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I took some time off and headed out to Virgina Beach last week. It was nice not to have an agenda. I really enjoyed doing a whole lot of nothing.

Anyway, we stumbled upon Bloom supermarket and were thoroughly impressed. In addition to hosting a Redbox out front (this is the second vacation in a row that we’ve picked up a $1 movie to watch at the end of our day) they had something incredible on their shopping carts.

Ready for this?

A map of the store.

How cool is that? Being a resort town, they probably get a fair amount of tourist traffic. It makes a lot of sense to show people where everything is. In fact, it makes so much sense that I’m not sure why I haven’t seen it before.

Another cool thing about the carts is that they had two sizes: standard and mini. Again, Brilliant!

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Not as brilliant as maps on shopping carts, but occasionally close.  Subscribe in a reader.

Most fast food places use the back of their receipts to get you to take a survey, but I thought the Quiznos approach was kind of interesting. Observe:

If you visit the website, you get ten changes to win. TEN! Wow!

Of course, if there is only one winner per day, and everyone gets ten chances - then the odds of winning didn’t really change, did they? Very tricky, Quiznos.

But wait, maybe they did. What about the poor suckers that call to do the survey? They only get one entry into the contest. There’s a cost saving measure if I’ve ever seen one. I’m sure the online survey is much cheaper to administer. Again, well played, Quiznos.

I was going to end the post there, but I decided to do some investigative journalism (just for you), so I took both surveys (and not-so-coincidentally got 11 chances to win).

Last time I took an online survey I was very unimpressed. This one didn’t do much better. It was kind of entertaining though. Here are, without further ado, my top 5 questions / screens.

5) Surprise, I didn’t win.

4) Despite asking the date I visited (two weeks ago), they wanted to know if I had purchased specific items “today.” I was tempted to say no across the board, but I decided to cut them some slack.

3) They nailed it. I come to Quiznos for the visual enjoyment…

2) I’m not very health conscience. Do they really have to rub it in three times?

1) And my favorite question: “Why not?” There was nothing proceeding it. I was just instructed to think about my recent visit.

The phone survey was kind of clumsy as well. It took about 6 minutes and “using my touch tone phone,” I had to type in half the info from my receipt before I could start. There were many of the same questions, but it was definitely shorter. My favorite part was in the middle of the survey when they said:

“Tell us why or why not you enjoyed your visit so that we can improve.” Then, with no warning: beep - it was recording.

My answer? “I liked watching my meal being made.”

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PS. The new site is finally up. Go check it out.

I noticed the following sign hanging at the register of my local supermarket.

In case you aren’t wearing your glasses, it reads:

We Strive For 5!
Our team members have been working hard to give you a Highly Satisfied shopping experience. If we earned your vote with our great service, please rate us a 5 when you receive a customer survey at the bottom at the bottom of your receipt.

Doesn’t asking for a high rating kind of defeat the purpose of getting feedback?

The signs are cheap copies - definitely not corporate issued. My guess is that there are incentives based on the survey results. The scores are quite possibly tied directly to somebody’s bonus. That said, it looks like the local management is probably trying to give their customer service rating a boost. Shameless…

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Four business hours after I submitted my complaint, I received the following response from Qdoba customer service:

Hello David,

Thank you for your participation in the online survey and I apologize for this unfortunate experience. This was our first attempt at something like this and we had much to learn. Thank you for your patience with us through our learning curve. We did have some problems getting the Free Entree’s uploaded as we wanted.

I have confirmed your Loyalty Account information and assured you the credit you were owed for a Free Entree. I also added another Free Entree to your account in appreciation for your time. One of the issues we ran into is that there was no way to verify the accuracy of the Loyalty Card numbers entered and some that came through did not direct us to a recognized account. We will figure a better way to implement this for the next time. Until then, I appreciate this message from you and your patience with this process.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you again-

Sincerely,
Qdoba Web Administrator

I think a name at the bottom (instead of “Qdoba Web Administrator”) would have been nice - but overall I’m happy. They scored points by:

1) Getting back to me quickly
2) Sending a conversational response (instead of a canned answer)
3) Giving me more than I was owed

Take note; this is how customer service on the web should be done. A fast, sincere, and personal response goes a long way.

A couple weeks ago Qdoba sent me an offer for a free burrito in exchange for taking a survey. I wrote about the survey here.

