Some of us are savvy and compare the price we pay for a bundle of
goods and services to what that same bundle might cost them if we were
to shop around and take our business to an alternative provider. The
rest of us perhaps think we should do that but can't seem to find the
time somehow.

How do you gauge whether you're getting good value for money?

I suggest value for money (VfM) is largely a subjective measure. It
comes down to what you 'feel' and whether you 'believe' you're getting
something that's worth the money you are in effect handing over for
it. Discuss...

Also, whilst we're on the subject. Do you think organizations you
deal with help you 'feel' better about the choices you have made? Can
you cite any examples where a company tries to reassure you about the
'deal', 'tariff', 'bundle' or 'package' you are on? How do they do
that? Have you examples of utility firms (gas, electricity, water,
telecoms, local council, etc.) or organizations in other sectors that
use the bill they send you to try and make you feel better about your
expenditure? Do any of them for instance tell you how much money you
have saved by having a particular feature on your account?

Do share your thoughts, please.

Should I rope in the likes of a removal company such as Britannia?
Should I hire a self-drive van and do it myself, or should I check out
one of London's many "Man & a Van" services?

Whichever route I follow, all I want is efficient and cost-effective
service from people who care about me, their customer, and my
belongings.

What's your recommendation? Who would you like to nominate as
reliable, affordable and really good?!

In short, based on my experience, I'd recommend avoiding ordering wine
by the case from Tesco Direct as their process doesn't work all that
well and their delivery Partner HDNL have delivered a rubbish
experience. This is my constructive rant... I'd welcome your
thoughts, comments and recommended alternative suppliers of wine by
the case.

Early on 3rd January, I ordered 3 cases of the wine via
http://www.tesco.com/wine/. Now, first of all, I was pleasantly
surprised to see at checkout that Next Day Delivery would be free of
charge due to the size of my order. However, it stated delivery would
in fact occur the day after next on Wednesday 5th. There was a very
frustrating element to the online experience when I tried filling in
the 'delivery instructions' box with a message for the delivery
person. Little did I know there was a 160 character limit until I'd
finished typing and then sat dumb-founded that the submit button
didn't do anything. When I finally noticed the 'error message' on the
screen, it must have taken another 3 or 4 attempts at culling the
words in the box sufficiently - there was no character limit message
or character count on the box at all.

Anyway, having overcome that little issue, I was reassured to receive
the email confirming my order and stating the delivery would occur
between 7am and 7pm on Wednesday 5th January. However, it still
bothers me that the email showed what I'd ordered twice, so I was left
wondering whether I'd benefit from receiving twice as much wine or
not... (would have been especially nice.)

Cut to 4th January, when I returned home from my first day back in the
office after the Christmas break to find a box from Tesco Wines
sitting outside my flat door! Now at least I live in a communal
block, so it wasn't sitting outside the building. However, there was
only a third of the order inside the box. Upon closer inspection of
the label, I noticed it read "part 2 of 2"; so where's part 1?
Intriguingly, there was my 160 character message "I'm working at home
Wednesday but call if door bell goes" ("unanswered" was missing...)
so, has someone helped themselves in this block? Entering the flat,
find calling card from HDN

There was a HDNL calling card inside the door of the flat. I called
HDNL and struggled to get a straight answer to 'where's the rest of
the order'. Eventually, satisfied there was indeed a second (my guess
it's part 1 of 2) shipment due to go out on 5th, I hung up.
Intriguingly, the Liverpudlian couldn't tell me what was actually in
the shipment (whether it was wine or not, how many bottles, etc..)

Now I worked at home, as promised, all day on 5th January. At 6.30pm
I tweeted I was getting twitchy as there was still no sign of any
correspondence from either Tesco or their partner HDNL. A five minute
trawl in cyberspace on Twitter and the Web left me feeling worried as
there was an awful lot of negativity about HDNL out there - and I can
see why!

