Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson, former global Sector President at Kimberly-Clark Corporation spent 30 years in consumer products, started up two companies, one manufacturing underground coal mining equipment (Wilson Manufacturing Company, Inc.) and in 2004, The Caregiver Partnership, a national direct to consumer retailer of home medical supplies to the more than 66 million caregivers in the U.S. He is also co-author of Negotiate Anything!, a 30-year longitudinal study of customer service in the U.S., the first of its kind.

Best Buy Customers Must Be Dumb

0 comments 1,301 reads

Posted on 2011-06-15

I just bought a blu ray player and receiver from Best Buy. The poor sales guy had to act excited and tell me that I could get a 20% discount on HDMI cables with the purchase of a blu ray player.

I said, "Your price for an 8' cable is $80, so you're saying I can get it for $64. But I can buy an HDMI cable for about $12 online.

His response was that their brand, Rocketfish was high quality with gold tips. I said, I can get the Rocketfish brand for $12. Why would I buy cables Best Buy? Further in reviews and testing I've seen, the picture and sound quality is no different between brands. He knew I was right.

Then to add insult to injury, Best Buy ran an ad last Sunday on a blu ray player and advertised $10 off HDMI cables ($50 versus $60). They must...

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The Nearly Impossible Task of Being a Smart Shopper of Healthcare

0 comments 1,057 reads

Posted on 2011-06-14

This is the result of an 18 month investigation to determine if it is actually poss bile for consumers to be smart shoppers of health care.

This story shares the herculean effort it took with the CEO and CFO of our large health care provider to get them to reluctantly match pricing of local competitors on a simple colonscopy. It also shares the struggle it took to have our insurance company refund the reduced pricing that we, not them, negotiated. During the eighteen months of this investigation, we were continually ignored from the highest levels of a large healthcare organization.

We discovered that it is virtually impossible for consumers to be smart shoppers of healthcare because the system is designed to work against you and throw up road blocks every step of the way.

BACKGROUND
Have you ever heard an employer, a newscaster or government official say that we all need to be smart shoppers of health care?

As an employee of two large global...

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8 Simple Steps to a Better Customer Service Experience

2 comments 2,149 reads

Posted on 2011-04-08

Here is How We Earned a Net Promoter Score of 85+ And Kept It Going for Four Years. 8 Simple Steps.

The finance people won't like these because they cost more. Most finance people can't quantify what brand equity is all about and should't be engaged in customer service.

We answer all calls by the 3rd ring. OUCH! says the bean counter. Keep the customers on hold for a minute or two. We turned off all the fancy features on our state of the art managed IP VOIP phone system. The only high tech we employ is that which enhances the high touch.

Each of our calls are answered by a highly trained Product Specialist. OUCH! says the bean counter ... "training is costly". I say, not if your turnover is low.

She does whatever she feels makes the most sense to treat the customer with respect and dignity. We have been purposeful about not writing procedures and policies. We treat our customers as we would like to be treated. OUCH! says the bean counter...

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Coldwater Creek - Another Dumb Customer Service Policy

0 comments 1,527 reads

Posted on 2011-04-06

Coldwater Creek provides the latest example of just plain dumb business practices that only serve to make consumers angry. Another bait and switch example.

In our book, Negotiate Anything!, we devote an entire chapter to "Just Plain Dumb Business Practices" and this one by Coldwater Creek qualifies for this chapter in our next edition.

My wife was online today and put a $79.99 item in her Coldwater Creek cart and a notice came up on the screen telling her that she qualified for FREE shipping. She added another item to the cart going over $80.00 (to qualify for the coupon that provided $20 off if you spent $80).

She checked out and entered the coupon code (Get $20 off $80) and noticed she was charged $12.95 shipping.

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Chase Me Away From Your Bank

0 comments 1,338 reads

Posted on 2011-04-01
To attack (I meant to say attract) new customers, Chase is now charging $5.00 to get $20 out of one of their machines if you aren't a current customer. Now there is a brilliant trial promotion. Their CEO of banking says he feels good about it.

Chase's Pay $5 to get $20 scheme

In our book, Negotiate Anything! Secrets to Make Companies Treat You Fairly, one of the tenets is when you have no other options with a business, "Do not reward bad behavior". You need to switch to a competitor. Chase is implementing one bad behavior after another. These work against the consumers best interest.

