Ordinary vs Extraordinary Companies: Delivery Satisfaction

Extraordinary companies invest in inventory to build customer satisfaction. Ordinary companies extract investment for the owners pocket and forget having a satisfied customer.


The following comes from my friend, Don Libey's March newsletter.

He says:


"I just received six different shirts I had ordered four months ago. Yes, you read that correctly: four months ago. Not one shirt six times, but six shirts one time each.


The online merchant I purchased from is a specialist in large sizes. The risk they have chosen is that they will be the only place where you can get 3XL through 7XL clothing. The risk ... in a nation of 65% obese people ... seems like a pretty good business model. You probably ought to have that stuff in stock all the time.


So, when one of the roughly 250 million Americans is ready to buy, their answer is 'Sorry, we won't have any of those six shirts for about four months'


Why do they pretend to be in the Big People clothing business when they don't have any of the products they sell in stock? Imagine Don's Hot Dog Stand without any hot dogs. Come back next Tuesday, I should have some in by then. How about some mustard in the meantime?


The foundation of the direct marketing concept is we sell people stuff when they need and want it. The primary rule of customer satisfaction is, YES.


And yet, for ordinary companies, when cost controls take center stage, the first thing they do is trim inventory. Extraordinary companies shift costs from other areas and increase their inventory to assure zero customers are unsatisfied.


Extraordinary companies consider the basic logic in following the rules of direct marketing. They understand they spend a significant amount of money to get new customers. They don't skimp on their inventory and tell their customers, 'Come back in four months'.

Extraordinary companies realize cash now is better than cash later in every instance. The wise CEO of extraordinary companies know never to worry about an extra 5% in inventory because they know it is an extra 20% return on customer satisfaction"

If you haven't read the earlier blog entry on Today's Electronic Direct Marketing,
click on it in the "Archives". I am a big fan of selling products that can be downloaded. If that's the type of product you sell, then having just read the above blog entry becomes a "moot" point.