I think depending on the person generic brand is great, saves money and is not that much different than a brand name product.  It’s cheaper and sometimes tastes or if other than food works the same.  For example I can go to Macy’s and buy a black t-shirt for $40 plus and go to Walmart and buy the cheaper brand that looks exactly the same for about $5.  For me as a consumer I would go with Walmart.  For what I’m going to wear the shirt the cheaper is the better deal.  I’m a bargain shopper so anywhere I can save is sweet for me.  It can be with food, clothes, household items, hair products, etc. but I will say if I purchase a product and I absolutely love it whether it be generic or name brand I will continue to buy that product regardless of the price until I find a substitute that works the same. 

So, why is there a price difference at all? A lot of it has to do with the quality of products that are put into the item.  The band name may look fancy smancy where the generic may be a little less appealing and bland.  However it may seem when speaking of food the ingredients included in each of the brands may be exactly the same which brings the question.  Would you pay possible $2 to $3 more for a slight taste difference.  I as a consumer going through the hard times as just about every other person right now would sacrifice my taste buds and go with the cheaper.  Quality isn’t always everything, plus a little hot sauce and lime… who can tell the difference. LOL!!  Don’t ge me wrong there are some items in which I will not sacrifice and buy generic such as laundry detergent.. I’m a TIDE girl and will not budge but when it comes to bleach I will go with generic.  As for drinks I will not substitute my coke brand for a Dr. Cola or whatever you call it.  Any other soda I will except Coke.  I’m just wierd like that.  It just doesn’t taste the same.

As far as medication is concerned I’m all for generic.  The cost of meds right now is ridiculous especially if you have no insurance.  Generic drugs are copies of brand-name drugs that have exactly the same dosage, intended use, effects, side effects, route of administration, risks, safety, and strength as the original drug.  This may be so true but I’ve run into people at the pharmacy that get really upset because they got the generic instead of the real deal.  I’m like really…. you would rather pay $100 than $10.  Wow can I be your friend and you can take me shopping.  I can only imagine that these people are brand name straight away and spend up the wazoo when they could save so much.  I say whoever started this generic stuff is GENIOUS!!!!!

Okay every company must constantly seek improvements on to better provide customer service.  I’m a supervisor in a call center so we are constantly striving to better the service provided to our customers.  It’s key.  In the call center we are the front line and even though it is the 1 representative on the line, he/she is representing the company as a whole and that experience determines the longevity of the cusotmer.  We have monitoring sessions which allows the representative to listen to their calls and hear for themselves where improvement is needed.  I also provide them with 2 weekly monitors which the highest score is 100%.  We also take into consideration the surveys and customer tips by phone on improving customer service. 

Customers now a days want things done and they want it done fast no exceptions.  The best way to deliver this is being kind and courtesous.  One of my old bosses used to say “kill them with kindness” and it’s true.  Address a caller by their last name is a must..stay away from sir and ma’am.  Say please when you ask a customer a question, thank them for their information and take your time talking to them. Listening to a customer can also go a long way.  I always tell my reps treat your customer as your would want to be treated.  And it’s true, i don’t want to deal with a company that doesn’t acknowledge me, isn’t courteous and plain treats me like a number rather than a person. 

Providing continous training programs for representative is always a plus for a company.  You must never stop.  If you stop it’s get old and the same old ideas are being used which for customer now a days may not be good enough.  Ann Obarski says to ask is your training MODEL.  You know memoriable, ongoing, different, effect and learned.  This is a good tool to use when developing a training program that will best fit your line of business.  Improving customer service is key if you want to retain your employees, retain loyal customers, get new customers, and have a successful business.  Nothing takes more time than having to train new employees.  Don’t get me wrong they are more moldable when they are new but it’s very time consuming to do a new hire training program then just a simple refresher training program.

A growing business lives and dies by repeat customers or clients, especially in uncertain economic times like these.  Every business wants and needs to do their best to retain their loyal customers.  Why, because if you treat them good they keep coming back and spending money.  Not only that word of mouth is huge these days especially with the technology the way it is.  I mean we cannot live without the internet.  Anyhow what is the saying that 1 customer will tell about 5 people and those people will tell 10 people and so on.  So imagine if you are good to your customers not only will they remain loyal customers but they will also bring along their family and friends who could potentially become loyal cusotmers as well.

Some comapnies use rewards and a tactic to retain customers.  One of the chief goals of a successful customer  loyalty program is to enhance the customer experience and forge a strong relationship between your customer and your company.  Some also use points to purchase items at a later time.  Credit card companies such as Citi or Capital One use frequent flyer mile deals to keep their customer coming back.  One of my chase cards has a cash reward program.  For each purchase and the purchase type the cash reward is either $1.00 or $3.00 and once I reach $200.00 they will actally send me a check for $250.00.  So I earn an additional $50.00 for waiting to reach the $200.00.  So needless to say I use that card quite a bit. : )

Of course it doesn’t always have to be a cash or points program especially in a small business.  Paying attentions to your customers such as remembering their names and the something from the last conversation you had with them can be plenty.  Coupons are another tactic that can work.  For example if you have a Kohl’s card you almost every week get some kind of coupon cards or advertisement scratch off to use in a store.  Another example is for Macy’s card holders they have certain promotions where they open the store for certain hours for only those who carry a Macy’s card plus you get a certain percentage off your purchase plus any addional coupons you may have.  That’s a plus for me right there as it is I hate shopping.  Yes you heard right I’m a woman and I hate to shop… I’m going through the weight gain issues, ladies you know how that is. LOL!  Anyhow back to Macy’s that’s a cool deal, they will close the store for Macy’s cardholders only, granted I’m sure there are many but still the way they present it is very appealing.

