Customer Service Goes Down the Toilet!

Customer Service Goes Down the Toilet! was Originally Posted on April 7, 2010 by lavarock

I am a very understanding person when it comes to business.

I know that many companies and states and communities are doing their best to cover costs. Some of the ideas for charges are cute, some are stupid. Here is how.

In Hawaii they closed the schools on Friday and so too are State offices, in a move now termed “Furlough Friday”.

My property bill came in recently and I didn’t notice that they had increased my property evaluation because they reduced the tax rate at the same time. Thus there was no increase and the change takes place with few complaining. The valuation of a property is subjective and if you don’t contest the amount, it becomes harder each year to fight the cost. However, the tax rate is easy to change and effects every house in that rate area. You can’t easily fight the tax rate, only the valuation.

If you don’t watch closely, things like cereal, drinks and yes, even coffee, has recently changed size, so the price can remain the same. Where once we used to see 4oz, 8oz and 16oz bags of coffee here in the shelves, now they are 3oz, 7oz and 12 oz bags. There *MAY* be other sizes, but hard to tell. The shelf tags list prices and rates and often show the incorrect size of the bag. Long’s Drugs here often has a sticker saying the particular coffee bag is 8 oz, yet the bag itself shows 7 oz!

A while back, certain airlines stopped serving food on board flights but allowed people to carry on snacks. My suggestion was or people to bring on dinners which were ladened with garlic! A bigger problem is that if the irline does not offer free snacks, people bring their own. That can cause major problems when people with peanut allergies tell the airlines to protect their row, yet the guy next to them brings his own peanuts.

So now RyanAir, a no-frills foreign airline, decided they want to charge for people t ouse the bathroom onboard. This is no April Fools joke, it is a way they think they can remove most bathrooms from the planes and add more seats. Granted, there is a charge the airline pays for dumping, but that is a part of them doing business. This is not the best idea. They serve drinks on board, right? Cold, wet and liquid drinks, right? Those drinks may go unsold. Many people refuse to pay up to 4 times a supermarket price fro candy bars. Sometimes there are backlashes that companies don’t realize up front.

To cut costs, Coke changed their formula (New Coke) and the backlast was swift and negative. They had to reinvent the product when they found people hated change!

Recently, Long’s decided to change the layout of their Kailua-Kona store. I used to go in all the time, now I hardly every go in; rather I go to the Keauhou store with the old layout.

Do I practice what I preach? Just tonight I received a hurried note from a customer. He suggested that *somebody* at LavaRock farm made a mistake and added a bottle of Kona honey to his order. I replied that no, it was not a mistake. There was room in the box, I had some extra honey and just tossed it in (packed so it could not leak). I sometimes add a keychain, Christmas ornament, calendar or sometimes add a real estate book in the box or envelope. If I have a bit of dark roast, I may add a bit of that to the shipment so the customer can compare to a slightly different roast level. There is no cost for these items; I consider them like the prizes you get in Crackerjack boxes (remember those).

I don’t guarantee an extra items, but add them as a surprise. I think people like the idea. I just have to remember to add a note that the item is a gift

Speaking of sizes of coffee bags, I still package the same amount of coffee in the bags. I sell as small as 2 oz (for special events), 4oz, 8oz, 16oz and special sizes larger than a pound. I used to sell a 12oz size fro Canada (so the recipient would not have to pay an import duty).

To ensure the customer gets a good deal, I often fit (squeeze) 2 bags of coffee in a flat-rate envelope, so they get cheaper postage. It it is a gift, I have been known to automatically upgrade the postage (at my expense) to a box, so the bags don’t get squished.

My prices have not gone up in what, over 7 years? In fct, I often drop the price a bit because I thrive for deals and want to spread the good fortune

So, as you go through life, remember that not all companies are looking out for themselves.