Getting To Know Your Customers…
May 7, 2008
When Sam Walton was alive, he was notorious for “showing up” unexpectedly in his stores to talk with his customers. He’d wander the aisles and talk to associates… in the later days these unsuspecting associates weren’t even aware that they were talking to their boss… and the founder of the largest retail company in the world.
Sam Walton enjoyed knowing his associates and his customers in a personal way. It’s a trait shared by other successful business men and women throughout history.
The 247 Wall Street blog talks about CEOs Who Don’t Get Out Often Enough, And Some Who Do
The hallmark of some of the most successful companies over the last fifty years is that the CEOs spent a great deal of their time with customers and company locations around the work. Probably the two most famous travelers were Willard Marriott and Sam Walton. At one point, Walton visited hundreds of stores a year. If these CEO wanted to know how they were doing with the consumers who spent money with them, they did not have to check with anyone else in management.
The post goes on to list 9 CEO’s who are apparently ‘out of touch’ with their customers. Of course, the measurement tool used is the price of the company’s stock, which if you think about it is a GREAT indicator of how “in touch” management is with the “people”.
They also list CEO’s who are doing a great job. Amongst their list is James Sinegal of CostCo (COST).
He isn’t just in the stores. After a fashion, he is the stores. He started the company in 1983. According to the company, he tries to visit every one of the CostCo stores at least once a year. He gets the gold metal for CEOs who spend time in the field.
I work with business owners who have fewer than 20 employees. Because of the nature of that business, it’s hard for the business owner to get “isolated” from their customers. To you who are toiling in the “trenches” take heart!!! Your connection with your customers is essential to your success.
Several of my clients are doing everything in their power to REMOVE the connection with their customers. I get it… because sometimes I LONG for a barrier between my clients and me. However, when I get in those moods… I try to shake it off… because when I start looking at it from the CLIENT’S point of view, I inevitably get great insight into how I can make my services more VALUABLE to my clients.
If you don’t already, get to know your customers. When you know your customers, you can craft compelling message which enable you to get more customers just like them!
Building your business by treating customers well…
February 15, 2008
I talk a lot about targeting your marketing efforts to focus upon a specific niche market. This practice, however, can be a dual edged sword. By targeting a tightly defined niche market, you can experience the benefits of your customers referring others like them to you and your business. However, treating those customers with disresepct can have disasterous consequences.
There’s a sign that is posted in back room of retail establishments that reads, "The customer is not an interruption of your work, he/she IS the reason you are working!"
In marketing speak, when you respect your customers and strive to treat them with respect and meet their needs, it’s called "brand loyalty". When these "brand loyal" consumers tell their friends, family and neighbors about your magnificent product or service, it’s called "WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING". This creates an ever widening circle of "brand loyal" customers or clients who tell others about your MAGNIFICENT product and/or service. This is the beauty of niche marketing.
When you engage in routinely disrespecting your customers, it’s called "the demise of brand loyalty".
Michael Scrage at Financial Times defines it perfectly (the emphasis is mine):
In reality, the declared demise of brand loyalty is 180 degrees misunderstood. A review of the past decade reveals customers have not been cavalierly unfaithful to established brands; quite the opposite. Established brands have cheated on and betrayed their most loyal customers. They charge more and more for less and less; they chase after the youth market or the hot segment du jour; their "innovations" frequently add more complexity than value; and their willingness to apologise and compensate for errors or mistakes is nil. The more provocative marketing argument is that "brand inertia" far more than "brand loyalty" has kept so many customers for so many companies for so long.
He continues with
Consumers are neither sheep nor fools. They can sense when companies are consistently more loyal to investors, employees and regulators than to the people who buy their products and services. They behave accordingly. Customers are not being disloyal; they are being discriminating. The central marketing question confronting brand leaders therefore is not "how can we radically increase customer loyalty?" but "how can we radically increase our own loyalty to customers?"
In other words… you can’t fool your customers. If your focus is upon the bottom line… they’ll know and they’ll react. If you’re lucky, they won’t be able to find anyone else who cares less about them than you and your business does and they won’t jump ship.
For some reason, the Walmart story comes to mind. Long ago, Sam Walton respected and cared about his customers… and his business grew. Sadly, he died but the company he created lived on. One by one, his heirs lost access to the inner workings. For a while, it wasn’t obvious to the consumer that they were being viewed as "sheep and fools" by Walmart’s management.
Then, Walmart changed ad agencies and suddenly, the message began to disintegrate. How many slogans has Walmart had this year? How many ad agencies have they gone through?
I’m sure the jumping from one agency to another is a desperate attempt to find someone who can "capture" the lie…. "Walmart really cares about you, our customer!"
Sure… that’s why Walmart quit offering layawys…. why they then launched their own "reloadable bank card" product. WAIT? I thought the reason free layaways were discontinued weeks before Christmas was because the niche customers didn’t need it? They had credit cards to use.