Here are some alternatives:
- Find another ATM with a lower fee. Do not reward bad behavior by Chase.
- Buy something from a grocery store (gum) and get cash back....
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Chase Eliminating Rewards From Their "Ultimate Rewards" Card

0 comments 1,254 reads

Posted on 2011-04-01

For a number of years, I've consulted with the 2nd largest global bank on card and other loan products -- many targeted at the sub prime market. After several years of work, I was disgusted with how, in my opinion, their marketing was designed to take advantage of sub prime customers. I haven't done any work with them since.

This week, the monstrous JP Morgan Chase bank which contributed in causing our economy to virtually implode, announced that they are now eliminating all rewards on the card they themselves refer to as ... get this "Chase Ultimate Rewards". Their Senior Vice President, Bill Sheley blames the move on the Federal Government -- specifically... the Durbin Amendment.

Further, Chase isn't offsetting this loss to their customers in any manner. Customers still have to live with all the other terms and conditions of this debit card. So, Bill's value add is to eliminate all the rewards from the "Ultimate Rewards" card and not provide added value in another...

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10 Simple Ways to Make Customers Feel Good

1 comments 1,288 reads

Posted on 2011-03-30

Recently I was at a Target and upon checkout, I thanked the cash register person and their response was "Yup. No problem". I thought, gee whiz, do they not train these people?

Here are 10 simple things you can say to customers to make them feel good about doing business with you. Notice that the first one is 1 one word, the second is 2 and so on. I did not create this and do not know who did, but we keep it posted at work for everyone to see and live by.

Yes
Thank You
How did we do?
How may I serve you?
What is most convenient for you?
What else can I do for you?
I'm not sure, but I will find out.
Thank you for your business. Please call us again.
I apologize for our mistake. Let me make it right.

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Technology is Killing Customer Service

8 comments 2,026 reads

Posted on 2010-11-26

What? That is outrageous you say? I first want to apologize for all those reading this that are under age 35. You have no idea what customer service excellence is because frankly, you haven't seen it.

You never experienced having someone pump your gas, check your oil and tire pressure and clean your windshield.

You never experienced getting your ticket fast and efficiently from a trained ticket agent wearing a pressed suit and starched shirt or blouse.

You never experienced calling a business and actually have someone answer the phone right away -- someone that actually worked at the company you called and could answer your question about the company's product or service without having to forward you to another department.

You never experienced checking out and having someone thank you for shopping with them rather.

Technology has replaced good old fashioned customer service. This includes CRM packages, IVR phone systems, online chat, FAQ...

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A Fish Stinks From The Head

0 comments 1,168 reads

Posted on 2010-11-08

I think the proverb "A Fish Always Stinks From The Head" is appropriate in this case.

Two and a half years ago we switched our business internet connection and phone service to Time Warner. We run a national call center and ecommerce site selling 3000 medical supplies (www.caregiverpartnership.com).

For two years, we experienced over 20 fully documented issues - outages and service interruptions lastly more than four days at times. We worked hard with local TW team members, but ultimately had to move to an alternative vendor. The regional TW management was embarrassed how poorly they responded to service issues. There were muliple handoffs, limited follow up, a lack of accountability by any individual - middle management or otherwise.

Then we took the time to fully document each issue including what happened, the date, whom we talked with, what was promised and what the...

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Establishment of Customer Service as a Core Business Driver

0 comments 1,669 reads

Posted on 2010-10-05

There are 12 Success Criteria needed to establish customer service as a core business driver. This article presents Success Criteria #1… the establishment of customer service as a core business driver.

All businesses seek to invest time and money in developing a sustainable advantage versus their competition. Two obvious choices are in product innovation and price. Both require investment in different areas. We’d all love to have our products or service locked up with long-term patents. However, after 30 years of working in consumer products with two world-class companies, this is difficult to nearly impossible to accomplish. There are simply too many smart competitors that can figure out how to design around your intellectual property. Have said that, occasionally companies do develop strong protection.

Another competitive strategy is price. Wal-Mart was built on this foundation from day one. It kept its overhead lower that the competition’s and changed...

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