CustomerHeaven

There are real pharmacists still out there...

Everyone knows that almost all of the good stores have been merged into conglomorates. The prices may be lower but the trade off is that there is no personal service and nobody knows your name!

This is particularly frustrating when it comes to pharmacies. Long lines. No personal pharmacist. Positioned next to the meat counter or produce department. The pharmacist is no longer an owner and independent professional but is a worker bee in the supermarket.

But wait, little pockets of individual and professional care can still be found. We found one. His name is Bill. He has a doctorate in pharmacy. He knows all of the doctors in the area and he knows his patients by name. Is great on the computer researching possible interactions with your herbs and prescriptions. Up to date technology and drugs YES. Traditional YES. You are first and foremost his patient not a customer. Big difference in attitude and approach. All within the confines of a supermarket.

A couple of years ago I called him to get a suggestion for an over the counter cold remedy that would not interact with my meds. He noticed that I had a hacking cough. So he said, don't get out your pajamas. Drive out front, call me on your cell and I will bring it out to you. You can pay me later. And it happened. I think every supermarket pharmacy can learn from doctor Bill. I moved farther away and would NEVER change pharmacies.

Heaven for Visually Challenged Part II

As I mentioned in Part I, I had "failed eye surgery" four years ago which left me basically blind in one eye. (20/25 in the other one, thank God!) The real downside is not so much losing the sight in the one eye (our brains somehow compensate for the lack of binocular vision.) as it is that I have trouble reading books.

My first solution was to buy large print books (solution courtesy of my wife). The upside of this was that I could read again without going to my 1MAc 24. The downside is the financial cost for an avid reader. Large print books cost $25-$35 each. Kind of punched a hole in my satisfaction baloon!

And then along comes technology. Two months ago I bought a Kindle 2.

Among its many features are a non refectivew screen and the ability to increase font size. I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered I could read the Kindle 2 without my glasses on the patio with the Southern California sunshine glare.  WOW!

My wife loved it so we bought a second Kindle 2 with our Amazon account. This means we can both read the novel(s) at different times and only pay once!



My wife (who is also my business partner) does a lot of business travel and loves the fact that she can carry a lightweight reader with her instead of a bunch of heavy paperbacks!

As of my writing, Amazon has just announced the forthcoming model called Kindle DX which is a larger, magazine size unit. It is not availbe but you can sign up for it. It is quite pricey, $489 versue $359.

I am so pleased with the Kindle 2, I can't imagine why I would want to go to a larger unit. Especially at that price given I just bought a Kindle 2. Time will tell however. When you are hooked on "Kindle," you never know where the addiciton will lead you.

Interesting review on Forbes:
Forbes

In the meantime, we are racing through the Stephanie Plum series of novels about a female Bounty Hunter from New Jersey.

http://www.evanovich.com/

Contact us for a free consultation and quote on usability and/or  strategic customer-focused market research.

Heaven for Visually Challenged Part I

I had failed eye surgery four years ago that left me basically blind in one eye. Thank God I still have 20/25 vision in the other eye! Because our brains somehow compensate for the lack of binocular vision the real downside is not losing the sight in the one eye but the fact that the failed operation left me very sensitive to glare and bright lights. It also made it difficult for me to see standard size fonts. This is a real issue for a writer and researcher who spends his life on the computer. Here is one of my heavenly solutions:


I bought an iMac 24 because it has a  large screen and excellent zoom functions.

To zoom in, simply press and hold the Option key and the Command key at the same time while tapping the plus key to increase the zoom size (Option key + Command key + “+” key). While still holding, you can tap the minus key to reduce the size of the zoom. They will be pleased to demo this function for you at any Apple store.

Here is a screen on the iMac 24 before zooming:




And here it is after zooming:

The ability to zoom is a godsend, but it doesn’t solve all my problems. The glossy screen was a nightmare for me until:


1.  I figured out how to reduce some of the glare with background colors. But this did not reduce the glare enough for me.

2. I found, purchased and installed (with the help of my wife) a non-glare filter screen manufactured by Photodon. A mere $55.00 plus but well worth it. To see a review of the product in action; click on this link to learn more:

Watch the Macworld review
Download Mwvodcast103

To purchase, go to:  http://www.photodon.com/

Macs are not cheap but are well worth it. You can buy refurbished macs on the Apple website that have the “new car warranty”. That is what I did for my business system.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

Watch for a new book I am writing on converting from PC's to Mac's for small businesses.

Contact us for a free consultation and quote on usability and/or  strategic customer-focused market research.