All you men… bow down to the ladies.  We have come a long way since the old school days.  As women have increased their earnings, built their own businesses, weathered divorces, widowhood, and taken charge of family bequests, they’ve grown more independent and wealthy. IRS data indicates women comprise 39 percent of the top wealth holders in the U.S.  Ladies you are Rocking!!!  Wait I rock too!  We can buy our own cars, do our own home improvements if we need to.  Home Depot even offers the do it yourself classes.  I myself have been to a couple and in my experience the majority taking these classes are women.  We’ve come to finally realize that we don’t need a man, in fact we can handle just about any situation regardless on our own.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have a strong man by your side but it’s also good to know I don’t need him for everything.  Stay at home moms are even doing the online business thing.  Hopefully in the near future I will too have by own business on MY OWN!  I tried once when I was in my early 20’s to open a business, however it’s never good to go into a small business with someone else.  If you’re gonna do it, do it alone or make sure that other person is someone you can trust with EVERYTHING most importantly your MONEY! 

Okay so get this, on top of everything else women have surpassed men as the biggest givers.  Shut up, we are the shiznit!!!  Women gave more money than men in 2005. Women gave $21.7 billion, compared with male donors’ $16.8 billion.  Now that was just in 2005, just think of the stats today.  With the amazing number of women that are now in the financial world, those numbers could have easily tripled or quadrupled since then.  I could be totaly wrong and it could be more.  Anyhow, I’m not much of a volunteer person although I have put a couple days of volunteer work in this year and that’s about all I’m going to do, but I do give money.  At my place of employment each year we host events for United Way and March of Dimes.  I think for those kinds of organizations money is more important than my time.  Anyhow the stats don’t lie, we give more blood, more money, more of our time and sooooo much of our patience.  Women have the POWER! 

It’s great to see that Women have finally figured out that they have the financial power to do just about anything.  It’s good to know that we are finally taking a stand for what we want.  Some men don’t like it and some can’t handle it but who cares… cuz it’s good to know when he deserts you, yeah it’s going to hurt a little but guess what you still have your house, you business, your family, your friends.  You don’t need him to know how to invest your money, buy a computer or a tv.  Women are strong, much more stronger than we ourselves believe.

In my opinion customer satisfaction is key regardless of product, business or location.  A good way to find out if you are meeting a customers needs or expectation are through surveys.  I know, I know it takes too long.  Me however, I will take the time if I’ve received awesome customer service or sucky service to either give credit where credit is due or complain and hopefully another cusotmer won’t have the same distasteful service in the future.  I can speak for our location we do take all bad surveys received from customers and do try to make improvements.

Derived imprortance is anothe way to gage customer satisfaction.  Courteous treatment to customers is always a plus in my book.  You treat me good regardless if I have to drive across town to make a purchase I will and I will recommend to the next person.  Word of mouth goes along way.  Not to mention word of mouth now of days is no longer just by phone, we got email, facebook, twitter, you tube, etc to express how satisfied of a customer we are.

I have a great example about an awesome experience I had with Helzberg Diamonds.  My neice just turned 1 in May.  the awesome aunt that I am, I wanted to be the one to give my neice her first set of diamonds.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with Ridgmar Mall..well I went to every jewelry store there, I even went into the department stores like JC Penny’s and Sears.  Anyways the prices were about the same for what I wanted but what made my final decision on the store was the customr service I received.  I was blown away.  The rep took the time to ask my name, what was the occasion and what was I more or less looking for.  By the end of the sale I knew more about her than she did about me.  She even helped me with the final decision on the earrings because I had started to change my mind about the diamonds and wanted to get something in pink.  It may have been in her best interest for me to choose the pink stones as they were the more expensive of the 2 but no..she helped me decide to stay with the diamonds.  I’m not a person to buy extended warranties, etc but because of the service not to mention their promise to customers on diamonds or customer satisfaction guarantee plans, i purchased it.  Anyway, she waited for me to get checked out and shook my hand and used my name when she said bye.  A week later I came back in to add screw backs to the earrings and you know what… she remembered my name.  I was surprised that one week after all the customer that have come and gone she remembered my name and asked if my neice like the earrings… For the cusotmer service I received alone I would reccomend Helzberg regardless of the price.  I even took the time to speak to the manager on site to comment on my satisfaction of how I was treated.

Hi, My name is Melinda F.  I’m very new to blogging!  This is actually my first post/blog ever.  I’m currently and actually will be starting my Marketing 208 class today.  I’m excited and nervous at the same time.  I’m a 1996 HS graduate of Green B. Trimble Technical.  I did attend every so often classes at TCC from 1996-2006 and then my head was turned to Northwood and here i am.  I’ve been attending for 1 year this June.  I am currently working for a Citi entity as a bilingual supervisor.  I’ve been with the company a total of about 11 years and still going strong for now.  I do not have any children but would like to have at least 1 before the age of 35.  I do have a significant other who is driving me insane at the moment.  He’s in the military.  He actually re-enlisted back into the Marines this year.  Anyway, as for Marketing I hope to have fun with this class as well as getting a better understanding of the business aspect of it all.  Especially since I’m just learning how to blog.  I’m also learning how to facebook and twitter.  LOL!

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