Even when you’re as BIG as Walmart… when you view your customers as "sheep and fools" it’s IMPOSSIBLE for it not to show through in everything you do!
Respect your customers…
Don’t TREAT them with respect… because you can’t do that if you really do NOT respect them.
Your customers aren’t stupid, they aren’t lazy and they aren’t sheep. If you think they are, then it will show through in your marketing efforts.
Disrespect of your customers is a CANCER in your business. If you overhear an employee talking about your customers in a disrespectful manner, NIP THAT IN THE BUD!
Wal-Mart’s continued abandonment of it’s “brand”
September 20, 2007
Wal-Mart has been actively dismanteling their "brand" for the past 5 years. The latest "blow" to the empire Sam Walton built is the news that Wal-Mart is shelving its "Always Low Prices" slogan. After 19 years, Wal-Mart is abandoning it’s standby "catch phrase" and launching, according to an article in the Washington Post: "
…an advertising campaign that plays up life’s little pleasures over no-frills practicality.
The new slogan: "Save Money ~ Live Better."
Why not? Wal-mart seems to be determined to dismantle every element Sam Walton put into place during his tenure as lead visionary of Wal-Mart.
Actually, abandoning the old catch phrase is probably appropriate. After all the company abandoned their commitment to low prices long ago and it’s not good business to have a catch phrase that causes cost-conscious shoppers to scoff as they examine prices in the aisles.
I can’t help but notice how the "new" slogan seems to be more in line with Target’s catch phrase "Expect More ~ Pay Less".
Despite their Numero Uno status, Wal-Mart lately has been in an INTENSE "me too" competition with Target. Wal-Mart is openly coveting Target’s customers and willing to abandon the scores of Wal-Mart faithful in order to win this small, tightly targeted niche which Target has expertly, excuse the pun, TARGETED!
A lot of industry "insiders" love the new approach. I personally see it as yet another step in the wrong direction.
In the Washington Post article:
Wal-Mart now is trying to persuade its more-affluent customers to see it as a destination for more than toilet paper and laundry detergent.
AH… there’s the rub! Wal-Mart is trying to speak to it’s "more affluent" customers. What they fail to see is the REASON those "more affluent customers" walked into the store in the first place.
Look to the early days of Wal-Mart if you want your small business to grow. Sam Walton knew his customers and what they wanted. Too bad there isn’t anyone left in Bentonville who shares Sam’s original vision.
What kind of fool do you think I am?
April 2, 2007
Consumers are becoming more and more adept at screening marketing messages than ever before, which has driven some advertisers to try to come in “under the radar” and try to fool people into responding to ads.
Fawn Filter in a post at Imediaconnection.com writes:
Sometimes you end up with something that builds positive brand associations in a subtle, elegant way. Other times, you get a PR disaster, like the two blogs ostensibly written by happy Wal-Mart customers that were so relentlessly positive almost no one was surprised to learn the retail behemoth had funded them. And somewhere in between are attempts like the viral video purporting to be a leaked amateur shot of Tiger Woods filming a Buick spot. Such attempts are neither straightforward about their origins nor remotely exciting.
Treating your customers like mindless twits isn’t a good way to establish a functional and positive relationship, which is becoming more vital than ever in the early 21st Century.
Walmart’s distain for their customer is so pervasive that their “paid blogging” exploit came as literally no surprise. It’s just another in a series of “corporate mis-steps” which reveal Walmart’s TRUE view of the customer: the customer nothing more than a living, breathing debit card pin input device or provider of signature for the credit card. Their part of the transaction is to aid in the transfer of funds from their account to Walmart’s account…. pure and simple.
Which is why, if you’re operating a “small potatoes” style establishment, you can literally RUN CIRCLES around Walmart… but ONLY if your view of your customer differs from theirs.
Never assume anything…
March 12, 2007
Assuming you know who your customers are is a dangerous practice. The old saying goes when you “assume†you make an “ass†out of “u†and “me.â€
Michael Barbaro reports in the New York Times that retail giant Walmart is classifying its 200 million customers into three categories:
There are “brand aspirationals†(people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), “price-sensitive affluents†(wealthier shoppers who love deals), and “value-price shoppers†(who like low prices and cannot afford much more).
The problem is that this attempt at classifying wasn’t a look back at who Sam Walton was targeting in 1962 when he opened his first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas. This is just an attempt to justify Walmart’s new strategy of stocking and advertising new lines of upmarket merchandise. Read more
A revolutionary idea…. keeping customers happy
January 8, 2007
Another one for the Walmart Files….
An article in Forbes reports that Walmart is embarking on a new program. The retail giant is undertaking a new plan for staffing stores so shoppers will actually pay for their goods instead of abandoning their filled carts.