Thursday 6th January, I returned home from work and was pleased to see
a large box waiting for me, again in the communal hallway. There was
also another HDNL calling card on the door mat. Now, this is where
things get even worse! When I got the box into the flat, I noticed it
was a totally different (read, not Tesco Wines branded) cardboard box
to that used for part 2 of 2, with the 'label' hurredly cut from
another cardboard box and selotaped to the top of this one. When I
opened the box, I found only 11 of the expected 12 bottles! I also
got a cut on my finger from a glass splinter. The box appeared to have
been hurredly repacked with one smashed bottle missing.

I called Tesco Direct on 0845 677 5577. First there was the obligatory
IVR messages. Mind you, speaks volumes that the message (which was
repeated twice to me) stated "Due to the adverse weather conditions in
parts of the UK, we're sorry but we can't take orders from customers
in Scotland until after Christmas!". Erm, it's now 6th January!

It didn't take too long for me to get through to Fiona. Now she was
helpful enough, but she didn't really do anything to make up for the
inconvenience. She 'offered' to refund the missing bottle and told me
that would take 3-5 working days to reach my account.

When I asked whether she couldn't send out a replacement, and despite
my protestations that this is wine for our wedding, I was left feeling
rather dejected that it now falls to me to track down the 'missing'
bottle from a local store. The whole point behind giving Tesco Direct
Wines a go was that we couldn't find sufficient stock in the stores
near us. In addition, the Presecco was on a price promotion and I'm
guessing that's now ended too.

In response to my question about whom I could give some feedback to
about the experience, I was given the option to be put through to some
system called Opinionate (I believe) at the end of the call (but that
wasn't mentioned again), or I could email tescodirect@tesco.co.uk,
which would result in me receiving a 'customer satisfaction survey' -
right! And we all know what happens to those don't we.

How different would it have been to say: "I'm really sorry Mr. Powell
for all the inconvenience we've caused you! Unfortunately, we're
unable to send you individual bottles. I'll of course make sure you're
refunded for the missing bottle, but you mentioned you'd struggled to
find this Presecco in our stores, so I'm going to arrange for 2
bottles to be sent to your local store free of charge - so you two can
enjoy a bottle on us by way of an apology. Which store would you like
me to send that to? It's going to take a few days to get that
arranged, but we have your email address, so leave it with me and I
will send you a note when the wine's ready to collect."

Either way, I'm not impressed with Tesco Wines Direct and next time
around I'll be giving one of their many competitors a try - who do you
recommend?

As for the Home Delivery Network; I'm seriously disappointed with
their inability to fulfil the order in one go and on the day it was
due. Not even scribbling a note apologising for the fact the bottom
fell out of the original box and a bottle got smashed is just
inexcusable.

I can not get over how easy this wonderful machine is to use. I have to say kudos to the guys over at Apple for a very well put-together device and experience.

OK, so lugging the box home was not easy, but the unboxing was a pleasure and it took mere minutes after switch-on before I was sitting in front of the amazing 27 inch screen actually using the computer, surfing my favourite sites and installing those must-have apps. Since then, I've gotten over the initial awe and now I'm learning that this machine really is a pleasure to use.

I've worked with computers since 1992 when I started Uni but it's fair to say that means IBM PCs in the main. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a fan of technology - but I'm not a techie. I'm also not the earliest 'early adopter'. A year or so ago I rebuilt my Vaio laptop with Linux Ubuntu and Windows 7 so I could compare and contrast the two operating systems. I'm pleased I did that, as I've learned a lot about what's 'under the hood' and I can now 'recognize' some of the features I find in OS X, Snow Leopard, as they're consistent across Unix core platforms.

Regarding Apple. It took me almost 2 years to finally go and get an iPhone and although I saw more and more people going out and buying Apple computers I avoided the temptation. I was influenced by some voices suggesting the company was taking its eye off the design ball and I was worried about the nightmare stories I was reading on t'Internet of people trying to put iOS4 on their 3G and 3GS phones. Funny thing is, I followed the guidelines to the letter provided on those forums about backing up my phone and my own migration to iOS4 was painless.

Until I played with an iPad I wasn't convinced I needed one, now I'm sure I'd find a home for one quite readily. At this juncture, I'd like to predict slate computers such as the iPad will revolutionise education.

