Hey, what about your own customers guys?

Sometimes what seems like a great deal to one customer is a kick in the guts to another.

Recently Air New Zealand offered $50 one-way fares to Jetstar passengers left stranded by the company's check in policy or delayed by more than 2 hours. On the face of it it seems like great marketing; what a great way to make a competitor look pathetic and win some customers along the way. But how would you feel if you were a loyal customer of Air New Zealand who ignored Jetstar's wooing deals, and paid more than $50 to travel on the same plane, or who has regularly been delayed for more than 2 hours without similar deals offered?

It is important not to send mixed messages to loyal customers.

Similarly, with the launch of Telecom's XT network, the marketing battle between Telecom and Vodafone hots up (again). Both companies are offering new services and deals to attract new customers. Exciting isn't it? Well, not really if you are already a customer. Many of the new deals are not available immediately to existing customers who are already "locked" into earlier (now inferior) plans or products.

A friend of mine contacted Telecom keen to to upgrade to the new technology but was told he couldn't because he still has x months left to run on his contract. He was not looking to leave Telecom, he just wanted a better product. Now he is not so keen to stay.

I have had similar (inflexible) experiences with Vodafone too. I was looking at upgrading my phone and wanted to know if I could swap the dataplan from my vodem, over to the new phone as it had internet capabilities. I was told I could not, but I could buy an additional plan! How many dataplans does a girl need?

An alternative, more customer friendly, approach would be to upgrade (or swap) existing customers, at no or minimal costs, to "showcase" the new deals and products. This seems to happen overseas. They often throw in a new phone too!

Northland retailers turn away business

We are supposed to be in a recession. Yet a number of Northland businesses seem determined not to close sales even where customers are keen to buy. My own recent experience, and that of family and friends, shows worrying sales and service complacency in businesses selling large ticket items:

• The furniture retailer that provides quotes on the back of a business card but keeps no record of the quote and takes no customer details. This means they cannot follow up to try and close the sale. It also means they have no record of the price quoted if the customer does come back. Furthermore, the business owners have no idea what discounts the staff are offering. My friend was given a quote on the back of a card at this store. When she did go back to purchase the item things got worse: she was told that that price would never have been offered. She did not have the quote with her. She felt insulted but later when she went to another branch of the same retailer (having now found the quote) she got the item for that price with no trouble.


• The car salesman who when approached about a new range said "I didn't go to the launch so I can't tell you anything about it". He didn't offer me a chance to look at the one in the showroom, sit in it, test drive it etc - he just offered to mail me a brochure. When the brochure arrived, he left me a voicemail and again didn't offer a test drive.


• Another car dealership had a run out deal on that I was seriously interested in. The salesman offered me a test drive in a very old model vehicle (I was looking at a new one), and then never got back to me on a quote for my trade in. I even phoned to follow up. I left a voicemail and my call was not returned.


• The car salesman who will talk only to men, when it's a woman that wants to buy.

Large item furniture sales and car sales are not the types of purchases that people make each week. They often think quite hard about them. Once they are in the "sales zone" if the service experience, the product and the price are right they will often buy. But once they have decided they are ready to buy, if you make it hard for them, they will quickly go somewhere else. One thing is for sure, once they have bought elsewhere they will not be back for quite some time.

What do you think? Is Northland the only area of New Zealand that isn't in recession or do these businesses just need help with some basic sales and service skills and processes?