Tag: Nordstrom

Out with the self check-out!

Albertson is your store. No wonder you just walked in, took the items, and walked out (after paying the machines).

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/officehours/2011/jul/12/albertsons-will-take-self-checkout-lanes-out-stores-doesnt-affect-area-albertsons-stores/

I still remember having lunch at Woolworth, or stopping at full-serve  stations back East.

“coffee refill?” ” oil check?” We are heading toward a self-serve nation (or as in a recent feature in the WSJ, a Retail applicant outsourced his job search to an online resume service in India. The service uses automated software that sent his resumes to, among other things, adult entertainment companies.)

Back to customer service.

Not only customers bring friends, they are also an important part in the feedback loop (for future product development and marketing).

Face time is important. And productive face time is expensive.

Even in our hyper-connected world, people are still isolated and lonely.

The neighborhoods have changed. Old friends have moved on.

So we bowl and golf alone.

We time shift, LinkedIn with people who start their days when we end ours.

The last thing a tired worker needs is to argue with or be harassed by a machine “put your item in the bin”? I thought I did (I found out there was a scale underneath, so leave your bag there, not on the floor).

Meanwhile, I-phones, cosmetic items and travel kits are sold via vending machines.

I can understand the necessity of acquiring these in a hurry, let’s say in an airport.

But neighborhood groceries should foster a sense of community, where we look someone in the eyes, or start a quick conversation (weather, news event, or just venting).

On Charlie Rose, Stephanopoulos said when he interviewed people, he observed their silence, their non-verbal communication.

We still walk around inside our bodies. And we will send our signals via facial muscles and body gestures.

This means we still need a person on the receiving end to decode.

Yes, it’s expensive. But, it’s worth it.

Nordstrom and Four Seasons know this.

Giving people what they want, how they want it. While technology enhances efficiency, a customer-centric organization always wins and keep its customers. Maybe, I should skip the automated resume-blasting company.

Why relying on poor salesmanship to sell me, when I can do it better and save money. Out with the mechanistic transaction (we already got Amazon), and in with “Hi, how is your day?”.

Happiness all around

If I were the man who sold my company for almost a Billion dollars, I would go off to Rock concerts around the world, instead of sitting down to write a book.

But Zappos former CEO thinks differently. He wants to go on a crusade. That crusade is to “deliver happiness”.

Moving people up the Maslow‘s scale, customers and employees alike.

Bezos saw the potential in Zappos.

So they deliver shoes with return/exchange No Question asked.

Nordstrom in a box.

Shoes and ties used to be made in Italy.

Now in China.

As the costs of production go down, competition goes up, companies like Zappos-now-Amazon, deliver the intangible “and the shoes is you”.

Verizon’s campaign “you rule the air” resonates “Empire of the Air” (back then, it refers to radio spectrum).

So, we are down to ads which speak of either You or I (Ipad, I phone).

What happens to He or She? or the Softer side of Sears?

BTW, the World Cup field invader was a T-shirt designer from Italy (Superman shirt).

Superman will be detained in South Africa long after this Sunday’s final is over (perhaps to help w/ super clean-up of the very field he invaded).

Poetic justice.

Back to Zappos. From top to toes, the only item that needs try on the most is shoes. Yet Zappos manages to turn this rule of thumb on its head: go ahead and put them on. Order online, we deliver and keep delivering until the shoes are fit.

Who would have thought of that (maybe besides Victoria Secret).

Imagine Playboy with similar campaign: “go ahead and view the video. And if you are not satisfied for any reason – 3D version included – you can return and money back guaranteed. Oh, must be 18 to order (but not to view).

So, modern-day success stories come back to old day success stories; keep the employees happy, in turn, keep the customers happy, which lead to happy stakeholders. In Zappos’ case, Sequoia Capital.

Starbucks plundered a bit until Howard Shultz is back at the helm (Apple and Dell both had similar epiphany).

What they should have done is “deliver happiness”, then sold to Amazon, then wrote a book which in turn is delivered by Amazon who bought the company in the first place. This time, it’s in both Kindle version and in print. Happiness in a box or in bits. China is taking a chapter from this playbook. It has to deal with workers’ demand.

Unhappy workers make for unhappy customers. Ford learned this early in his “Wheels for the world” dream. He paid people decent wage and turned them into customers.

Happiness all around.

E-memoir

Mark your calendar. Summer 2010 will be a bookend event.

It will be Gutenberg-like. It’s the beginning of the disappearance of Revised Print Edition.

It’s Google e-book store, where you can download the latest version of any book. Gone are the paper backs.

Or Large Print for that matter.

Select your own font.

http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/49631-google-plans-summer-opening-for-e-book-store

Our interaction with the pages is now replaced by our interaction with the screen.

A little divided (sight) as opposed to united (auditory, such as Audio books) according to Walter Ong.

Dumb terminal, long-lasting batteries, and unlimited “cloud” storage capacity make all this possible.

Books are now published on demand, or download. Paper or plastic?

Save a tree.

Somehow the image of “the Remains of the Day” (Bezos’ favorite book) came to mind.

A wall full of books, and the grandfather clock, all gone. What are there for the butler to do but writing his e-memoir?

I must admit the tone of that novel brought me back to an era where service is considered noble. And you could only get a glimpse of that now a day at Four Seasons or Nordstrom.

One of my pet peeves at Penn State was when students slowly folded their Collegiate only after  the prof had started to speak.

Today’s equivalent of turning off their e-readers.  Everything non-digital are “the remains of the day”.