You know when I don’t work? Nights and weekends. Well, actually I do, but I’m not required to go into the office at that time. You know why, America? Because I found a job that doesn’t require me to go into work on nights and weekends. You know why I found a job like that? Because I used to have jobs that required me to go in on nights and weekends, and I didn’t like that so much.
Yet, as Black Friday grows near, I am seeing news reports and reading articles about a lot of the folks who work in retail during the holiday season complaining about having to work long hours, nights and weekends, and in particular, during the later hours of Thanksgiving Day, and frankly, I am puzzled.
I’m not trying to be heartless here, but the plight of these folks takes me back to my thoughts on the debate about working part-time at Wal-Mart with no health insurance. At any point when you were applying for the job did they tell you that you were going to have health insurance, then all of the sudden, take it away? No, they did not. I am sure they told you all along that your part-time job at Wal-Mart did not come with health insurance. So, why, then, are you sitting there with a part-time job at Wal-Mart, surprised that you do not have health insurance?
You work in retail. That is the job you have. For whatever reason, that is a fact of your life. And in case you are wondering, I spent the first three years of my working life in retail, full-time while going to high school, and even had to join a union for my first job, so that’s where I get off talking about working in retail.
The store at which you work is open on Black Friday. You can’t, at this point, sit there and be surprised that the store wants you to work crazy hours on Black Friday. Are you going to honestly tell me that you didn’t see that coming?
You work in retail, yet somehow do not understand what Black Friday is, and never took notice that the starting gates open earlier and earlier each year? You are still somehow surprised? Really? The 5:00 AM sale that became the 4:00 AM sale that became the 3:00AM sale? You didn’t see where that was going?
Ask all the folks who are not in retail about a job that requires them to work crazy hours once or twice a year, and trust me, you probably won’t get a lot of sympathy from them. Just to clarify what I am getting at, most of us non-retail employees, especially those on salary instead of hourly, end up having to work crazy hours more than once or twice a year.
Ask us about overtime pay and our 15 minutes breaks throughout the day too, so we can laugh at you. Do I even need to bring up the whole you work in retail and are lucky to be one of the 85% of people who do that actually still have a job in this economy?
And don’t get me wrong, I get it’s a holiday. I missed many a holiday, birthday, etc., when I was working retail, but I also understood that it was part of the job I had at the time. Again, you can’t take a job working retail and be surprised when you are working nights, weekends and holidays.
And while I’m on the soapbox, I have a little message for the consumers who are complaining on behalf of these retail workers. Really? So, year after year, you buy into the whole Black Friday concept, allowing these retailers to bait you into the store in deplorable, dangerous, and in some cases, deadly conditions, allow them to bait you into stampeding over each other to save some money on let’s face it, crap you don’t need to survive anyway, yet you draw the line at the store making employees miss part of Thanksgiving Day so they can work that night? If there was no one willing to show up to shop at 10:00 PM on Thanksgiving, the stores wouldn’t be opening at that time, so consumers are in no position to complain about when the stores are opening.
Again, America, we cannot sit here and be surprised that this year some of our largest retailers are opening as early as 10:00 PM on Thanksgiving night, expecting their employees to work, and expecting consumers to come in, risking life and limb, to save some money on all the stuff that they simply cannot live without. Like you didn’t see that one coming, America.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
How Dell Changed A Brand Loyalist's Mind...
Customer loyalty boils down to personal experience. No matter what a business’s size, who is on its executive team, its market cap, etc., etc., consumers become loyal to a brand and company based on their own personal experience.
I recently read an article about Michael Dell that starts off with his story. Dell founded his computer upgrade firm in his dorm at U of Texas when he was 19. At 27, in 1992, he became the youngest CEO ever on the Fortune 500. The company started with personal computer upgrades, moved to selling personal systems, moved to customizing those systems, then into selling personal systems over the net at the same time as expanding into servers. Now, in 2011 with $26.6 billion in market cap, Dell Computer is getting ready to expand into the Cloud and software markets.
That’s a great story, and I’m not knocking Michael Dell for his success, but the fact remains that before I could even finish reading the article on Michael Dell, I found myself typing my own article on an HP Compaq laptop that I had to buy when my fifth and final Dell laptop took a crap on me during its manufacturer warranty period.
So, regardless of Dell’s success, and regardless of Michael Dell’s fantastic, successful story, I am a customer who purchased five Dell laptops from 2001 to 2011, yet I am also a customer who went out in 2011 and bought an HP Compaq instead. Why?
Well, because I finally had it, that’s why. I truly believe that my Dell Inspiron 8200 that I bought in 2001 would still be going today had I not spilled a bottle of water in it. I only wish I could say the same about the subsequent four Dells I purchased.
Each time, the screen failed on me, once at three years, once at two years, once at a year and a half, and now, this last time, after nine months. So, in a decade, a decade that saw immense growth and expansion for Dell, my personal experience has been the opposite – the other direction – my laptops have been lasting a shorter and shorter period of time – a reduction, not an expansion, in my own personal experience with Dell.
Top that off with two other things I have a problem with, and I have made my case for why, while being one of the strongest brand loyalists I know, I have changed my laptop brand after 10 years.
Thing #1 – Customer Service. When I first started calling Dell customer service back in 2001, it was a pleasant, easy experience. “Yes, sir, no problem, sir, right away, sir, we’ll get that fixed for you immediately, sir. That power cord failed under warranty, we’ll send you one out at no cost immediately and I apologize for the inconvenience, sir.”
