Adapting To The Customer

Adapting to the customer sounds hard. It doesn’t have to be. Small changes can make a big difference. I recently noticed this detail in an experience I had ordering Five Guys take out and using the web site to do it.

The order experience includes a question for me. The kind of question that builds customer confidence and rapport with the brand. The experience achieves this with the device of a cleverly written preference question. “Are you an expert user?” If you think you are – skip the suggestions for future online take out ordering.

They followed 3 simple rules to make my interaction better with them and show me they are willing to adapt to me throughout the process to make me happy as a customer.

1) Rule One: Ask me a question.

In this case, it was actually an upsell ‘ “May we suggest…” but it provides an option to remove suggestions in the future.

2) Rule Two: Listen to my response

It makes you feel good about opting out. You can opt out because YOU are an expert user and don’t need to be reminded to add fries to your order.

3) Rule Three: Retain. Keep the information for later, when I come back – don’t show me the upgrade to a beverage option.

Follow these steps 1) Listen 2) Rule 3) Retain and continue to collect and build on that customer information. That’s the future of any business that wants to remain relevant.

Well done Five Guys! Quality food coupled with quality experiences will keep the customers coming back every time. It’s really no surprise that a company with such great product would extend its ‘awesomeness’ by making this effort to adapt to customer needs.

That French dish, what’s it called, the one with gravy…..

It’s Poutine.

If you make it to Montreal, you definitely need to try it.

French fries, cheese and wait for it…..Gravy.

Embracing Health

I am always on a quest to be better than I am. My current path has me very focused on understanding how what I eat affects me. It’s a complicated topic. I believe I am beginning to get a new understanding. I made my first meal tonight using the principles I’ve been learning as a guide.

I admit I cheated by making a frozen Matar Paneer. However, I coupled it smartly with gluten free polenta and tofu both lightly fried in olive oil. A big glass of green tea goes well with everything don’t you think?

The Complexity of Nutrition

I’ve been reading a really interesting book lately. The strange thing is that I didn’t seek it out, it really found me. It came to me through a web site solicitation. I saw the title and felt that it might be what I’m seeking in terms of knowledge in its subject matter. I’m reading it because I’ve been on a quest. I’ve been on a quest to understand my health, my body, my fitness and nutrition. There is much information out there and it is very, very confusing. I’ve been through so many ‘plans’. I’ve known for the past 4-5 years that it’s really about your lifestyle and a holistic approach. I’ve been working diligently during these past 4-5 years in fits and starts to move toward wellness.

It started because my body made me pay attention. 

I wasn’t well. I didn’t want to admit it but my body made me.

So once my body got my attention, I did begin some activities that really changed my health. I immediately stopped drinking soda at that time and ever since then I’ve picked up one or two good habits here and there along the path. It’s like I’ve been collecting these habits over time to build my future. I guess it’s my plan to counteract aging.

Recently, I’ve been reading this book, the one I told you about earlier, and I feel as if I am crossing a new threshold in my understanding of the relationship between my health and my consumption. Let me again state that in our dizzying culture, this is becoming insanely complex. We are drowning in food and processes of obtaining that food that make us sick. It’s difficult to figure any of this out. It takes time and patience. You should be skeptical and you should read labels not marketing. Know what you are putting in your body. It’s really almost as simple as that old saying, ‘you are what you eat.’

I have been frustrated in this process many times, but over the years I have come to realize, as long as you keep pushing forward in your knowledge and keep building on the good habits along the way, you will get to health. It’s a personal journey to figure out what that means to you-both health and pushing forward but if you are actively participating in it and trying to understand, you will get there.

A Disappointing Customer Experience

As part of my new healthy lifestyle I’ve been eating at Quizno’s the sub restaurant. The unfortunate thing is that I’m limited to 3 sandwiches based on my desire to know the nutritional information in my food and make choices based on knowledge. I have visited the web site several times over the past year and a half. I have requested nutritional information each of these times. I waited for a couple months between each inquiry and sadly nobody ever responded. It’s not just one email that got lost, I’m talking about several emails over a period longer than a year. I finally decided on Monday that this was just not acceptable anymore. So I called 411 for the phone number for corporate HQ. I knew where it was because of information on the web site so I was able to request the right state and city. The web site did not contain the phone number just the address. 411 gave me the number for a store in Denver which is where it is located. I didn’t want a store number I wanted corporate but I figured out I had been connected to a store and I asked them for the corporate number.

I got through to the corporate office. This is where it all started to go wrong. The first person I talked to was the receptionist. She didn’t even try to answer my question or get me to someone that could. She kept saying it’s on the web site like some sort of trained parrot monkey. Finally after some reluctance she transferred me to customer service.

Customer Service must not be the name of the department based on how the call went from there. The customer service rep was telling me the information was on the web site. I explained that only three sandwiches were detailed on the web site. She said that was all they had and then mentioned something very vague about ‘our nutritionists’. The way she said this made me feel as if she didn’t actually have any nutritionists. “When we have more information it will be posted on the web site” she said.

I asked if there was a timeline for this information. “No” she said.

I then explained to her that I wouldn’t even be calling if someone had responded to one of my many emails over the past year. She was quiet. More silence came out of the other end of the phone and I continued, “I guess I won’t be able to shop at your store until you get more information….”

Without really waiting for me to finish, she said, “I’m sorry about that” in a very sarcastic tone and then she hung up.
She did not care about my business or my interest in further information about her companies products.

I guess she didn’t think about the fact that I might tell others of the ‘stellar’ (sarcasm) customer service from Quizno’s but what do you expect from a company that uses a creepy baby that hits on hot babes in its commercials.

All I’m asking for is the ability to be informed. I deserve to know what I’m eating. Every single product on the grocery store shelf has to tell me. Starbuck’s tells me for gawd’s sake. Quiznon’s biggest competitor, Subway tells you EVERYTHING. Get over yourself Quizno’s and give me the data!

Evolution 1 (because there will be more)

I’m undergoing a fairly significant physical change right now. I’m in the process of losing 100 lbs. This is my quest for health and physical well-being. It feels good to be healthy. That’s the thing that they forget to tell you.

I’m sure I’ll talk about that more, but it’s not the main point of my entry today.

On Saturday, for the last time, I went to my favorite clothing store and had one last spending spree. I won’t be able to go there anymore. I am now wearing the smallest size they carry. I will soon be thrust out into the complex world of clothing organized by brand, obscurely named deparments and stores scattered throughout the malls and downtowns of my city, no my two cites and their suburbs. This terrifies me.

I have had the luxury and the simple pleasure of not having too many choices for the last decade. My store catered perfectly to me and my demographic. Flawlessly executed fashion for the ‘big girl’. These clothes are inexpensive, always on sale, fashionable and gasp sold in outfits. They make you feel pretty again even though you are fat. I can say that because I was quite fat.

Now this safe haven is gone. I don’t know of any stores like this in the world of non-obese women. I haven’t had to go there for a long time. But that’s over. I have to go there next time. It’s got a name this anxiety I feel. It’s called the paradox of choice. Too many. It can really create a problem. I just want some skirts, some shirts, some outfits, simple. However, if the retailers don’t appropriately disorient me I will exercise more self control over my purchase and that is not in their best interest.

So with significant trepidation I await the day when my size 14 clothes will simply be too big and I will be thrust into this very complicated place that I don’t want to go. So many things have changed in my life. This physical transformation has caused a cascading effect of many positive outcomes. It has sparked other things. I am happier. So I can’t worry too much about how I’ll find fashionable clothes at more than one store. It is after all an adventure. This whole thing is an adventure. I highly recommend it.