       

Customers Speak in Verbs, not Nouns

Customers Speak in Verbs, not Nouns
You will never get the right answers if you don't ask the right questions

San Marcos, CA 92078 Dr. Grace Joely Gardner, the CEO of Human Factors Research, Inc of Lake San Marcos, CA 92078 will be speaking on Voice of the Customer Research at the American Society for Quality (ASQ) World Conference on Quality and Improvement on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Gardner will demonstrate a new look at root cause analysis and how Voice of the Customer research can be used to create breakthroughs in services and products. According to Joely, you’ll never get the right answers if you aren’t asking the right questions.

She will also discuss how ASQ is using Voice of the Customer to investigate the education and training needs and wants of its own members and member leaders.  Joely has already worked with seven ASQ sections to pilot grass roots Education and Training customer surveys.  She will give an overview and analysis of the survey results and teach participants how to implement Voice of the Customer surveys.

Doctor Gardner is a member of the Education and Training Board of Directors of the American Society for Quality, a non-profit organization well known as the world's leading authority on quality. ASQ is a professional association dedicated to advances in learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide.

Human Factors Research, Inc. specializes in Voice of the Customer research, in defining the emotional needs and profiles of customers for their clients and in showing them how to increase business by listening to their customers. Understanding the emotional needs of customers is increasingly becoming the goal of major corporations. The message being sent to consumers, according to Mike Jackson, Vice President for USA Marketing for General Motors was all wrong. “We worried far too much about the sheet metal, color, etc.,” he explained. “What we really needed to worry about was connecting emotionally with our consumers.” (Business Week, 3/26/07)

For more information on the meeting, call 760-510-1166  and ask for Don Chambers.

Creating a Heavenly Experience for Customers

If you build it, will they come?

San Marcos, CA 92078 Dr. Grace Joely Gardner, the CEO of Human Factors Research, Inc of Lake San Marcos, CA 92078 will be speaking on how to bring the Voice of the Customer into a new or next-generation product development initiative on Tuesday, March 11 6:00pm at the San Diego American Society for Quality (ASQ) meeting to be held at the Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, San Diego North, CA.

 

1. How to get customers lining up to buy from you
2. How to innovate beyond expected changes
3. How to use VOC research to test the marketplace waters on a strategic concept
4. How to get customers to tell you what they will pay extra for

Doctor Gardner is a member of the Education and Training Board of Directors of the American Society for Quality, a non-profit organization well known as the world's leading authority on quality. ASQ is a professional association dedicated to advances in learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide.

Human Factors Research, Inc. specializes in Voice of the Customer research, in defining the emotional needs and profiles of customers for their clients and in showing them how to increase business by listening to their customers. Understanding the emotional needs of customers is increasingly becoming the goal of major corporations. The message being sent to consumers, according to Mike Jackson, Vice President for USA Marketing for General Motors was all wrong. “We worried far too much about the sheet metal, color, etc.,” he explained. “What we really needed to worry about was connecting emotionally with our consumers.” (Business Week, 3/26/07)

 For more information on the meeting, call 760-510-1166  and ask for Don Chambers.

 

Contact us for a free consultation and quote.

 

 

 

Online Retail Service at its Best!

I’ve reached a point, because of Amazon.com’s outstanding customer service features that I try to buy from them whenever possible. Here are three good reasons:

1. Most of the time their prices are competitive and (even with shipping costs) better than other online vendors or local stores.

2. It is easy to return items that don’t live up to expectations (as described) or defective. You simply go to the return section, fill out the form and print out the return label,. Put the item back in the box and drop off at your local UPS store. About two days or so later you will get an email telling you they have received it. If you asked for a refund, the money is back in your credit card account within days!

3. The “call me now” feature.
Have a question. Type in your phone number and click call me now. Your phone rings instantly and there is a live person there to talk to!

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They can hear you now!

At last, a long distance telephone company that is there for you! Our previous carrier, with whom we had a five year history, shut us down on the Friday before labor day for no known reason. Their help desk couldn’t do anything for us until Tuesday! Not only that, their help desk agent suggested we shop for a better price…

Therefore,  I Googled the immediate world looking for reasonably priced services. I found a comparison list of some 20 offerings. Pioneer was at the top of the list price per minute wise.

But it wasn’t price that attracted me so much as they had received the highest rating for customer service, “outstanding.” As a customer experience psychologist, I couldn’t  resist. I called them and would you believe, got a live, charming person, Rosemary Westervelton, on the phone immediately. No voice mail hell here LOL

Rosemary walked me through the sign up process  on line (a breeze with her help, gave me her extension so I could follow up directly with her the next day. I now have the phone number, extension and email address of personal service. Please tell me where you can find another phone company with that kind of attention to customer needs!

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Customer Heaven

This blog is devoted to outstanding customer experiences!