The purpose, of course, is to meet heavy shopping hours with more store help, while scaling down during slower periods, generally weekday afternoons. Shorter lines at the register mean more happy customers who are more likely to return. That’s more important to the business than a cashier, unhappy about spreading her work week over four days rather than three, quitting and not returning.
First, I think the author of the above article is WAY off base. Has he ever talked with one of the people running the register there? I have yet to hear one complain about working too many hours. On the contrary, most would WELCOME the added hours. I’ve heard them complain about being forced to wear uniforms and lack of hours, but I’ve never heard anyone complain about stretching their workweek from 3 days to 4.
But let’s pretend like Walmart’s ridiculous check out lines are the result of management’s efforts to improve working conditions for their employees. (A note to those of you who have worked for Walmart, please get up off the floor, wipe the tears from your eyes and stop laughing.) It’s a shame that it took a downturn in sales for the retailer to wake up and smell the coffee.
Note to Walmart: It’s ALL about keeping the customers happy. If you could keep employees happy as well, then perhaps Walmart would be on it’s way to it’s glory days back in the roaring 80’s.
By the way, the overall 2006 holiday season for Walmart was the worst on record, according to analysts. Is there any chance that downturn was the result of discontinuing layaways?
According to the Associate Press:
Wal-Mart had its weakest December performance since 2000, when it posted a 0.3 percent gain, according to Thomson Financial. The slim 0.8 percent increase for November and December combined was the worst since Thomson Financial began tracking same-store sales data in 1995.
Wal-Mart has struggled with a mix of problems, including the fact that its lower-income customers were hurt by soaring gas prices. But the company’s lackluster sales have persisted even as the cost of gas retreated - partly because its attempt to broaden its appeal to higher-income shoppers was poorly executed, particularly in apparel and home furnishings.
IMHO: there was no way to successfully execute an appeal to higher income shoppers for Walmart. By appealing to those shoppers, Walmart could not help but alienate their core customers.
I don’t frequent my local Walmart, but every time I do, I look at the people who are shopping there and wonder how long it’s been since someone from Bentonville has actually visited a store and shook the hands of a few customers.
Walmart has lost sight of what’s happening inside their stores. They don’t know their customers and they don’t know their employees.
While it’s one thing for a writer for Forbes to have no idea what beef a Walmart cashier has, it’s quite another when Bentonville employees don’t know. Maybe some of those high level executives need to take a field trip. I recommend they spend a day running the registers at the Walmart in Fort Pierce, Florida. It would be an eye opening experience for them.
If you’re a small business owner, you know what it’s like on the front lines. Remember, that knowledge is your secret weapon against the giants like Walmart.
Now Wal-Mart is requiring uniforms for employees…
November 20, 2006
I have commented on how it appears that Walmart is chasing #2 Target. Yet another development in support of that observation: Walmart is moving towards uniforms.
Now, in a bold move of originality, Walmart won’t insist that it’s employees sport the familiar red polo with beige khaki pants that rival Target requires. Instead, Walmart employees were sport a BLUE polo with beige khaki pants.
I also heard that hours of retail employees are being cut across the board and the reaction has been fierce. First uniforms, then a cut in the hours available to work.
Let’s see, first you anger the shoppers by discontinuing layaway. Then you anger the employees by requiring uniforms and cutting hours, which of course has a trickle down effect on already disgruntled customers.
It’s my understanding that the reason given for the uniform edict was that employees weren’t dressing in a professional manner, thus the need for uniforms. Great job, Wal-Mart. Way to get a “dig” in at your “associates.” Make is an issue of the employees lack of taste and decorum. Don’t try to candy coat the decision by telling your employees that this is something you’re doing FOR them. Instead, make sure they know that they weren’t measuring up so they’ll see the uniforms as punishment. (Which is how it’s being viewed by the front line employees in the line of fire.)
How many suns grace the sky over Bentonville? Does the atmosphere there still resemble that of planet earth?
For the longest time (while Sam was alive), Wal-Mart kept their world wide headquarters in a remote part of Arkansas to stay “in touch” with their core customer. The other day, an employee told me that he overheard someone from Bentonville talking to an “associate” who said, “If you remember the days when Sam was alive, then it’s time for you to leave. That Wal-Mart doesn’t exist anymore and it’s not coming back.”
Wal-Mart has lost sight of Sam Walton’s original vision, where a working family could find everything they needed at a price they could afford. Now, the retail giant doesn’t listen to or respect those who made it great. Their disrespect is obvious, from their bogus social networking site to their feeding of material to bloggers…. Wal-Mart has lost sight of the reason they’re in business.
Don’t you lose sight of why you are in business.
No more layaways?! WTF?
November 10, 2006
Walmart has announced it will discontinue it’s policy of offering free layaway. The retail giant claims that layaways aren’t being used by it’s customers anymore because of the increasing use of credit cards.
