eBusiness.Life.Passion

The Customer Experience

Such is the marvel of modern technology that I am writing this post from the 4th floor of John Lewis in Liverpool.

I have just purchased my wife's Christmas gift (which is in itself quite an achievement!) and I thought that I would take advantage of the gift wrap service that they offer (a great invention for someone like me!).

On the wall here on the 4th floor, are some great pointers about some of the personal services that John Lewis offer - such as an appointment with one of their trained fashion advisors. A great service but to be honest - the 4th floor is not the place to advertise this. The personal touch is incredibly important and something that the internet is trying hard to implement.

That aside, I am sat here waiting for my gift to be wrapped. I was greeted professionally and with courtesy. I was asked who the gift was for and the lady offered me some helpful advice. We chose the paper and ribbon, and off she went to wrap it. I sat down to wait.

A young lady walked in a minute or so later and she was greeted by another member of the team. She obviously wanted to have some gifts wrapped and was subsequently told that there was a 45 minute wait as they had a lot of gifts to wrap at the moment.

What had changed in the few minutes that I was there? I didn't see an surge in gifts wanting to be wrapped. We were just treated by two very different people. Both were friendly and pleasant - one just got on and did the job, the other put it off.

Of course, there can be reasons for this - but what I saw as a customer was conflicting messages. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for the customer who came moments after me or whether I should feel privileged to be treated with such a special service.

As I sat here and ponder the situation - I am left with one conclusion -- keep the customer experience the same for all customers and make sure that the staff all tell the same message.

No child should have to endure this....

Everynow and then, we need a reality check, in business and in life. Humour can be a great way to give us this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TFW15m_CXo8

The Complaints Department

I am currently on hold waiting to talk to the second complaints department at my mortgage company. It seems this company is so large that each department has it's own complaints department - so me, the person they don't really want to talk to on the other end of the line has to get the right complaints department before I can air my greivances.

The people are pleasant enough on the phone but I find it odd that they call it a "complaints" department. Surely you would want to call it something a little less negative. I want to disucss something - not necessarily complain. But since I have been told I am being put through to the complaints department - my attitude has changed. I now want to complain. This was not my intention originally - but it is now.

I feel that I have to get ready for war, to be clever and out smart the person that is about to pick up my call - all because of their naming of a department.

I guess there are two points here. 1. Don't have a specific complaints department - it annoys the people that are calling. Empower all staff to deal with customer issues. 2. If you have to have a department - don't call it a complaints department. Call it a resolution department or customer care.

A thousand apologies

I have been silent on the blog for sometime now. I wish that I had a great excuse - but I don't.  It is not because I don't think the blog is important - because I do. It is just that I have got caught up in the busy-ness of life - and when that happens, weeks and (in my case) months go by and those little things get put to one side.

I should learn to set out my priorities better and make life fit in around those. It has been the other way around recently.

Lesson learned. More posts coming soon.

All the best Mark

A senior member of the Lutroo team, Mark Jackson, finally got married this weekend to Laura. It was a sunny day and a great wedding.

We wish you all the best for your marriage and trust that you will have a great time on honeymoon.

For more pictures see: www.lutroo.com/markandlaura

Lutroo helps Skoda Fabia Launch sky rocket!

We have recently finished The Mitchell Group Website which, amongst its features, allows customers to sign up to events.

Skoda is one of the Mitchell Group franchises and recently launced the new Skoda Fabia with great success.

Marketing Manager, Chris Webb, tells us "we have been amazed at the sign-up rate through our new website which accounted for over 75% of attendees". Originally the event was going to be for 400 people, but the sign up through the site resulted in over 1,000 coming.

Have a look at the Mitchell Group blog to find out more.

Help! My website is not making any sales

As you may already know – I take great pride in the fact that we not only design great ecommerce sites – but we also own a few too. I love ecommerce. The concept it brilliant, especially when it works.

