Kevin Harrington // marketing // blog

George Wimpey sales office

Yes, it is true, George Wimpey house sales could be a lot quicker if they sent details to potential customers.

I’ve been trying to get some simple details from George Wimpey since January and it is now 9 March. I’ve sent more than 4 emails as well.

More details on this story will be here soon.

And here, posted on 6 April 2008, is an update. After posting the three paragraphs above, the business development director for George Wimpey emailed me. In fact he emailed within an hour of posting. I guess he uses Google Alerts to monitor internet mentions of his business. He seemed a nice guy and very genuine. It still took another couple of weeks before any details arrived.

It is interesting how a sincere reply/apology does go a long way to recovering a situation.

Anyway, for those that have asked me, I’m not about to buy one of these houses. They look fine but they are not for me. One reason is garden size. But there are other reasons as well.

Sandwich

Tuesday: up at 04.00 to leave the house at 04.30 to catch a flight from Heathrow.

I needed to fill up with petrol on the way to the airport. So I stopped at the 24 hour BP petrol station near my house. I needed to wait for the attendant to wake up to allow me to spend £50. I didn’t think much more about this poor level of service until I arrived at Heathrow.

The Iberia self check-in service failed so I had to queue for 25 minutes to check-in. The ritual undressing through security followed: shoes off, coat off, jacket off, watch off, belt off…then there was no convenient place to get dressed again.

In turn this meant that I arrived at the gate just in time to board the plane. No opportunity for breakfast, coffee or anything! Of course the plane took off 25 minutes late.

My Iberia ticket to Madrid was well over £600. Bought at short notice, fully flexible for a variable business stay, I could probably accept this. That is of course if the flight delivered refreshments! I’m being a little unfair here as there was a refreshment trolley. I was lucky, I was in the third row of economy, and when they got to me the sandwich choice was down to one only. So much for the glossy menu. The row behind me, still miles from the back of the plane, had no sandwiches at all. The really galling thing about it all is that a club sandwich (and not a very good advert for the genre either) and a coffee cost 10.5 Euros.

There was a chance that I could have just nodded off and put all this down to modern standards. But instead I started reading Market Leader, the journal of the Marketing Society: page after page of articles about delivering great service in service industries. I felt inspired by the thoughts of opportunities and at the same time depressed from my consumer experiences of the day.

Coming home was a British Airways flight. Guess what? Three choices of food, all available and all made quite recently…and they were free (well, included in the £600). Thank you BA! How daft is that…I’m thanking BA for a service level that I would expect.

Anyway, being a positive chap, I took it all as a learning experience. And I could have been trying to fly into Heathrow today after the Boeing 777 crash. I could have been hours late.

I’ve had a couple of meetings today about new business opportunities and I have to say that service delivery has been very much front of mind for me.

Word of mouth

Good service leaves a positive and lasting impression. Unfortunately we all too often end up telling friends and colleagues of the poor service we have received.

My shopping experiences this Christmas have been really quite good: service levels have been good; stock availability better than expected; till queues well managed.

My star retail sales person in the last week is Geoff Noronha at Dawsons http://www.dawsons.co.uk/ in Reading. He delivered useful advice and his efficiency and combined good humour made the experience a pleasure.

Great service leaves a more marked impression than advertising, but of course you have to get the customer in the shop first!

Thinking of this reminds of Net Promoter Score http://www.netpromoter.com/ (NPS). It really is a simple but effective business metric:-

Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking customers a single question (usually, “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”). Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth.

Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters.

Proponents of the Net Promoter approach claim the score can be used to motivate an organization to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. They further claim that a company’s relative Net Promoter Score (its score relative to competitors) correlates with revenue growth relative to competitors.

Directory enquiries

When you can’t get in your car you need help. Well I did anyway. And the number for Saab Assistance was locked in the car. Directory enquiries seemed to be the answer.

Whoops, well it would have been if I hadn’t phoned 118 118. Congratulations to them on their marketing and choice of number; it is the service that sprung to mind immediately. I think the fact that their call centre may be past the White Cliffs of Dover is highly likely when one is asked, “How do you spell Saab?”, “What does Saab stand for?” and “Is it a local dealer?”

Give me strength.

Anyway, I abandoned all hope on that one and noticed the number 118 247 staring up at me from the yellow pages. A number in seconds, and it was the right one.

The lessons learned:

1) If you invest in a brand name make sure you deliver behind it.
2) If you want directory enquiries I recommend 118 247.
3) Don’t lock emergency numbers in your car. Store them in your mobile as well.

Morris Marina 1975

In the last century some of the UK’s best brands have been motor cars and motor manufacturers. The history and demise of one of the best (and worst) players is dealt with very well in this feature: Longbridge merger that put it on the road to ruin-Business-Columnists-TimesOnline

Today the UK’s biggest strength is in the information and service sectors. Will we go the same way with these valuable businesses as we did with the motor industry?