I'm a Chump ,ok, but don't treat me like one

Just because I am a chump..it doesn't mean you should treat me like one.



Recent experiences have lead me to think about customer service , and to share my contrasting experiences with various companies of very different sizes and business models.


It would seem not all companies value their customers,even if they say they do .

Some apparently seek primarily to cover their own backs if a customer complains, rather than engaging and trying to build a better basis for an ongoing relationship..

You can show respect even when you disagree with the customer. "Cover your back letters "approved by Lawyers probably won't strike an appropriately customer centric view...

Respond promptly,don't allow a complaint to fester, it becomes tougher to resolve positively.

Listen to the nature of the complaint, not everything can be solved by eg a money off coupon

In short don't treat me , your customer, like a chump, even if I know I did behave like one...

So "Hurrah and smiley emojis "for my small on line coffee supplier and for my favourite on line hotel booking site..who get more of my business going forward.

The "Are you kidding me ? "award goes to the bearers of false " failed delivery attempt " notices...we would both prefer you beaming in packages to my living room by teleportation, but failing that please do at least show up at my door when you claim to...it's bad for my blood pressure.

The "Ugly "service award goes to a car hire company ..you upsold me ,I was a chump ,I complained after I got home ,whilst acknowledging my own "chumpness" and did not ask for anything. It took virtually three months and some chasing to get a reply which said in essence: you signed the papers in three places ,all legal, our people did their job, followed process .. sorry it took us so long to get back to you, peak season and all....chump!

I was a chump on that occasion but they didn't seem to get my frustration and the point I was trying to make about upselling as a business practice... all of which made feel like a bigger Chump.



Your customer service is my customer experience and sometimes forms the defining part of your brand perception; it should be a chance to engage and strengthen your business relationship when things haven't gone well with the customer for whatever reason.


Ps : The online travel portal from whose site I originally hired the car have failed to even acknowledge my complaint, after I reached out to them some two months into my complaint to the car hire company..Won't be using them again either!


Pps : As he grew older I used to tease my Dad about his habit of complaining, and now my kids tease me for the same behaviours ;I hope he would side with me in this case . I miss you Dad.

When Tech met packaged goods

(image: the Colossus computer, the work of Alan Turing. courtesy of Wikipedia)


When you look at the above image of Colossus ( source : wikipedia)a pioneering computer built by Alan Turing in the 1940's , it is incredible to think that what I would describe loosely as "Tech" is today being marketed much like packaged consumer goods.

The daily struggles with tech that accompany most of us today however trivial or important show just how much Tech has impacted and changed all our lives since the arrival of mass market offerings and consumer adoption of items such as mobile phones in the early nineties, followed within a few years by the arrival in our homes and workplaces of the internet and personal computers of various types and footprints.

As a long time marketer of branded consumer goods, pretty much exclusively in food and drink, I have been a keen observer of marketing in other categories beyond packaged goods, but perhaps none has evolved as significantly and as quickly as Tech..I am sure marketers of fashion and beauty products which change all the time will disagree with me , but please do explain what I got wrong.

So what are the similarities , what can tech marketers learn from food, and vice versa ?

The classical similarities are all there: product range segmentation tending to hypersegmentation , brand and retailer brands ,route to market choices , pressure on shelf space, promotional noise and for some brands the investments in consumer comms. We can also see the financial pressures on brand owner companies , the emergence of on line only brands in mobile phones who then dance Dell like into omnichannel instead early on ...

Superficially at least Tech categories have a lot of things going for them that most packaged goods brands would love to have , not least the consumer frequency of interraction , the category interest and top of mind that these bring, the opportunity for product innovation compared to many types of packaged goods like food for instance , opportunities for visible self reflection , and last but certainly not least the growth opportunities that come with constant reinvention ,new tech , finite product lifecycles and geographic penetration growth opportunities in populous emerging economies.

And yet it would seem to me that with the notable exception of the Apple brand family there is little or no real brand distinctiveness or stickiness elsewhere in Tech ,which means somewhere along the line that marketing is not as effective as it aims to be in building profitable brand ecosystems. As a personal example ,how many of us non Apple users are brand loyal when we change phones,tablets, pcs ? I ended up buying on functionality and price, not brand for instance and have over the years been disappointed by my misguided brand loyalty in mobile phones for instance ...

So , Tech products are more like packaged goods after all ( schadenfreude ?)... low margin ,limited brand loyalty, interchangeability and all.

Maybe the grass isn't greener in Tech after all....

Big Bad food..

Another week , another Big (Bad)Food story....

With the approach of Halloween ,yet more self inflicted outrage descends on Big Food.

Cue yet more " why did the chicken cross the road ?" type jokes... seriously food and drink industry people, what's going on?


Big Food does not automatically equal bad food, either nutritionally or ethically, and could even be a force for a better world..

The reality of an urban world which is the reality for the majority of people worldwide, is that at a basic level most of us are now essentially reliant on others to produce and distribute the food we buy.

So how come there is so much mistrust if not downright hostility to the larger companies who provide most of what we eat... and how much of the suspicion is justified?

Are the bosses of Big Food really all evil people hell bent on killing us all in the name of a quick buck? who is forcing us all as consumers into dangerous and unhealthy food choices? Is there an unbiaised and trustworthy voice out there ?

Consider GMO crops for instance..I'm not a scientist and simply can't get a clear view amidst all the invective on whether they could play a big role in combatting famine , or whether they are part of a dastardly, commercially driven plot to enslave farmers and turn us all into mutants.

There is unfortunately too much evidence of dubious practices across the production and distribution parts of the supply chain for the food industry to simply ignore or shrug them off.. More concerning is whether these failings are systemic short cuts driven by management , criminality pure and simple , or whether they occur when employees get it wrong occasionally.

Is the answer to tax,restrict or even ban all "unhealthy" foods, treating them the same as alcohol and tobacco? Or outlawing the unnecessary use of pesticides antibiotics or ingredients? Is the use of Blockchain technology for purposes of transparency and traceability as powerful a force for good as proponents would suggest ?

To oversimplify the big picture solutions: If consumers are sufficiently educated on diet and nutrition to make considered and informed decisions the demand for more unhealthy foods should begin to reduce.
Similarly ,once consumers are better informed about what has gone into the food they are eating they are more likely to reject unethical practices , unecessary ingredients and additives and vote with their wallets.