A different type of customer service

I’ve found a book to add to my to-be-read pile. “The New Pioneers” by Wall Street Journal’s Thomas Petzinger takes a look at how several companies transformed themselves into better, more effective businesses.

I stumbled across the book when reading a “Fast Company” article based on the book. The article examined how Cemex, a Mexican cement company, went from a the-customer-must-conform-to-us operation to a customer-focused company.

Cement spoils after 90 minutes in the truck, and that’s a major problem when you show up to a building site on time and the crew isn’t ready for you. In response, the company turned to punitive fines and demanded customer compliance with company rules.

Then Cemex’s execs visited FedEx in Memphis and a 911 center in Houston and were amazed at the high level of coordination and efficiency. Cemex decided to internally streamline itself and dramatically changed their customer satisfaction rate and its profitability.

In contrast, garden centers tend to focus almost exclusively on the employees’ interaction with shoppers to improve customer satisfaction.

Customers are simple creatures, no matter how complicated the personality. They want enough healthy product to make a choice from, but not so much that they’re overwhelmed. Then they want to check out quickly and leave.

Maybe it’s time to look at internal systems and traffic flow at garden centers. When does product arrive? Where and when is it cared for? How is it restocked? How often is it restocked? How crowded are the aisles, are the carts easy to maneuver?

But a balance must be struck. It seems that the garden centers that are best at efficiency are also sterile. Is there a way to combine a garden center that warmly welcomes customers and be efficient?

-Carol