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A Call To Action

July 15, 2008

One of the calls that nobody wants to get – “the ground beef you just purchased may be tainted with e. Coli”. But, isn’t it better to get that call — than find out the hard way that you shouldn’t have eaten the product? In this day of frequent product recalls, a local firm is doing a fantastic job of connecting with their customers and communicating with them.

During the recent recall during the recent 4th of July holiday, no less, a local grocer notified their customers in a variety of ways. They placed signs in stores in meat departments (but if you are in the store buying meat – chances are you may have already consumed the meat you previously purchased).
Thanks to their frequent shopper program, they were able to track purchases by customers who use the company’s loyalty card. This is normally used to track purchases to accrue fuel discounts, or receive coupons and discounts on future purchases. During the recent recall, they printed a message at the bottom of the receipt to customers whose history showed they may have purchased the recalled product (and instructed the checkout clerk to point out the notice to consumers). In other cases, they actually called customers who used the loyalty card to purchase the tainted product (what a great motivating factor for encouraging consumers to keep their card information updated!).

Obviously a phone call would be best – since there is a time dependent factor for many shoppers – who purchase and immediately use the meat they purchase – but register tape alerts are great for those who stock up and placed the meat in their freezer for later consumption. Better late than never.
Loyalty programs sometimes come under fire – “what is being done with the data?”
“Are they selling personal information?” “Why do I have to give up that information to get lower prices?”

Generally, however most retailers promise that any proprietary information is not shared and only aggregated item data is shared with their vendors. In today’s competitive environment, businesses continually strive to “focus on the customer” and make the customer “# 1” – and develop the strategies that put the customer at the center of their business. Doing so makes customer data increasingly important, with loyalty programs serving as a very effective way of capturing customer data.

Another benefit of customer loyalty programs is the ability to foster two-way communications with customers – this can be done by implementing an active customer feedback system and listening to customers. It not only provides a way to capture customers’ concerns, questions and complaints, but as described above, it can offer a great way to reach out to customers.

For now, I’m fostering two-way communications with my customers by meeting with them, and having conversations with them about how they are communicating with their customers – both internal and external. I’m learning a lot, and hopefully gaining insight into how we can best work with them to facilitate this process. Clearly “one size fits all” won’t be the right answer. By listening, and asking questions, we can make a lot of progress in jointly defining the solution. How are you communicating with your customers?

Written by SuzanneLorch · Filed Under Business & Leadership, Featured 

Comments

2 Responses to “A Call To Action”

  1. Christy Rollyson on July 16th, 2008 11:02 am

    I personally LOVE the customer loyalty cards – use mine constantly for fuel discounts and grocery items. I think it is great that that this company had the opportunity to use the cards not only to help their customers save money but maybe even save some lives!

    WOW – If I had purchased tainted meat I would have wanted that call before I fed my child that is for sure! Great article Suzanne!

  2. Scott Felten on July 21st, 2008 10:34 pm

    Communication is the key to building a relationship – I can’t think of anything that is more important; and we can all make improvements towards better communication. In this day and age, the electronic media makes it a bit hard given the fact that most of communication is non-verbal and we can’t see or read people. So, I make sure to read and reread my emails. More than this, I try to make it a point to have high touch points. But I find myself ‘filling in the blanks’ too often. What I mean is that I extrapolate what I think my client might want if they don’t keep their end of the verbal tennis match. Here, I need to make it a point to re-engage and recalibrate.

    I think it’s good sense to simply say ‘hey, can you do me a favor and spend just a few minutes to help me think this through’ or ‘do you mind if we talk for a few minutes, I just really want to make sure we are on the same page’. I have found that there is often times a need behind the need and as we dig further, we get closer to the ‘gold’ – the real need.

    Remember, we have two ears and one mouth and that’s about the percentage we should hear and speak. :)

    ~ Scott Felten

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