A Prediction, A Sigh And What Not To Do

i dont read every post you write but dude you sure can write… i still dont get your point though… personalized service at every website? so if a website sells lets say SEO services you want us to create a different site for link wheels, link pushes and link pyramids each? and back that with personalized service like phone and live chat? what happened to all under one roof? i’d say that every market, brick and mortar or the WWW will run its course of customer awareness, expectation, services offered and rendered and the gap therein… neways… was a great read.. enough to get me to post… so thanks

Hey Adeel, thanks for the comment.

Well, in that scenario… you wouldn’t necessarily need to do that since they’re all very tightly related… unless that’s what you wanted to do.

If you wanted to specialize in doing link building for dentists’ websites.. who do you think the dentists would turn to to get their SEO done? You, the dentist website SEO expert, or the “we do everything for everyone” guys…

Just an example. Not saying you need to do that.

As for personalized service, I think one-to-one relationships with consumers are the future of marketing, and I believe the most leveragable way of doing that is through social media…. like finding your customers on Twitter and saying “what’s up?”.

Final recommendation: Buy Gary Vee’s new book, the Thank You Economy – it changed the way I look at a lot of things.

Cheers,
Linus

makes sense when you put it that way… thanks…

I get it! People have to have the scene set for them to buy and not be overwhelmed with choices. If you try to sell too many things there is no way can you give real customer service or support-they can’t know about ALL the products they stock-people don’t have time to analyze which of the 100s of microwaves would best suit them and they will be overwhelmed. A few choices in each price range would be more than adequate here, along with a personal touch would put them back in profit. Cheers for that example Linus!

An excellent post, Linus.
Personalized service – what a concept, huh?
“out care everyone else”
What a marketing world that would be!
Actually it fits perfectly for the new service I will be offering in a few weeks as soon as the blog is up and running so the timing of the post is perfect for me.
Thanks for sharing your genius with us.

A good example of choices is the local restaurant menu. How many times have you gone out to eat and spent as much time looking and deciding as it took to eat once served, all because you had a bazillion choices and maybe almost as many pages to leaf through? A lot I’ll wager.

And…

There was a video some time ago about marketing. They used cigarettes as an example.

Some fellow walked into his boss and told him they needed to add a filter model to their line. The boss did not want to because back then filters were considered sissy and feminine and the men would not buy them.

But then the boss asked why the should and the simple answer was, “because everyone else is doing it.” With that the boss said then they needed to also.

The bottom line is, the customer is always right and if you want to stay in business you give them what they want and service to go with it.

It is not the customers job to go looking for what they want, but the merchants job to locate it for them.

Really enjoyed this post, Linus! I wonder how your predictions will pan out?! I’ve never been in a Mediamarkt (i live in Spain), I don’t even know where their shops are, I guess basically because of what you’ve said – there are loads of shops that are using the same old sales message and i’d rather just go to my usual shop (Fnac) where i feel unconsciously more comfortable because of the customer service (which incidentally in Spain is usually much poorer than in Fnac). Their TV adverts are pretty annoying too! I don’t even compare their prices with other shops because i assume they are very similar anyway and a couple of euros more or less doesn’t really bother me that much. Thanks for making me think about this :)

Nice close!

And I laughed my ass off at the commercial, while not understanding one word!

Very well said Linus…and this out-caring attitude/service also ties into word of mouth and hence, having positive presence in the social media scene.

“A confused mind never buys”.

I don’t remember who might have said it, but that saying has come up a lot by marketing experts.

Having studied psychology, it has been suggested that the highest number that the average American (maybe humans in general) can effectively keep track of in one list is 7.

This suggests that perhaps the maximum number of similar products in a particular category should be offered is 7.

While this does not necessarily apply to IMers, as usually there seems to be a maximum of 3 levels or so in a product list, it seems a worthy point to add to this post.

yes I agree with you,
but it also means that their margins suck. I couldn’t imagine that they’re making a whole lot of profit per sale. and give profit for them self’s

I disagree with you Linus.

Let me preface this in saying I don’t know the intricacies of Sweden’s buying culture, but this model has proven very effective in America.

Large market stores such as Walmart, Ikea :), Target, Sam’s Club, Costco and others are making a killing.

A small microwave store may sound great in theory but when you get down to it people buy on perceived value. Say a small microwave store opened up next door, there’s no way they can compete on the price even if they have a great product and guide you to the perfect microwave.