My hobby is photography. The 3 year old Vaio doesn't have enough RAM and gets rather hot when you drive it hard with tasks such as HDR image compilation, which is becoming more popular. I found myself debating whether to buy (another) desktop replacement PC or shoot for a higher-spec desktop machine. On balance I was swayed by the screen on the iMac, which I'm going to spend a lot of time looking at and I am convinced I made the right decision.

Do you have an iMac too? What are your thoughts, experiences etc?

It's fair to say, the case has had a good deal of wear, and it's certain to have saved the phone a couple of times, when I've inadvertently dropped the phone on the floor.

That said, I was a bit surprised at the fact the covering of the case has worn thin, or even through in places. So I rang the company today to see what my options were.

I'm very pleased to say they've invited me to return the item to them and that they will send me a replacement.

Now that's what I call a great customer experience... Here's hoping I'm not disappointed.

Although the organization has a great way of attracting attention and
stimulating interest in its wares, they really don't appear to have
put as much thought into delivering on the customer expectations they
set.

Those of us that have signed up to receive their email alerts were
excited to learn earlier today that they were (allegedly) going to be
offering iPads for sale at half price, yes, that's 50% off! They did
state there would be limited availability, but what ensued really was
farcical.

With an hour to go, they posted "1 hour to go before our 50% off Apple
iPad sale opens. Make sure you're at the ready! For release times of
the other iPads, follow us on FB" on Twitter.

At 4pm when everyone tried logging in to their site - everyone found
out the site had crashed.

The response from @secretsales on Twitter was: "Much bigger traffic
than we expected! We are working on getting the website up as soon as
possible. Sorry guys, there is still stock left!"

That left tons of people frustrated to say the least. As I commit
this article to my blog, TweetDeck is chirping away in the background
with an increasing number of disgruntled folks vowing to turn their
back on Secretsales.com and claiming the whole thing was a PR stunt -
and I'm inclined to believe that myself. Same goes for their Facebook
page too!

I've just managed to access the sale site (finally). It is claimed
there are 33112 members connected and also states "We are sorry, there
are no iPads available to buy at the moment. We have limited
availability but will be releasing more stock over the weekend. Become
a Fan on Facebook to find out the next release time in advance.
The last lucky person bought an iPad on 10 September 16:29" - That's
got to be a crock of ****

Hi guys, it's been a while since I posted any articles on customer
experience. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, I felt a
little uneasy waxing lyrical about a subject very dear to my heart
whilst I was working in a role that meant I couldn't influence what my
company was doing in the space. That's changed now, so I feel I'm
better placed to write about my thoughts on customer experience once
again.

The other reason has more to do with the tool I was using. When I
first created a blog, I used the functionality provided by my hosting
service provider. It did the job, but in order to create a blog, I
had to log into a website and create the post, fiddle around with the
formatting and was constrained to posting text only - pretty much.

More recently, I've started using Posterous, which I discovered thanks
to Ted Forbes and his "Art of Photography" podcasts
(http://aop.thepublicbroadcast.com/) as my other love is photography.

So now I've imported my back catalogue of customer experience blog
posts into Posterous and from here on in, I intend to use Posterous
for both a photo blog, that I've called "Moments in time" and this
customer experience blog, which I've called "Customer Experience
really matters".

I hope something I post will stimulate your thoughts and perhaps even
solicit a response or two. Meantime, enjoy!

See "Moments in time" here: http://ryanpowell.posterous.com

Not only am I impressed with UPS who provide a superb service enabling you to track a package from the time they receive an instruction to collect it through to the point where it's delivered to you, but I am really chuffed with the approach taken to Customer Experience by Aerobed.

Last year I decided to pay a sizeable chunk of change £70 for a new airbed.  My reasoning being that I didn't want to spend ages inflating the darned thing every time I wanted to use it and I was prepared to pay for quality.  After some diligent research, I bought an Aerobed Active double bed (brown).  It inflates in 60 seconds and deflates in around 15, so it's the ultimate in convenience.  And it's comfy too!

