the store’s basement when cranky-looking people wandered into the shoe department.

How about you? Does your company practice CRM or CAD? Are your communications with your customers a continuous loop? Do you provide adequate mechanisms for your customers to interact with you – and do you act on that feedback? Does your enterprise work to foster good relationships – or does it thwart them?

Here are two examples that are close to home – literally. Both happened within walking distance of my domicile.

The first is simple, and admittedly dopey. One afternoon, I made a couple of spur-of-the-moment purchases at a nearby outlet of a national retail chain (one that has at different times operated loyalty programs). As the items I purchased were rather unwieldy and fragile, I asked the cashier if I could have a sturdy paper shopping bag, rather than the flimsy plastic sack proffered.

“I’m sorry,” the beleaguered clerk replied, “we’re all out.”

Another clerk looked up. “They’re not sending us any until they finish redesigning the bags.”

Redesigning? To hold more? Walk home for me? Nope, just to look more pleasing. In the meantime, customers get irked. Doesn’t the company realize that shoppers wouldn’t really care if the bags said A&P on them?

“I know, I know,” one said, shaking his head in disgust at the company’s shortsightedness.

Sure, the company didn’t want to waste $$$ on the old design when a new one was in the hopper. But how about some plain bags in the meantime, to show consumers they understood that the consumers’ needs should be met first.

I told you the first example was simple and silly. Here’s one that’s a bit more complex.

I shop at the local annex of a regional collectibles chain, once a week, usually on the same day around the same time. During my last visit, I inquired about the status of an item I wanted to purchase.

The clerk – actually the store’s manager – looked up lazily from his magazine. “That came in already, and we only ordered five and they were reserved.”

He went back to his magazine, figuring that was the end of the story. Did he take my name? Offer to try to special order the item?

No and no. Which is dumb. As I noted, I visit this store every week and spend a fair amount of money on similar items regularly. I know the store maintains a database – another clerk took down my current address for their mailing list one day after a vastly outdated address popped up when my credit card number was entered.

But alas, the retailer has no record of my RFM – although it does have a loyalty program. I’ve never paid the small fee to join, mainly because no one has ever taken the time to sell me on it. I’ve been asked numerous times if I’m a cardholder. When I say no and ask the benefits, the response is usually something vague along the lines of, “Duh, you get some discounts and I think you get coupons in the mail and stuff like that.”

But don’t blame these clerks. Pity them. If a company wants to run a one-to-one enterprise, it needs to give its employees necessary tools. Sometimes those tools are basic, like empowerment (let them go to a supply store and buy some dang bags). Others are more intense, like how to recognize valuable customers and treat them as such, so they’ll become even more valuable to the organization.

So put that in your bag and carry it.