The general manager at the local Staples sent me a note. It wasn’t handwritten but it was addressed to me, signed by him and it came in the mail. Here is what it said;

Dear Walter,

I look forward to seeing you soon.

I know this wasn’t hard to do. Check the database, see who spends alot of money, export some data and poof – you are thanking your best customers. Talk about hitting the easy button!

Today, I also see a customer satisfaction survey on MSN by Zogby. With card from Staples in hand I look at Office Depot vs. Staples. Here are the percentages of people ranking each store.

Office Depot Poor 7.2 Fair 29.1 Good 50.8 Excellent 12.9
Staples Poor 7.6 Fair 26.4 Good 49.6 Excellent 16.4

You can see that the numbers are not THAT far off but I will guess that those extra 3.5 points in the excellent category represent millions of dollars in revenue. This is especially true when super users like me are in that category.

By the way, AOL was worst (again) and USAA was best

If you have contact with customers then I know this hits home with you and it should be obvious there are some things you can do to help with satisfaction (think about the easy button and thank them).

If you only have internal customers this seems harder but it really isn’t. With external customers thanking goes a long way. You could ask what you could do better but you don’t have too. With internal customers one of the few things you can do is to ask how you can serve them better. Ask if they are pleased with your support and service then do something with that feedback. If they say all is OK, you get to say thanks for telling me. If they say you can improve on something then you get to go to work. Either way, it is a win.

And to all of you reading this. THANKS. You inspire me to write and to think about business and leadership more than I already do. I appreciate your investment of time in reading this and I appreciate your business.

Here is the link to the entire MSN article and list.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/the-customer-service-hall-of-shame-2009.aspx

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