Cut to last month.  A friend of mine, who had been staying in my spare room on the odd weekend, found the thing had sprung some kind of a leak and started deflating itself during the night. Despite our best efforts, (have you ever tried getting a double mattress into a bath of water to see where air bubbles are escaping from?),  we just couldn't find a leak.

After checking their website, I decided to contact Aerobed via the only means available - email.  Within a day or so I received a replacement valve, which unfortunately still didn't remedy the issue.  So further emails were exchanged and although I'd stupidly thrown out the receipt, (as it was more than 1 year old), a copy of the credit card statement was sufficient as a proof of purchase to show the mattress was still within its 2 year guarantee.

So then I received instructions to "cut around the air release valve at the footend of the bed and send it" along with some other details to their office.  I was told "once we receive the valve we will send a replacement bed via UPS."  The worrying line in the email read "We suggest that you obtain proof of postage."  At this point, the customer experience sceptic in me was fearful I would totally ruin the bed and then see the firm claim they promised no such thing.

However, I sent those things off last Thursday.  They arrived Friday. Monday I received my first email from UPS with the tracking information and a mere 30 minutes ago (Tuesday pm) I took delivery of a fab new bed. Well done Aerobed! That's how it's supposed to be done.  This is an inspirational example of good customer experience that I shall take with me into my new role in the Virgin Media Customer Experience team that I am joining in January 2010! Ace.

I am heading off to Australia at Christmastime this year and the preparation for this trip sparked a couple of thoughts.

Firstly, we will be in the air on Christmas Day itself, which is less than ideal.  But then, if you saw how much cheaper the flights were you would surely understand.  I was wondering whether or not the in-flight entertainment and food/drink will differ in any way.  I wouldn't imagine so, because if the airline made any effort to respect a Christian festival, then surely they would be obliged to respect all other religious events too, right?

 Does anyone have any insight to share on this?

The second thought concerns the process for getting  a visa to enter Australia.  I learned first of all that you can do the whole thing online, there's no need to find a travel agent (sorry folks) and wait in a queue to fill in forms etc.  I set about looking online for an ETA visa only to learn that instead, as a British Citizen I could use the eVisitor online process.Well, imagine how pleased I was when just 5 minutes later, after following a simple online process, I was told my part in proceedings was complete and to sit back and wait for an email.  Imagine my utter pleasure a few hours later to receive the email (admittedly automated) telling me that "The department wishes to advise that a decision has been made on this application and you have been granted an eVisitor."

Brilliant, efficient, easy to use... need I go on?

I spent a few days aboard P&O's boat the Oriana recently attending the Call Centre & Customer Management Executive Forum. This event provides the delegates and suppliers alike, the opportunity to spend 2 1/2 days shut away together on a boat with a personalised programme of keynote addresses, one-to-one meetings and personal development sessions.

The forum I attended runs in parallel with two other events for Internal Communications and Human Resources specialists. It is a real shame that the rumour mill suggests the event will not take place next year. Mind you, it was noticeable that the number of suppliers was much lower this year. Considering each vendor has to fork out a tidy sum of their marketing budget to sponsor the Oriana gig, it comes as little surprise.

This brings me onto the theme for this thread - the challenge of delivering customer experience improvements on a shoestring (minimal) budget as opposed to constructing a longer-term (strategic) programme.

I attended one workshop that asked us all to, (working in small groups,) come up with ways in which we could deliver something of high perceived value to our customers at little or no incremental cost to our hypothetical businesses. I found the creativity in the room to be pretty inspiring. When you put your mind to it, there really are a number of great ideas residing in the heads of those that work for your business. Last year, the equivalent topic was entitled "employee led change." Either way, I think we can each think about the ways in which we encourage our people to contribute to the improvement of the products, services and customer experience we deliver to our customers.

Nevertheless, and not merely because I work in a function that appears to be a dying breed - strategy, I still firmly believe successful businesses need to invest in their longer-term future and empower people to continually develop the longer-term view of where the business is heading so that all the short-term initiatives meet a meaninful purpose.

What are your thoughts? Is strategy a waste of time? Can you continually improve without having a long-term vision?