Today I tired to use my free burrito (that was apparently loaded onto my customer loyalty card) - but it wasn’t there. The employees knew nothing about the promotion and so ended up paying for my meal. Needless to say, my perception of the company (which I just read is owned by Jack in the Box) continues decline. It’s unfortunate, the food is pretty good.

Anyway, I just submitted the story via the feedback form on their website. We’ll see if/what kind of response I get. The way I see it, it could go four ways. If I had to place odds, here’s what I’d go with:

1) I don’t hear anything back. (40%)
2) I get a response that (politely) tells me tough luck. (10%)
3) They credit my account for one burrito. (30%)
4) They credit me for more than one burrito to make up for the trouble. (20%)

Any guesses?

The customer is always right…unless the customer is a 5 foot tall 3 year old.

I took this a few years ago at a Chinese buffet. It’s a good reminder that hand written signs look tacky, proofreading is a good thing, and sometimes you should just let a few people take advantage of you to avoid seeming petty to everyone else.

While flipping though the mail yesterday I noticed something from an auto shop that did work for me a little over a year ago. It was an 8.5 x 11 sheet tri-folded with the content on the inside. I was about to toss the unopened piece in the trash when the promise of personalized content caught my attention.

So, I opened the newsletter and read it top to bottom. Unfortunately, there was nothing about my car. Two thirds of the inside was about how the shop continually gets training and remains certified. In the final section there was three sentences about how they recommend brake fluid flushes every three years. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Maybe I’m picky, but the newsletter left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I felt lied to. It’s the kind of lying you expect from credit card applications and “you’ve already won!” timeshare bait. For example:

On the flip side of the coin, a Lexus dealer that I went to 3 years ago periodically sends me mail. The pieces always include a picture of my car (stock picture of the same model, year, and color) as well as a service recommendation based on their estimate of my current mileage. Now that, is personalized information about my car.

So, my advice for direct mailers is that while trickery may get me to open your direct mail piece, I’m not going to buy from you once I realize what you did. You are better off figuring out how to make the piece relevant to me so that I’ll read it on my own accord.

I stumbled upon an article talking about building a better fast food drive thru. The most interesting part, I thought, was the disparity between what customers reported to value (based on a survey) and the action items the industry were taking to make improvements.

It turns out, there are some gaps.

“Speed of service,” for example, is the top priority for the fast food industry. Amazingly, customers rank it as fourth in importance. Also, notice “wireless payment options,” an initiative 31% of the industry is scrambling to implement. See it on the customer’s list anywhere? Me neither.

I think it’s a common problem. Businesses get sidetracked doing what they THINK their customers want instead of what they KNOW their customers want. I’m sure untold sums of money have been wasted this way. I’ve personally been guilty, and I know I’m not the only one.

The bottom line is this: Want to improve your offering? Ask your customers what they want. It may be something completely different (and cheaper or easier) than you thought.

I’m always pleasantly surprised when a routine customer service interaction is uniquely carried out. This was the conversation I had at the drive thru of a Taco Bell last night:

Hello. How are you tonight?
Umm..good, thanks.
Great, what can I get you?
I just need three crunchy tacos.
All right, and would you like anything to drink with that? Maybe a large Pepsi?
No, that’s OK.
OK, then your total is $2.55 and you can pull up to the first window.

I thought the greeting and the up-sell pitch were both well done. I guess it felt more like a conversation instead a routine transaction.

It didn’t cost The Bell anything, and it left me with positive feeling about their customer service. What’s not to like?

It just goes to show that little things can really make a difference. Break the mold and your customers will notice.

Beginning this month, Wendy’s will allow dine-in customers to purchase a Frosty with the rest of their meal and pick it up before leaving.

According to a recent press release, customers will pay for the popular frozen dessert while ordering their food and receive a “Frosty-To-Go” certificate. After eating, they can bypass the line at the counter and redeem the the certificate for the dessert that they ordered.

The nations 3rd largest burger chain has been testing the concept in hometown Columbus, OH since October. “We’ve seen a sizable increase in dine-in Frosty sales,” said franchise owner Robert Felt. “Apparently, customers appreciate not watching their desert melt while they eat their lunch.”

Wow. Forget on table advertising. Wendy’s has redeemed themselves.

Well, they would if tried this. I actually just made it up.
I think it could work though…