Publix: A customer service success story

Putting customer experience first in your business is a mindset. Companies with the best customer service are ones who make it a core of their operation, not just a motto on the break-room door.

Wall Street Journal had an article on how Publix supermarket is thriving above the competitors by keeping customer experience the primary focus. The Publix story is one of the best examples of putting your customer first with every business decision. The company is certainly doing things right as it received an 82 out of 100 on the American Customer Satisfaction Survey and has expanded operations while competitors are cutting back.

Strategy: Customer Experience Focus

There are several key reasons why Publix is a leader in customer experience. First, the company is firmly rooted in the idea that every employee makes a difference. The company is employee-owned and all bonuses are performance based. The most impressive is the internal promotion process. Most of senior management started out working with the merchandise, deli, or back stock room operations. It’s being apart of a team rather then the success of a singular position. Regardless of an employee’s position, if a customer needs help, they jump right in.

Secondly, Publix sees business through the eyes of their customers. When food prices started to rise, the company lowered prices on essential such as milk and bread. The company also maintained the same level of staff. Management understood layoffs would hinder both employee teamwork and the customer experience.

Publix’s story has great customer experience written all over it. They thrive because they know everything affects the customer experience.

Tags: Customer Experience, Grocery Stores

Customer Experience: Customers are ‘Trading Down’

According to Nielsen, the number of shoppers buying less expensive brands is increasing from 23% in December to 35%. Stop & Shop, Shaw’s, and Whole Foods are responding by more heavily promoting their less expensive store-brand, or private-label, products.  “Some of the typical behaviors we see when people are feeling pinched is they do use coupons and they buy more private-label products,” said Judy Chong, spokeswoman for the West Bridgewater-based Shaw’s.

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Wal-mart’s Marketside to Offer “Premium” Services

Wal-mart will open Marketside grocery stores around “premium” offerings such as “meal solutions”. Market side grocery stores will be smaller in size and will focus less on price as opposed to rival Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy chain.

Retail giant Wal-mart has built its business around the low-price strategy. This strategy has been especially successful now during the economic downturn. During this past May, same-store sales excluding fuel rose 3.9 percent compared with the year-ago period. Not bad considering other retailers are closing doors and struggling with sales.

Given the current economic situation, is now the time to open “premium” stores?