But what about when it doesn’t? I have owned (and closed) a few “duffer” sites. Ecommerce sites that I thought would be great and turn a tidy profit. But how do you know whether or not it is a “duffer” site and close it or persevere with it?

Well, firstly, I am going to assume that you have a demand for your product and you are not selling it at uncompetitive prices. This is a big assumption to make, because without these two things – you will have a “duffer” site.

But let’s say you have a great product with good demand and reasonable prices and excellent service.

There are two other things to check – your traffic and your website, and I would check them in that order.

To get any useful statistics from your website, you need to have had at least 1,000 unique visitors. You can monitor these using your server logs, Google Analytics (free) or a subscribed service like our zStats system.

Unique visitors are different to page views and hits. Forget about hits. This was trendy lingo a few years ago – but it is meaningless for the purposes of your site. You need to know how many people have visited your site.

If you have had under 1,000 people visit your site – then you should boost your traffic (try using Goodle’s Adwords). If you have had over 1,000 people come and you haven’t had any sales – then you should check the quality of those visitors.

The reason I like Google Adwords so much is that you can get highly targeted traffic to your site. There is no point having some one interested in buying a mouse-trap visit your website that sells digital cameras. You have to focus your traffic.

So if you have had over 1,000 highly targeted visitors to your website and it is still not selling anything, then your website design is not working for your customers. What is happening is that you have highly motivated buyers coming to your site and they are not buying anything (remember, we have the demand, right pricing and right visitor). So your website cannot be designed correctly to persuade your visitors to buy from you.

What makes a successful ecommerce website design? Well the principles are simple: easy-to-use navigation, quality search facilities, effective headlines, easy order systems, secure credit card facilities, telephone orders, simple layouts, fresh content and intuitive processes.

If you think there is a problem with your site, give me a call and we can give you an honest appraisal – but before you go down the route of re-designing your site, check your demand, pricing and traffic first!

How to get around those annoying 0870 numbers

If your like me, then you hate calling the 0870 numbers as you never know how much they are adding to your bill. All you want is a simple land-line number to dial. Well, if you haven't tried it yet - visit http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php and you can either enter the company name that you are calling, or the 0870 number.

The website searches through the database and tries to find the normal land line number for you.

For example, the Orange broadband system (like Talk Talk) require 0870 numbers to talk to them. They make you wait for 25 minutes - so you have paid £2.50 before you talk to anyone.

So, using the search function on the website - we get another, alternative number to call - 01642 732785. Calling this number is the same as calling the 0870 number and it costs you a lot less.

Not all numbers are on the system but you can submit ones once you have discovered them. You can also read the forum for handy hints.

This is a great site - have a look! www.saynoto0870.com

And whilst you're at it try a site called http://www.ivrhacks.com/ - this is a US based site but their UK database is definately growing. These guys basically tell you what keys to press on your phone to bypass the menu systems and talk to a real person. You can add to the site what you find out...

Google has a sense of humour

Ok - I don't know who did this first - but I thought it worth repeating here.

Google DOES have a sense of humour...
Take 60 seconds to do this. It's too funny not to.

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type New York in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type London in the second box (the "to" box) & hit "get directions" on the same line
6. scroll down to step #23

Great Free eBooks - for the next few days only

I have really enjoyed reading recently the books "Sales on Beermat" and "The Beermat Entrepreneur" by Mike Southon and Chris West. Great books. Easy to read. Practical and helpful.

The good news is - these guys are, through the Daily Telegraph are offering a few free eBook downloads that normally cost a few shillings. But they are only available for the next few days.

Have a look and see what you think. I can recommend their books - especially the sales book! Great. Enjoy the eBooks!

You can find these articles, with a special offer of a FREE download of three of our e-books, via the following links (no registration or anything like that required):

a) First article, with free 'Tendering on a Beermat' e-book:
http://tinyurl.com/2wr3tr

b) Second article, with free 'Marketing on a Beermat' e-book:
http://tinyurl.com/2bgsxb

c) Third article, with free 'PR on a Beermat' e-book:
http://tinyurl.com/yotcao