WOW Word-Of-the-Week #297: Nickeled & Dimed
April 3, 2010 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #297: Nickeled & Dimed
Nickeled & Dimed – what customers feel when retailers charge for things that should be included in the price.
Are you like me and really dislike being charged for things that should be included? Have you flown in the last year? Want to check your bag? Want a pillow or a blanket? How about a meal? Then pay up! All of those were standard items included in the price. Now they are revenue generators. I am all for paying one fair price. Don’t nickel and dime me. Airlines haven’t raised their prices in years and that’s the problem.
On this trip we checked into a 5 star Resort & Spa. The room was beautiful and had all the amenities we expect and get in a US hotel. Bottled water is a given in SE Asia. You just don’t drink out of the tap, and they tell you that. So imagine my surprise when I asked for water at dinner and was charged $2. It’s free in my room.
How about resort fees? I have been charged up to $10 per day. Why is that not just added to the cost of the room? In Phuket they added $1.40 per day for a Turtle Donation. Hey, I am all for saving the turtles but that feels like nickel and diming too.
Been on a cruise lately? In December we took my 91 year old dad to the Panama Canal. The coffee was undrinkable. Cappuccinos were $4 and espresso was $3. When I asked, “How can you charge me for something you give away for free (hot milk)? They had no good answer.
Frankly I was irked that I had to pay that much, but that’s another WOW. (Princess sells espresso cards – $28 for 15 drinks) It would have cost us $16 per day. So to get around that little obstacle, I ordered one espresso with 3 extra shots ($6), went upstairs, got hot milk, and ended up with 4 cups of good coffee. Do you do things like that too?
I’m not even going to get started on the tipping of every single person you come in contact with on the ship. It feels like we are subsidizing the fact that they are paid poor wages. We only go on cruises that have everything included now.
Then there was the time we got charged a wine corkage fee for buying the bottle of wine in the wine shop/restaurant and drinking it there with the food we ordered. Help me please on this one! If you walk in, buy it and walk out, there is no extra charge. So we were penalized for spending an additional $100 for food.
My last rant is when we bought gift cards for Christmas 2008 at a very expensive restaurant. (Let’s not forget we were in the midst of the terrible recession and nobody was spending money) For every $100 you spent they gave you a $25 gift card. We bought a $250.00 gift card. The receipt clearly stated there was no expiration date (and in California it is against the law.) We used them before we left and when it came time to pay, the waiter informed us that they were expired. I asked to see the manager and he came over and pointed out that on the back, in very small fine print, they were only good for 3 months. My receipt clearly stated “No Expiration Date” which I pointed out and then he proceeded to argue with me. He said, “I will honor one of the $25.” To which replied, “I don’t think so.” And proceeded to get up and leave. He continued to argue with me about the fine print on the back of the card and totally dismissed the “No Expiration Date” on the receipt I had.
This week the focus is charging your customers a fair price without nickel & diming them. You tell me, how do you feel when extra charges are added on? If customers are your focus, what are you doing to make them want to come back? Every example I have talked about in this WOW does not make me want to go back to that business. I may have been satisfied with the service and the product but being nickeled & dimed does not leave me feeling loyal to the brand.
Reader Responses
“Customers are being nickeled and dimed to death with charges every day. Wherever they go. It is not only NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY, it is bad for business. The word of mouth that spreads after these types of experiences if fatal. And yet, businesses do it they say AS THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS. Especially with the airlines. If airlines are insistent on charging fliers for checked bags, just add it to the cost of the ticket. Even if it is an estimate. Having to pay that cost at the curb or the counter also adds time to the flier before he or she then has to take more time getting through the security lines at airports. It is a nuisance in cost and in time. These are the types of things that turn people off to flying. Add to that the fact fliers can’t bring water or coffee or other liquid refreshment on the plane, when we are get airborne and the beverage/food carts come around, we have to pay extra for breakfast items or other food items that used to be free. Once again, add it to the cost of the flight so we don’t have to rummage for dollars or change to pay for it. It cheapens the whole experience. Hopefully, at some point, airlines will learn how to take care of these things. Until that time, they had better get used to bad word of mouth from fliers and bad public relations. Businesses: TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS. When it comes to cruises, my wife, Kristen, has been on a few and she has told me some of her war stories. After hearing some of these, I have no desire to take a cruise. And don’t plan to. Frankly, I don’t want to be packed like a sardine with 1,000 other people for a number of days. I have heard all of the war stories about illnesses that people contract while on board, especially the foodborne variety. So, I will never take a cruise anywhere. But, as with the airlines, add the fees or charges to the price of the cruise so that people are not having to find money to pay for every little item. It is annoying. Enjoy the Madness.” – Joe
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #296: Customer Service
April 3, 2010 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #296: Customer Service
Customer Service – the series of activities before, during and after a purchase designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction.
