RETAILERS URGED TO REVIEW CUSTOMER SERVICE GOALS

ROSEANNE HARPER

NEW YORK -- Supermarket operators need to delight -- not just satisfy -- their customers if they have any hope of succeeding with customer service, two marketing experts told attendees at the Fancy Food Show last week.

In such a competitive world, they should keep looking for new ways to please their customers, but most are barely taking note of their customers at all, said Richard George and John Stanton, professors at the Academy of Food Marketing, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia.

"The first thing you have to realize is that your sales and profits come from people, not from your products. We're all selling the same things. What makes the difference is the intangible of making the customer feel good," said George.

"They only care about two things: finding a solution to a problem and feeling good about it."

But consumers say over and over again that they hate grocery shopping. Can't someone do something about that? Stanton asked.

"Supermarkets are the only businesses I know of that treat their best customers the worst. They use customers' loyalty cards to give them discounts, but that's about it. What else do they get? The express lanes are for people who spend a little bit. If you want to spend a lot, you have to go stand in line."

George suggested special checkout lanes for frequent shoppers, and he stressed that to find out what your customers want, you have to ask them. Listening to them in focus groups, for instance, can be difficult, especially if their comments are negative, he added. But it's a necessary step.

"Ask yourself how much formalized time you spent last year listening to your customers. And what did you do if they weren't pleased with everything? Did you ask how you can improve? We view a complaint as an opportunity -- to make them happy."

He cited Publix Super Markets, Lakeland, Fla., and Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y., as two exemplary chains in that they have organized systems to keep in touch with their customers. And they're ringing up sales that show it works, he said.

While most people say they hate to grocery shop, people actually say they like shopping at Publix and Wegmans, George pointed out. But that's no accident.

"Publix spends much more than the national average per employee to train them in customer service and they have a data base with the names of 13,000 customers that they interview periodically. The point here is that this is a systematic thing, not hit or miss. And Publix happens to be one of the most profitable chains around," he said.

"You don't have to be a big chain to do this. In fact, small companies do it, but it comes from the top down. You can't have the store manager sitting in an office doing paperwork all day," said Stanton.

"Publix and Wegmans and some others, like Lunds-Byerly's out in Minnesota, have systems in place that mandate things happen."

Customer delight needs to be a goal to stay ahead of the competition, George said.

"We in the supermarket business think we're heroes if we replace a quart of bad milk with a quart of good milk, don't we? Well, that customer had to make a trip back with a product he'd already paid for to get what he should have got in the first place. How about something extra?"

Such little things as the policy on replacing a defective product can make the difference in whether a customer is delighted or just satisfied or plain annoyed. Stanton cited a study that shows that 60% of customers who say they are satisfied will nevertheless go to another store.

"So you see why you have to give them something they're not expecting. Something in addition to replacing the milk," he said.

George and Stanton stressed over and over that making the customer feel good is the way to bring him back.

"Let's not talk about customer loyalty. If you want loyalty, get a dog. Customers aren't loyal. It's your responsibility to be loyal to them, by constantly and aggressively looking for new ways to please them," Stanton said.

"Think about what it will take to keep them. Customized products? Personalized marketing? No-excuses service?"

McDonald's is a prime example of a company that puts their core customers at the top.

"They're selling the same hamburgers they've been selling for years. But their goal is to delight kids. Kids cry to go to McDonald's. How many of you have customers crying to come to your stores?"

And how does McDonald's get such a response day after day? With playgrounds, Happy Meals, toys and all kinds of hoopla that kids love. And clean restrooms and tables that are easy to keep clean keep the parents happy, George said.

What's surprising is that it doesn't take much to make a customer happy, Stanton said.

"A customer told me she preferred to shop in a friendly store and I asked her to define 'friendly.' She said that would be one where the employees talk to her."

It's easy for retailers to complain about their associates, Stanton said, but he explained that much of the interaction that frustrates customers is generated by company policy.

"I was in a fudge store recently and I wanted to buy a half pound each of two different varieties. But the associate said he couldn't charge me the pound price, I had to pay the higher half pound price for each. I was told it was company policy," George said.

Both men pointed out that retailers need not think in terms of huge training programs to begin giving customers their due.

"I asked one rude desk clerk at a hotel how much time her company spends on customer service training and she answered that customer service comes naturally," said George.

Obviously it doesn't, so "we [in management] have to tell our associates unequivocally what customer service is."

"That's the least you can do, but if you don't build customer service into your company policy, it won't get done," he added.