Customer Empowerment Essay -- Economics

Customer Empowerment The Choice is Yours The Internet has permanently changed the relationship between consumers and the retail industry. Electronic commerce has provided consumers with more options, more alternatives and more opportunities than ever before. Consumers are no longer limited to physically visiting "main street" or "big-box" retailers. Instead, they are able to choose from products and services from companies large and small, located all over the world, without leaving their homes. Tangible points of comparison between retailers, which now can be automatically aggregated by software buying agents in seconds, include more than selection and price. Shipping costs, return policies, privacy practices and personalization of products are examples of tangible points of comparison. Equally as important are intangible points of comparison, specifically the customer experience. Everything from the look and feel of the home page to the shopping and buying process defines this experience. It encompasses everything the customer sees, clicks, reads, or otherwise interacts with. The customer experience is the key to dotcom survival. Consider the options available at the Land's End Web site. Consumers can browse the catalog online or shop with a friend, speak with a customer representative on the phone or online, create a model to try on clothes virtually, ask questions about specific products, place an order and track past orders. Concern over the customer experience has clearly driven the design of the Land's End business model, creating numerous options unavailable in the physical world. Of course, this overlooks the most powerful and fundamental option to consumers on the Internet: the ability to leave one store and enter another within seconds. And if a satisfactory purchase cannot be made, online auctions provide alternative shopping venues that directly compete with many traditional retailers. Central to the creation of a positive, unique and personalized shopping experience are technologies employed to remember customer preferences. Tracked preferences help expedite, and sometimes fully automate, the shopping process while offering targeted marketing and discounts. Online chat, bulletin boards, user reviews, auction sites, consumer feedback, online help and other customer-oriented features are als... ...e the price was just too high (because of the pricing error). I asked him if he could change it and he said no. He also knew that they would be throwing out the oranges soon if they didn’t sell. His frustration in not being able to correct such an obvious problem in his own department was evident. The Lesson. I tell these two contrasting stories because they relate directly to customer satisfaction and profitability as a function of employee empowerment. Two good grocery chains with two very different approaches to management. At Fresh Fields, every employee is aware of his or her impact on profit and is empowered to take independent action to maximize it. The decision to give two expensive cookies to a customer is not an insignificant decision. It is a business decision that may influence the relationship between a store and its customer. Unfortunately, it is a decision that most employees in traditionally managed organizations have no authority to make. My hope is that these two examples will clearly show how customers and profits can be won or lost when employees are enabled to take ownership of day-to-day problems. Once again, it just makes sense.