Said microwave will still cost $30-$50 more than the big box store model, and after all how perfect can a microwave get. Now that doesn’t take into account people who equate high price to high value, but I would say the typical buyer would think, “Is this microwave really worth $30-$50 extra? – No, I could buy a new pair of shoes for that.”

In your second example you talk about buying a TV and getting great service at a small local store. This may be the case in Sweden but here smaller stores are often filled with tech zealots who would naturally guide you to the most expensive DLP flat screen with the perfect picture vs. the cheaper but cost effective LCD or LED TV that would better suite the average buyer.

Even if they guided you to the TV that would best suite you they could not match the prices at the big box stores, which on average here would be around 30%-50% cheaper and also have a killer warranty and return policy, which you would have to pay extra for at the smaller store.

The only way I see people paying more for the same thing is if they add a free blow-job in as a value added service.

The other thing I don’t think you took into account is that though they may be competing on price they also have a USP of having everything, so my guess is that the average checkout price is much higher, because people would say while I’m here I might as well pick up milk, a movie, etc…

Another thing I’d like to add is that just because a store is large doesn’t mean you can’t find a knowledgable salesperson to help you. Home Depot has done a fair job of hiring knowledgable people so this store may be an isolated incidence.

Finally, from what I could gather from Stieg Larson’s books, Sweden has a very minimalist culture so this store probably should have done more market research before offering Swede’s everything :)

I don’t disagree with that there is room for improvement using great customer service and small specialized service as a USP, but different strokes for different folks. Also I don’t have a Media Markt here so I was basing my theory on Walmart :)

Big isn’t always bad, small isn’t always good and the beauty of Capitalism is that the market will always adjust to what consumers want, because the consumers also work and own the market.

Hey Shelby.

You certainly have some valid points, thanks for taking the time to brain dump that.

First of all, Walmart has been on a declining sales trend for the past 7 quarters… but yes either way you have some valid points.

As I’ve just finished reading Gary’s book, as I mentioned, these thoughts are still fresh in my head… but I firmly believe that building 1-to-1 relationships with the consumers is the future of business. And for a corporation who is constantly concerned about “cutting costs” I think this will be a hard task to accomplish… If a big place like Wal-mart can do that… and employ people who actually give a damn (as opposed to those who just try to make it through the day so they can go home after work and watch TV) – I think they will get even bigger.

This may sound paradoxical, but I do not disagree with you. I don’t think there is anything wrong with being big, but I don’t think simply being big and cheap should be your primary selling point.

In your second example you talk about buying a TV and getting great service at a small local store. This may be the case in Sweden but here smaller stores are often filled with tech zealots who would naturally guide you to the most expensive DLP flat screen with the perfect picture vs. the cheaper but cost effective LCD or LED TV that would better suite the average buyer.

… nah, it’s really the same thing here. But yeah, some actual caring wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Sweden… minimalist culture? I think I can see what would make it appear so… I don’t think so. I think we’re more like wanna-be minimalists… we buy the clean minimalistic-like furniture and appliances and so on in an attempt to appear to be modern individuals, but really all that’s changed is the designs. Not entirely sure what you meant by minimalist… but we like most every other culture is always trying to prove ourselves. That we’re cool, that we’re accepted, that we’re loved… so we buy the fancy gadgets and designer clothing just like everyone else. (while a true minimalist would really only be concerned about having the bare minimum required for… contentment, I suppose)

Also I’m writing this at 3 am in the morning, so yes I’m rambling a bit, and if any of the above appear to be nonsensical… it probably is. Just a disclaimer.

Again, thanks for the thoughtful comment.

Linus

First I’d say that 95% of businesses probably are on a declining sales trend and a smart 5% either got lucky or got smart and learned to work the recession to their advantage.

Also Walmart services the kind of people who were hit hardest by the recession so that probably has something to do with it.

I definitely agree with you on 1-to-1 relationships but I think there is a time and a place for them, I don’t think they’re a catch all solution and oftentimes very costly to create (which you’d probably agree with :) )

You can take a look at Amazon as well in an online setting and see how well they do, it would seem to me they have very little to do with 1-to-1 relationships but are a huge success none the less.

However a local store or small online retailer could do really well in that regard and I think your an example of that. If you look at Frank Kern’s blogs he never responds to comments or at the least very seldom.

As for Sweden, what little I know is based on Stieg Larson’s books, and human nature as you so eloquently pointed out always rules.

I hope to visit there some day and learn a little more about it. I have a little Scandinavian blood in me too :)

Thanks for your gracious reply and get some sleep!!!