How many suns appear in the sky over Bentonville these days?
I’m not a regular layaway shopper, but I have been known to place my children’s Christmas presents on layaway at the retail giant. My children are sneaky little buggers and have discovered ALL of my hiding places for presents… so the only HOPE I have at keeping their presents a secret is to place them on layaway. Using Walmart’s layaway has helped me keep their presents a secret and I only have to play “hide the present” for a week instead of three or four weeks at a time during the holidays.
The point is as I have picked up my holiday layaway purchases, I have YET to find a time when the line at the layaway desk was nothing less than formidable. The line of other weary shoppers trying to claim their partially paid for parcels hardly denotes a “lack of interest.”
Now, Walmart has announced they will discontinue the service effective November 19. The reaction to the news has been strong. At Planet Feedback emotions are running strong among the low income folks who depend upon layaway service for their holiday shopping.
I can’t say that the retail giant’s change in it’s layaway policy will affect my Christmas shopping patterns. I am certain that my reasons for using layaway are not commonly shared among the Walmart shopping population. However,while the service may be on a downward trend, killing the layaway program 6 weeks before Christmas is a horrible move, if only from the PR standpoint!
Again, this blog and my book are all about keeping an eye on the customers. Solving your customers problems are opportunities for your business to shine.
Walmart’s target customer is, by definition, not affluent. You don’t market to affluent customers by touting, “Low prices, always low prices.” Walmart’s target audience used to be working class people who value saving money more than they value saving time. (Visit any Walmart on any given Saturday and you’ll see what I mean.)
With that said, WHAT DOES DISCONTINUING LAYAWAY DO FOR WALMART? It’s certainly not providing great Public Relations for the retail giant, so what is it doing for them?
My suspicion is it’s yet another in series of moves where the industry leader is chasing #2 Target’s position in the market. First Walmart starts focusing on fashion. That move, in and of itself was probably a smart move. Next, Walmart joined the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce…. a bewildering move. Now, Big Blue is killing their layaway program. Who else doesn’t offer layaway? Target.
I can’t remember a time when the #1 player in the market chased #2 with such fervor, especially when #1 was so far ahead of the rest of the pack.
Bewildering seems to be the word of the hour when describing Wal-Mart’s moves.
Walmart embracing alternative lifestyles
November 8, 2006
Back in August, Wal-Mart joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in an effort to advance diversity within the store’s associate, supplier, and customer bases.
Now, I’m not saying the the world’s largest retailer should encourage discrimmination in ANY form, but their sudden embrace of the gay and lesbian community is nothing less than bewildering.
In a comment to the story on USA Today’s blogs, Diane writes, “I’m all for diversity when it comes to skin color, sex where anatomical differences are involved, and age - but this is an agenda, plain and simple.”
The clothing choices have gotten better at Walmart since the announcement, however their antics continue to bewilder me. What benefit does entering into a partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce hold for Walmart?
It’s always been my understanding the gay and lesbians, as a demographic, are more affluent and better educated than the heterosexual community as a whole. Since when does Walmart care what rich people think? Are rich people Walmart’s target customers?
My book and this blog are all about focusing on your target customer, which is why Walmart’s actions are so bewildering. What’s next? Will Monday Night Football start a quilting segment to appease the women who could care less about Football?
(GO COLTS! 8-0 WAY TO BEAT THE PATRIOTS!!!)
What is Walmart thinking?
November 6, 2006
A new feature here on the Beyond Niche Marketing Blog… where we’ll take a look at the ever puzzling antics of the world’s largest retailer.
It began innocently enough. Apparently (according to my source) Walmart hired talent away from #2 player Target. (Pronounced “Tar-zhe” at our house for years, originating long before the retailer decided to become a funky, trendy and hip discount merchant. It was poking fun a the retailer’s efforts at the time to be more than just another discount retailer.)
The result of Walmart’s head hunting exhibition: better clothes for women in the stores. How do I know? My college student began actually wearing the clothes I picked up for her at Walmart. In addition, her college classmates have been complementing my choices for her. (Some how, I gave birth to a girl who hates to shop! Go figure! She’ll make a great scientist and her white lab coat will serve as fashion for my beloved beauty.)
However, Walmart doesn’t trust their customers to tell the tale, so instead they launch their own social networking site, complete with fake profiles. How were they busted? How many 13 year olds do you know who restrict their conversations to the great clothing options available at their local Walmart?
Perhaps Walmart should have let nature take it’s course. Improve the products and trust that their customers would tell their friends. Then again, that would require respecting the customer… something Walmart lost sight of LONG ago.
Long ago and far away, Sam Walton didn’t worry about what was hip and trendy. He built an empire on the foundation of low prices…always low prices. His respect for not only his customers but also his employees was truly the foundation of his success. I’m certain ol’ Sam would not be happy with what’s happening today at the stores which bear his name.
