Rose Blumkin, the charismatic and energetic founder of the Nebraska Furniture Mart I spoke about yesterday, had one key tenet : "sell cheap and tell the truth" !
Whereas the "sell cheap" is quite straightforward and many try to apply it, I also very much like the second part of the tenet.
Indeed, I strongly believe that honesty, transparency, candid and direct customer relationships pay off overtime but I wouldn't say that these principles are wildly applied today. In e-commerce sessions, I can hear lots of techniques, but little true human laws basics ! But the real challenge in e-commerce is to use technologies to fill human needs. That's also why e-commerce businesses have to be managed by truly consumer and not technology driven leaders.
Back in early 2004 Photoways was the first French e-commerce company to create a blog, I also was the first CEO of an e-commerce company to open a blog (different from the Photoways corporate one), but I felt this was part of the necessary transparency a company and its chief should have vis-à-vis customers.
Mrs B also spent a considerable amount of time with customers, down at the store, granting them with a big smile, and I myself, tough I now back off from operations, still receive 4 to 5 customer emails a day, either congratulating me for the Photoways business or asking for help.
This is commerce guys !
Everything is said with this quote.
When Photoways will add direct links to public forums and quality evaluation of its service on its website ? It seems our e-shop is the first this time to do that but second is also good place ;-)
Posted by: Daniel | September 15, 2006 at 08:11 PM
I would tend to agree, but Public forums present a natural biais : leaders are overrepresented and when there's an issue it has a over representation, making people believe it's much bigger than what it rerally is !
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | September 15, 2006 at 08:31 PM
That is a risk but if all consumers give their feeling I don't believe it turns wrong
Posted by: Daniel | September 16, 2006 at 03:59 PM
Well, that's a fundamental debate ! In the past, unsatisfied customers would write to 50 Millions de Consommateurs with their name and address, so that one could really track them.
On the internet, anybody can say anything, anonymously, anywhere and anytime, therefore many false comments, either to support one's brand or to denigrate competition.
There's also a 2nd law : unsatisfied people do complain much more than satified people express their hapiness. Consequently, any issue is strongly exagerated over the web and may give the impression that all is wrong.
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | September 18, 2006 at 10:35 AM
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Posted by: accoumptado | December 22, 2007 at 01:46 AM