Cashier's Customer Service is Important - Dumb Marketing Move

This week’s dumb marketing move goes to Wawa!


For those of you who don’t know what or who Wawa is, it is a convenience store located in PA and NJ. They do a lot of the right advertising and promotions to get the constant flow of people. They have definitely made a name for themselves in these neck of the woods. They also have a lot of die hard fans but there is one thing that has stuck out to me when I’m in line at Wawa.


Their customer service is lacking.


Convenience stores are just that, convenient and they get you in and out quickly with your goods in the bag. But is that the only thing we want?

Here is the scenario I’ve seen multiple times:

The cashier rings someone up, hands them their change and before that customer has their money back in a wallet or before they grab their purchase off of the counter the cashier is ringing up the next person. This not only makes it awkward for the two customers, it is just plain ol' bad customer service to do that. This customer is more than likely a repeat customer too.


This just disgusts me when I’m the next person in line. It makes ME feel like I’m being rude and pushy. I’ve said to a cashier before, “I can wait” and they look at me like I have two heads. Unfortunately, our society has made us think that we just want fast service, not good service. Well friends, society is dead wrong and it hasn’t been the first time. As customers, we will pay for good service because it’s rare to find.


Lesson Learned: As a CEO or manager, shop your store like your customers would. Pay attention to the little things in customer service. They add up quickly. If you see a problem over and over again that means that something must be done. It might be training; it might come down to saying something to just one employee. But you must must must pay attention to your customer service. Your bottom line will thank you.

Do manners count in this economy?

In a recent discussion with a number of business executives the subject of lack of manners in the business environment came up. In particular among younger (under 30) employees. The topic encompassed many scenarios within the business environment, internally as well as external situations. When one asked what was their pet peeve a number brought up the same subject -- failure to return phone calls. 

This seems to be an increasingly common situation. Surprisingly what we have experienced are people not responding to phone calls when someone from their company (usually senior to them) has asked us to call them. In addition there is a similar situation even when  responding to an initiative they made. It is no only a lack of manners, a sign of amateurism and immaturity it is often a lost opportunity, In our case we are in the marketing business and we are often in the position of selling a proprietary program we think can benefit those we contact. 

What is lost on these (not cold call) situations is that they are in a highly competitive marketplace and if we can't get a response from them we might get it from a competitor, thus giving their competition an "edge" in the marketplace This seems to cover the country as an increasing trend especially among the "under 30" crowd. I know it's a tough economy and staffs have been cut but when a referral has been made or a request solicited and you don't respond it reflects poorly on your firm and on you. And in tough times or anytime you want to be known as being "user friendly" as you never know who the person you ignore knows that can impact your career. In other words it is a dumb move!

Survey Your Customers - Dumb Marketing Move

This week's Dumb Marketing Move goes to Deep Spring, a product of Coca-Cola.

Sometime what one considers a "dumb" marketing move is really a result of a management that doesn't pay attention to its business or worse has a lack of a communication channels that consumers, trade customers or their own employees can't make them aware of an ongoing problem with their product or service.

These thoughts went through my mind when recently on a business trip to Australia the following scenario took place.

I was staying at Jupiter's Casino Hotel in the Gold Coast, an upscale establishment and I was fortunate to be staying on their "Executive" floor which had certain benefits such as continental breakfast, the availability of snacks during most of the day and non-alcoholic beverages all day long. It was the latter where the tale began. I went to the refrigerator in the late afternoon and took out what looked like a refreshing fruit based drink named Deep Spring - Orange and Passion Fruit. I took it back to a table with some snacks and sat down to relax and enjoy the great view. I tried to twist the cap off but after 5 minutes of trying gave up. Now I am 5'11", 200+ lbs, exercise on a regular basis, consider myself relatively strong, so it was a little embarrassing to ask the petite hostess for help. She then told me, as she got out a tool to open it that everyone has the same problem. She said it is literally impossible to open without a handy tool.

What surprised me is this is a product of Coca-Cola, one of the more astute marketers of beverages. But for whatever reason they don't seem to know about this situation or if they do they are ignoring it. Thus they get ore "Dumb Marketing (or Management) Award".

Lesson Learned: You want your company to be user friendly! Don't forget to survey your customers on customer satisfaction. You might be surprised what you find out about your product or service. You might want to keep it anonymous to get the true feelings of your customers.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Hey YOU! No matter how much you advertise and publicize in order to stay in front of a prospect or client every day there is an aspect of marketing you might not be doing and it can benefit you and fit into any budget you have.