How would you rate your customer service? How would your customers rate your service? Are you consistently focused on the before, during and after of your service?
Shep Hyken, author of “The Cult of the Customer” writes, “How much does it cost to deliver good customer service?”
“The question should actually be how much does it cost to deliver bad customer service? Bad customer service leads to low or no repeat business, no or poor word of mouth, morale issues inside the company and more.”
“There is a cost to delivering good service. Sometimes it does cost more to deliver value. It also costs to train employees. Yet, usually the cost is far less than the cost of not providing a good and value-added experience for the reasons listed above.”
This LA Times editorial by Bruce Feldman of Santa Monica titled, “Customer service is in a sorry state” really resonated with me. He wrote, “The first thing to understand about customer service is that the term itself is a grave misnomer. Companies don’t serve customers, they handle them.”
“They have a series of policies and procedures. Discretion and common sense are not allowed. The sad reality is that so long as all airlines, banks and insurance companies offer the same shoddy by-the-book service, there is no incentive to switch to a competitor.”
I believe that average service is what most of us experience and have come to expect. And when we feel service is outstanding we are awed. Would you agree?
This week focus on the before, during and after of your service. Are you “serving” or “handling” your customers? Do you trust your staff to make decisions that truly “serve” your customers and designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction? What are you doing that sets you apart from your competition?
Reader Responses
“Great word for the week. As I drove into work this morning I was thinking about the two biggest problems in American society: carelessness and indifference. It seems those also are big failings in U.S. businesses today. Businesses are careless and indifferent in how they treat their customers. What has been forgotten in these tough economic times is that customers are the lifeblood of companies. Without customers and their dollars, those businesses do not exist. Yet, the businesses continue to treat customers poorly. Years ago I shopped for greeting cards at the same store in the town where I lived. It was a family-owned business. The store had a small coin-operated stamp machine that I used on a regular basis. By buying just the stamps that I needed, it saved me a trip to the local post office. One day I asked the mother of the owner if I could have four quarters for a dollar so that I could get stamps. She told me gruffly no, and to go buy my stamps at the post office. I did not get angry. I just quietly left the store and never bought cards there again. I told some of the people I knew the story, and they were surprised. Now, I had purchased cards at this story for a number of years. But it is this type of attitude that turns off customers and starts poor word of mouth. Eventually, the store closed. The key word today is service. We live in a time where serving others is really downplayed in the business world. It seems that serving others is the exception in business rather than the rule. Until it becomes the rule as opposed to the exception, many businesses will fail. In order to survive, we have to get back to inculcating the values of service into our employees. Hopefully, it will begin soon. Have a great week and a wonderful Easter, Susan. Thank you. Take care.” – Joe
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #295: Choices
April 3, 2010 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on WOW Word-Of-the-Week #295: Choices
Choices – what we do consciously or unconsciously every day.
Do you choose to be in control of your life every day? Do you feel you make good choices?
This week my computer crashed. So I had to make a choice about being upset or letting it go. I had been keeping my website up to date when I had internet. I had my WOW ready to go. All of which I no longer have access to. And then along comes this wonderful email from Steve Straus who sends out S T E V E ‘ S….3 – M I NU T E….C O A C H I N G
Today’s Topic – PRINCIPLE: Choices (Principles are basic truths that, when applied, cause success to come to you easier and quicker.)
You can either make your own choices or let someone else make them for you. It’s your choice!
Of course there are times when it’s useful to let someone else make choices for you — when they have more expertise, when they have more time, or when they need to learn something new by making a choice and experiencing the result. But that is not what this Principle is about.
The issue is do you see yourself as always being at choice, always in charge of your life? Or do you feel constrained, unable to be free to choose? If it’s the latter, you might want to ask yourself why that is so.
Choose to live free. Choose to always be at choice.
Coaching Point: What’s a great choice you made recently?
Well for me, I was referred to a travel agent from San Diego who has lived in Thailand for the last 12 years. And that was a very smart choice as this has been a great trip so far. This week I hope you take Steve’s advice and choose to live free and be at choice.
If you want to subscribe go to www.StrausUSA.com/subscribe.htm then enter your email address.
Reader Responses
“This is a great tone. Do you mind sharing the THAILAND travel agent information? I want to do a trip to Thailand for my honeymoon and would love some guidance! Thank you” – Jenna