Corporate Challenges
Cox Cable is considering going private rather than staying a publicly traded company. I find this fascinating. As many of you know I was previously a manager in a Fortune 500 company. One of my theories in early 2004 was that some companies might eventually return to being privately held. In other words, not beholding to Wall Street. (Am I a prophet or what?)
Satisfying your customers should be paramount in conducting any business. Except in a large, publicly traded company, who is your customer? Certainly, the stockholders. However, corporations must spend a lot of time trying to make their employees happy. And let us not forget about the real customers (Those people actually giving you their money). You can't please all of the people all of the time. You can rotate the needs of various customer groups, but you still can't make everyone happy forever. Which is what sets up the rise and fall of a business.
Another challenge "too many customers to answer to" sets up is quality problems. Have you noticed how "normal" it has become to have a problem with a product or service. Businesses have elaborate procedures and processes to handle returns. Why? Because they happen so frequently. Store employees never understand why I get so upset when service or product quality go bad. They give me a replacement product or redo the service with no questions asked. I'm the only one who seems to care about my time.
I have come to believe that it is the normal evolution of capitalism for quality to decline. While building your business, good quality is fairly critical. However, once a company is established, and is making money, they implement "friendly return policies" and actually get away with lowering the quality a bit. (Especially if they also lower the price.)
I must admit that have noticed a difference in "bargain" stores and upscale stores. Perhaps I'm spending too much time in bargain stores since I lost my job. When I lived in California, I thought this bad service and product craziness was simply "LA Stress Syndrome." However in the ten years we've lived in Colorado, I've seen customer service, as well as product quality decline. Well, I assure you, if you shop at one of my online businesses, we will always strive to deliver the best quality possible. Our prices aren't the cheapest, but returns are very rare. Our customers are very happy. No plans in the near future for a public offering.
I guess I have slightly misunderstood the goal of many businesses. They are in existence to make money, which I would assume would be accomplished by making me and the other customers happy. Think about it. If the business is making money, even if the quality is a little less than perfect, does the business care? If they're profitable, does it matter that some customers walk away unhappy.
An industry example is Hollywood films. They make movies to make money. Sometimes this overlaps with pleasing their audience and making the best quality films possible. However, their goal is to make money. The short answer to the question "Why doesn't Hollywood make better movies?" is because "great" movies don't always make money.
Sorry for the rant, but service and product quality are so very important to me. Guess I'll have to wait until I get to Heaven for good service and products.
Cox Cable is considering going private rather than staying a publicly traded company. I find this fascinating. As many of you know I was previously a manager in a Fortune 500 company. One of my theories in early 2004 was that some companies might eventually return to being privately held. In other words, not beholding to Wall Street. (Am I a prophet or what?)
Satisfying your customers should be paramount in conducting any business. Except in a large, publicly traded company, who is your customer? Certainly, the stockholders. However, corporations must spend a lot of time trying to make their employees happy. And let us not forget about the real customers (Those people actually giving you their money). You can't please all of the people all of the time. You can rotate the needs of various customer groups, but you still can't make everyone happy forever. Which is what sets up the rise and fall of a business.
Another challenge "too many customers to answer to" sets up is quality problems. Have you noticed how "normal" it has become to have a problem with a product or service. Businesses have elaborate procedures and processes to handle returns. Why? Because they happen so frequently. Store employees never understand why I get so upset when service or product quality go bad. They give me a replacement product or redo the service with no questions asked. I'm the only one who seems to care about my time.
I have come to believe that it is the normal evolution of capitalism for quality to decline. While building your business, good quality is fairly critical. However, once a company is established, and is making money, they implement "friendly return policies" and actually get away with lowering the quality a bit. (Especially if they also lower the price.)
I must admit that have noticed a difference in "bargain" stores and upscale stores. Perhaps I'm spending too much time in bargain stores since I lost my job. When I lived in California, I thought this bad service and product craziness was simply "LA Stress Syndrome." However in the ten years we've lived in Colorado, I've seen customer service, as well as product quality decline. Well, I assure you, if you shop at one of my online businesses, we will always strive to deliver the best quality possible. Our prices aren't the cheapest, but returns are very rare. Our customers are very happy. No plans in the near future for a public offering.
I guess I have slightly misunderstood the goal of many businesses. They are in existence to make money, which I would assume would be accomplished by making me and the other customers happy. Think about it. If the business is making money, even if the quality is a little less than perfect, does the business care? If they're profitable, does it matter that some customers walk away unhappy.
An industry example is Hollywood films. They make movies to make money. Sometimes this overlaps with pleasing their audience and making the best quality films possible. However, their goal is to make money. The short answer to the question "Why doesn't Hollywood make better movies?" is because "great" movies don't always make money.
Sorry for the rant, but service and product quality are so very important to me. Guess I'll have to wait until I get to Heaven for good service and products.
posted by Cynthia Duck at
8:57 PM
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