Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 1:04PM
We buy the majority of our office supplies from a national, big-box office supply chain. Sure, they have a great name and a clever logotype. They have an extremely comprehensive and user-friendly web site– and almost all the office supply products you will ever need!
Because we are a loyal customer, we receive free next day shipping, monthly ‘check-ins’ from our designated customer service rep, and two or three e-mails a week.
We have tried other office supply retailers, but still prefer this company over their competition. When we run out of ink, paper, post-it notes or our toner runs low – a mid-day telephone call or web site visit, almost guarantees a delivery during the next business day. We, as a customer, have an affinity for this brand.
On a regular basis, their promotional e-mails offer a FREE GIFT with purchase. This is a nice little loyalty perk that used to attract our attention from time to time – perhaps causing us to order a little extra – in order to meet the offer’s minimal dollar amount.
I am not sure whether it was cheesy ‘pleatherette’ tote bag, the hideous harvest gold soup bowls, or the cheap plastic briefcase filled with junky tools (passing itself off as a roadside safety kit). Our FREE GIFTS were nothing but off-brand, sleazy knock-offs– JUNK!
Sure they could be recycled but in to what bin do you throw them? Fortunately, our town dump has a ‘boutique’ for just this purpose – “I should throw it away? But where? I’ll just put it on a shelf in the boutique and someone will be bound to find a use for it.”
I occasionally drop by the boutique to visit my harvest gold soup crockery but it has become blatantly obvious this FREE GIFT is not attracting any attention– even though it can be picked up and driven away for FREE!
Ultimately, rather than becoming more loyal and in-tune with my office supply store’s brand– I now have question regarding the brand’s integrity. After all, your brand is judged by the ‘company that it keeps’ and ‘junk is junk is junk’.
Tuesday
23Mar2010
Simple Overcomplexination.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 4:05PM 
I recently purchased a combination extra battery and hard case for my iPhone. In the two weeks that I used to, it was great. Actually, it still is great. I can be on the road for the entire day and still have some battery life left for evening use.
Sometime during the day last Friday, I lost the hard plastic ‘end-cap’ for the case. I was bummed. I searched high & low and retraced many steps – at least those that were practical to retrace. By Sunday, I gave up the cause.
According to instruction manual, the manufacturer’s customer service line would be open at 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. On Monday, at approximately 9:20 AM, I gave the customer service line a call and spoke with a very friendly woman by the name of Crystal. Crystal was somewhat sympathetic to my (in the scheme of life) minor conundrum and suggested that I go to the company’s web site, click on the support tab and fill out a technical support form.
I hung up the phone and entered the company’s URL into my browser. I easily found the technical support page and found the technical support form. However, on top of the form was a large gray and green button that said: ‘LIVE HELP ONLINE, click to chat.’
Thinking that this might simplify up the process, I clicked on the button and entered my message concerning the missing end-cap. Before long, the text-based support person came on line (through text), and calmly explained that I needed to fill out the technical support form that was located beneath the gray and green ‘LIVE HELP’ button. It just so happened that the technical support person that I had just spoken to on the phone was also working the ‘click to chat’ desk. I said my goodbye to Crystal, clicked out of the chat, filled out the technical support form, and clicked the SEND button.
An hour or so later, I received email notification that my request had been logged, given a job ticket number and that I would be notified again within 24 hours. By the close of business Monday, I received an email notice from Mike in technical support. My end-cap would soon be sent out and that I should expect its arrival within the next 5 business days. This is great. I am very happy.
However, I keep thinking that when it is all said and done, we have– through technology overcomplexinated* even the simplest human interaction?
What, if in my original phone call, Crystal would have taken down my contact information and dropped the end-cap in the mail. Instead, a multiple step, multiple person, multiple machine process was put into motion. Rather than taking 5 minutes– the synchronized series of multiple events involved a whole day!
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