Company Policies and Customer Focus

Lately I have been noticing how little companies that I do business with, both personally and professionally, appear to care about their customers. OH! They say they care about their customers but when push comes to shove or there is a problem it takes an act of congress to get anything accomplished.

For example: My XM2GO radio needed the replacement battery because of a recall. They told me they were sending one for EIGHT MONTHS but every time I called they told me that I would have it in 10 weeks (Every 10 weeks, I called them). Finally I called the presidents line at XM and they couldn't even help me. I finally called back in to their main number and had to talk to a guy in their product department to get them to send me a battery! Why did it take me calling every 10 weeks? Why couldn't their presidents line help me? Why did it take so long to get my replacement battery?

The bottom line is that business has become so complex and so competitive (which by the way is supposed to be good for the customer) that margins are very thin and in order to compete companies have to cut costs. Companies have stretched themselves so thin and developed processes that work for the 80%--then they ignore the other 20% or don't create a "bucket" to catch those people when they fall through the process. What companies do not understand is that by provided better customer service and just taking care of the customer that many people will pay a premium just to know they don't have to deal with the issues.

This has created much frustration in industry and people mostly have a very poor perception of companies that have historically had a very good reputation. It's a very sad state of affairs and I am not sure what to do to fix it other than to tell companies to empower their employees to help their customers. If they don't they will lose their customers.

-Paul

Gas prices! News Media?

Gas Prices
So it appears that gas prices are dropping and will drop significantly. All the news reports I hear talk about gas prices in November around $2/gallon. So who is predicting this? The same people that predicted $4 and $5 per gallon for the summer of 2006? Should we believe them now?

It seems clear to me that you can't simply use history to predict the future. But it appears that is what the "experts" are doing. Why are they scaring us with gas prices that appear to be out of this world and then during election time the gas prices drop. I don't know if the price of gas this fall will be related to politics but I do know that I will enjoy the prices drop!

News Media
It seems that the United States news media is less and less professional as time goes on. Overall the news reports that I am seeing (see above) seem more and more outrageous. The entire gas price thing makes me crazy--Why is that news? It's gas prices. Either we can pay for gas or we can't the world isn't going to end. We are all going to figure out how to get along without it if it comes to that. Oh and by the way don't you think that the U.S. government and private enterpise is going to find another way for it's citizens to have vehicles? When gas really becomes out of reach there will be another business there to pick up the slack. Quite possibly not all the slack right away but I believe that life will go on.

I received an email from a friend this week about a video from hotair.com. The video was talking about how factions in the middle east are using ambulances to get into areas "undetected" and do crimes and killing. Now I am not sure if this is fact or fiction but what I saw in the video was how the media outlets are taking video from freelancers and the explanation that the freelancers give at face value without looking into it to verify validity.

This makes me very feel very uncomfortable with the news outlets. How can they broadcast something they have not verified? Why would they report that as fact when they can't even prove that facts of the case?

Politics and news media. Things are getting very murky...

-Paul