Customer Service Is A Critical Piece of the Marketing Puzzle

I just spoke with my wife regarding a trip she made to Albertson’s to
get groceries. She said it was the most horrible “experience” and she
would “never” go back. It was 11 a.m. and the store was cluttered with
palettes and stockers restocking shelves. When my wife would try to get
a product off the shelf she was greeted with irritated sighs. (Idea,
let’s stock the shelves overnight.) Now for the checkout: She is made to
feel foolish because the check wasn’t being accepted. The reason, when
she signed the check she inadvertently wrote over some of the routing
numbers. The cashier, instead of manually typing in the numbers, told my
wife to write out another check. After all of this, the bagger doesn’t
even ask to help my wife (who has our daughter with her) out to the car.
And, the cashier became “huffy” when my wife asked for the all-famous
“reward card” back.

So, because of this breakdown in the marketing chain my wife will
definitely not speak favorably of, or be an advocate for Albertson’s and
any point in the near future. In fact, she told everyone else in the
checkout line, “This is why my husband says to shop at Kroger.”

Now take that same comment posted on her Facebook page, Twitter Tweets, and any other medium she can access, and you see the importance of the “experience.”

In conclusion, part of the planned strategies of marketing should be to make
sure the customer has favorable experiences with the product or service
once external communications get them to give the product or service a
try. Remember, people buy experiences.

Just some food for thought.