Value, Price and Customer Service

Today didn’t start well, clicked the button on my laptop and I was met with a blank screen and a loud alarm ringing over and over. Being slightly technically aware, I pulled the power, pulled the battery…tried a series of keystrokes. Each time the only response was a white blank screen and a loud alarm. Okay, I need help.

My computer is a Mac Book, so I packed up and headed to the Apple Store. I was greeted there and directed to the scheduler, she gave me a slot and set my expectation that I’d be waiting about 15 minutes, so I was shocked five minutes later when someone came to me and said they were ready for me. I was taken to a tech and I explained my issue. He said that he had petty good idea of the problem and would take it back to run some diagnostics. About 10 minutes later he was out holding my computer and a memory chip.

Seems one of my RAM chips had died. He gave me advice on where to buy another, told me it was running acceptably without it if I needed it right away. Smiled and sent me on my way….no charge.

The chip was a third party chip I’d installed that I’d bought at a retailer on my route home. So, I decided to stop and see if they would help with the “Life Time Warranty”, and maybe just buy another chip if not and the cost was reasonable.

I parked at MicroCenter and went the Mac Department where there were three employees, two chatting at the register and one standing alone. I said one that I had a bad chip and my understanding was they had lifetime warranty. He said…”Well, that’s not handled here. You have to contact the manufacturer.” Okay, I can accept that, but what does a new chip cost. A brief conference was it decided that would be $17.99. Well, for that price and the time involved I figured I’d just replace it and move on.

I asked where the chips were? No longer stocked in the Mac area, I was directed to the far side of the store and told to look for someone there who would help me. (I’m not clear why one of the three folks there couldn’t accompany me that 50 feet?)

I stood in front of the memory chips for about ten minutes before there was any sign of an employee. I asked for the chip I needed and he handed me one for $29.99….(during he wait, I’d seen the $17.99 one’s…they were not a match for what I needed.) He seemed a little disappointed that I didn’t buy the $5 warranty , but seeing that it was a $30 dollar replacement for one I had warranty issues with already, that seemed like a waste of money.

I considered an impulse purchase of an ink refiller that I’d thought about trying. But, there were no employees three and the unit wasn’t priced. I figured that I’d settle for the chip and head home.

I stood in the worst 3 person line that I’ve endured in ages. Literally, fifteen minutes. One overwhelmed clerk trying to pull the security package off a video card…quite unsuccessfully….after ten minutes or so, one other register opened up, and the new clerk rang the next three people up (including me) while the first cashier was still struggling with the original customer. By this time the line behind me had grown to at least 20 people.

Did, I mention there was no air conditioning?

Yep, July 4th holiday weekend Friday…close to 100 deg outside and no AC in the store….

So, where am I going with all this?

We talk all the time about price and value. But, often people don’t actually put any specifics to the value part.

My trip today was a specific example of “you get what you pay for”.

I paid more for a Mac Book when I bought it. But, their portion of the day was a dream. Efficient, helpful respectful of my time and had me walking out sending a posting on my phone about how great they were.

The MicroCenter part of the day…not so much fun. I saved a couple dollars, but I was met with the minimum of service and an overall experience that won’t entice me to go back anytime soon….unless price is my only criteria for the “thing” that I need.

I related this experience today to a show that I had this week in Chicago.

The in-house AV company was a lot like “MicroCenter” in my story above. They were all about price, but not really bringing any knowledge to the table to support the meeting.

They actually argued with my planner that more than 2 speakers weren’t needed in the ballroom, when physics and a reasonable design called out for 4 times that many….(I won’t try to explain the entire setup, but lets just say that more than half the crowd and the people on stage answering questions wouldn’t have heard much, and the rest would have heard lots…of feedback….from the in-house speaker coverage suggestions”.)

So, had they been awarded the show they would have either had to add gear and people, or had a train wreck of a show that sounded awful. Would the audience have known, cared…or would they have just shrugged and thought…“Wow, that sound squealed a lot…” and then moved on?

What about my planner? Would her boss, who was completely price focused leading up to the show have noticed the problems? We’ll never know…because we jumped through hoops to find a way to do it right at a lower cost. But, now the bar is set lower…and the boss expects the better value and service he got at that lower cost. Did I do the right thing? Did my vendor by helping me out?

Are we part of the cycle in our overall business (not just AV) that has people expecting more and more for less and less constantly?

I gave Apple level quality in Chicago for MicroCenter prices…hoping that someday it will recover and pay me back…but, will it?

So, what is an experience worth?
Do our meetings matter enough to look beyond the dollars and look really at the experience we’re creating?
Is the lowest dollar quote going to actually meet the needs of the event?
And if it doesn’t, will anyone notice?…Or have standards and quality been pushed far below price on the selection criteria in our business?

I worry sometimes that our entire industry is losing the thread of looking at anything beyond the total at the bottom of the quote.

How do we define value?
How do we put a price on service?
Or, is that not relevant anymore?

I’d love to hear some planners comments.