Ten years later, while the customer service people did their best, I could also tell their hands were tied by new policies that probably didn’t exist ten years ago. “Well, while your laptop is in warranty and covered, I can only send someone out to look at it if you pay for an additional year’s warranty, or pay for the service call. Other than that, you are going to have to send it in to us, but the good news is that it will only take 10 days!” Ten days? In today’s business world, I am without a laptop for 10 days? Thanks, Dell.
Thing #2 – Dell’s Philosophy. This philosophy changed, and I think that is the reason for the dip in quality and Thing #1 above. Every Dell laptop has the Dell logo on the lid. My first and second Dell both had the logo positioned in a manner that when the laptop was closed and in my lap, the logo was right-side up for me, but was upside down to the person walking by or standing in front of me (the person who had not purchased a Dell laptop yet). My third, fourth and fifth Dell laptops were the opposite – the logo was right-side up when opened and being seen by the non-Dell-owner-passer-by and upside down to me, the idiot who had purchased the laptop when it was sitting closed in my lap. What does that tell me? Somewhere along the way, Dell became much less interested in servicing the customer who had already purchased their product and much more interested in selling the next laptop to the person who had not purchased one yet.
As I said…Personal experience. Ten years ago, I was so excited to buy that first big $2000 laptop from Dell that was just as fast and robust as a desktop. The day before I spilled water in it, I would have told you to buy nothing but Dells. Yet, two years later, after Dell #2 crapped out on me, I was a little bit less vocal with my praise for Dell. By Dell #3 and #4, I had stopped talking about the brand. And now, as Dell #5, freshly back from the repair shop and its 10 day vacation sits collecting dust as my back-up machine, and I sit typing on this HP Compaq, I am singing a very different tune. Guess what I am going to say now if someone asks me if they should buy a Dell?
I recently read an article about Michael Dell that starts off with his story. Dell founded his computer upgrade firm in his dorm at U of Texas when he was 19. At 27, in 1992, he became the youngest CEO ever on the Fortune 500. The company started with personal computer upgrades, moved to selling personal systems, moved to customizing those systems, then into selling personal systems over the net at the same time as expanding into servers. Now, in 2011 with $26.6 billion in market cap, Dell Computer is getting ready to expand into the Cloud and software markets.
That’s a great story, and I’m not knocking Michael Dell for his success, but the fact remains that before I could even finish reading the article on Michael Dell, I found myself typing my own article on an HP Compaq laptop that I had to buy when my fifth and final Dell laptop took a crap on me during its manufacturer warranty period.
So, regardless of Dell’s success, and regardless of Michael Dell’s fantastic, successful story, I am a customer who purchased five Dell laptops from 2001 to 2011, yet I am also a customer who went out in 2011 and bought an HP Compaq instead. Why?
Well, because I finally had it, that’s why. I truly believe that my Dell Inspiron 8200 that I bought in 2001 would still be going today had I not spilled a bottle of water in it. I only wish I could say the same about the subsequent four Dells I purchased.
Each time, the screen failed on me, once at three years, once at two years, once at a year and a half, and now, this last time, after nine months. So, in a decade, a decade that saw immense growth and expansion for Dell, my personal experience has been the opposite – the other direction – my laptops have been lasting a shorter and shorter period of time – a reduction, not an expansion, in my own personal experience with Dell.
Top that off with two other things I have a problem with, and I have made my case for why, while being one of the strongest brand loyalists I know, I have changed my laptop brand after 10 years.
Thing #1 – Customer Service. When I first started calling Dell customer service back in 2001, it was a pleasant, easy experience. “Yes, sir, no problem, sir, right away, sir, we’ll get that fixed for you immediately, sir. That power cord failed under warranty, we’ll send you one out at no cost immediately and I apologize for the inconvenience, sir.”
Ten years later, while the customer service people did their best, I could also tell their hands were tied by new policies that probably didn’t exist ten years ago. “Well, while your laptop is in warranty and covered, I can only send someone out to look at it if you pay for an additional year’s warranty, or pay for the service call. Other than that, you are going to have to send it in to us, but the good news is that it will only take 10 days!” Ten days? In today’s business world, I am without a laptop for 10 days? Thanks, Dell.
Thing #2 – Dell’s Philosophy. This philosophy changed, and I think that is the reason for the dip in quality and Thing #1 above. Every Dell laptop has the Dell logo on the lid. My first and second Dell both had the logo positioned in a manner that when the laptop was closed and in my lap, the logo was right-side up for me, but was upside down to the person walking by or standing in front of me (the person who had not purchased a Dell laptop yet). My third, fourth and fifth Dell laptops were the opposite – the logo was right-side up when opened and being seen by the non-Dell-owner-passer-by and upside down to me, the idiot who had purchased the laptop when it was sitting closed in my lap. What does that tell me? Somewhere along the way, Dell became much less interested in servicing the customer who had already purchased their product and much more interested in selling the next laptop to the person who had not purchased one yet.
As I said…Personal experience. Ten years ago, I was so excited to buy that first big $2000 laptop from Dell that was just as fast and robust as a desktop. The day before I spilled water in it, I would have told you to buy nothing but Dells. Yet, two years later, after Dell #2 crapped out on me, I was a little bit less vocal with my praise for Dell. By Dell #3 and #4, I had stopped talking about the brand. And now, as Dell #5, freshly back from the repair shop and its 10 day vacation sits collecting dust as my back-up machine, and I sit typing on this HP Compaq, I am singing a very different tune. Guess what I am going to say now if someone asks me if they should buy a Dell?
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