Promotional products, previously caked ad specialties are imprinted with your name, logo and slogan. They are appreciated, in many cases desired, but also have multiple marketing applications. 

From a small gift to the assistant of a decision maker, driving traffic to your booth at a trade show to enhancing the response rate of a mailing piece. Look into developing some creative resources in this field and you can add valuable creative resource. It's a multi-billion dollar business because it works for businesses, big and small.

Do you have anyone you would recommend? Comment to share

Keep Your Emotions out of Company Reviews - Dumb Marketing Move

This week’s Dumb Marketing Move goes to Ocean Avenue Books!

In today’s world of social networking anything that is said about your business is forever on the web, good or bad. Unfortunately, Diane Goodman of Ocean Avenue Books found out the hard way by making a Dumb Marketing Move.

She took a criticism on Yelp.com to heart. [From Wikipedia - Yelp. is a Web 2.0 company that operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site. Over 25 million people access Yelp's website each month, putting it in the top 100 of U.S. Internet web sites] Especially as a small business owner your business is your heart and soul, and you only want people to say glowing things but that’s not the real world.

Goodman, sole owner and employee, read a harsh review of her store "This place is a TOTAL MESS," wrote somebody who went by the handle Sean C. "I think this place needs to close down for a few days and do a thorough cleaning and organization and get rid of all the crap!" and she decided to reply to the reviewer. Here is their Yelp Page. This is where it turns bad, she told the reviewer to say it to her face and many other words that a business owner should never say to a customer. It just escalated from there all the way to her getting booked for battery! This might be an extreme case, but this proves it happens. Read the full story at Inc.com: You’ve been Yelped! http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100201/youve-been-yelped.html

Lesson Learned: Social Media puts your company in front of potential customers, and it’s a great tool when used correctly. If you feel the need to reply to a bad review, remove your emotions and reply as if they are in your store. Take it even further, apologize and address the problem. When someone complains, that means there might be a deeper problem and it SHOULD be addressed. It also shows your customers and potential customers that you are worthy of their business. But also remember, people are more likely to complain than to compliment!

Mimic Marketing, Are You Guilty?

Whenever you notice when someone comes up with a fresh and new idea, you soon see others trying to imitate it. It's all over, even in the fashion industry.

Being first in the marketplace with a new idea or approach will give you a competitive edge, mimicking it won't boost your sales very much. Unless you are a complete dummy (and maybe you are). Try the exercise of originating rather than replicating, you may find you like it.

Dumbest Marketing Move, 1/8/10

What does your URL say about you??

Well, today's DUMB Marketing Award goes to whorepresents.com for their URL!

They may have had something in mind when they obtained this URL, but what does it spell out? As a simple web-surfer I see WHORE Presents. Just imagine, they're getting a lot of traffic to their site that isn't relevant because they aren't in the whore business but some might think they are with that URL. They might even be losing money from their pay-per-click ads from people misreading their website.

It actually spells out WHO Represents. Here's their logo.



Well. it makes a little bit of sense once you see the logo. At least they were smart enough to capitalize the R. Overall, I think this is a dumb URL and yes, URL's are part of your marketing mix.

Lesson Learned: Pay attention to how things might be misread in print, internet and everything in between. Your URL is like naming your kid, you don't want them to be teased, and you definitely don't want your URL to make the DUMB Marketing Move list.

Best, Curmmie

Dumbest Marketing Move, 1/1/10

This week’s Dumbest Marketing Move goes to……I don’t know! We don’t know what company this is on the billboard. (pictured below). Maybe they thought it was a clever billboard, but they are really missing the boat and it was an expensive trip. PLEASE LET US KNOW WHO THIS IS IF YOU KNOW. We will send them a dumb marketing move certificate in honor of this award!

Four major flaws in this billboard are that there was no logo included, no contact info or website, too much copy and it required too much thinking. Billboards are one of the hardest forms of advertisement out there and this billboard brings that point home. Billboards require the most creative thinking in copy writing. You must be succinct, saying what you need to say in a few words. You have less than 3 seconds to get your point across to your audience, even if they're only driving 35 mph.

Lesson Learned: Keep your copy short, dummy proof it, make it obvious what it is for, and use a visual! Visuals on billboards speak louder than words, unless your words are clear and concise. Here’s an example of a good billboard, which was picked because off the top of my head I didn’t know this logo but the message still came cross loud and clear!

Best, Curmmie