Purolator is the company that was awarded the Vancouver 2010 Olympics contract to deliver tickets purchased to events. A pretty nice sized contract which gets them a huge amount of exposure (not that they needed it) to people in all works of life. Owners, employees, and every other type of person who no doubt will have something shipped at some point in their life. Now, i'm not saying that if every person had a good experience with Purolator they would all only use this company in the future for their shipping needs.
It's more the opposite side of the coin, i'm guessing anyone that has a negative experience with the process will be extremely unlikely to use Purolator in the future if given a choice. And, from what i've heard so far, there is a lot of negativity around the process. Purolator doesn't seem to have nailed the logistical aspect of this major project. The tickets were put in people's names and the majority marked down their home address to have the tickets delivered to - Purolator delivers during the day, when the majority of these people are at work and therefore not at their home address. People then have to make their way to Purolator's shipping centres to pick up the tickets that they missed delivery of, and you have to have something that matches your name to the address on the tickets (many people will have moved). You have a time limit of 6 days before the tickets are shipped back to VANOC at which point you are unable to collect and will no doubt have to undergo the process all over again.
These time limits and Purolator's hours have led to large lineups at their shipping centres and angry customers who have been turned away because their stores stop serving people at exactly their close time. People are also arriving at the stores and finding that they put down a different address than where they currently live and don't have the proper documents to pick up the tickets. They are being turned away.
Here's a couple of ideas Purolator:
1. Extend you hours slightly so people getting off work have more chance to make it to your store. 7pm is too early a closing time.
2. Write on the little note you leave saying "Sorry we missed you" that people need to ensure they have something that proves they live at the address listed on the tickets.
3. Have more people working on weekends so that your customers can get through the lineups in a somewhat reasonable timeframe.
Winning a big contract is one thing but having the foresight to see the exposure you get as a result is another. Make sure you are prepared to do the job when you are going out to thousands and thousands of potential customers.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Boxing Day....Month??? Year?????
I remember the good old days, when Boxing Day in Canada meant companies heavily discounting prices on all the crappy products that they were trying to get rid of all year but just couldn't. Cue the red tag, red pen, or any other type of redness that can be used to demonstrate a slashing of prices. What? You mean our 8-track/vinyl/cd player all in one didn't move? Mark it down 75 percent and call it a doorcrasher. Then shmucks would line up at the door starting early in the morning and make a run for that 8-track/vinyl/cd 3-in-1 combo they had their eyes on for the last 2 days when the flyer was delivered to their home. I had the pleasure of working in a retail environment on a number of boxing days, that is neither here nor there so i'll save those stories for another time.
What unfortunately has happened with boxing day is companies have captured consumers attention and wallets on that specific day and are now trying to bottle it up and unleash it for longer and longer and now are starting earlier and earlier. Therefore they will eventually erode all the hard work that Boxing Day put into building itself up to being the ultimate shopping day of the year. Now maybe this works better for retailers because they get a longer length of increased sales from customers looking for deals during "Boxing Week" but when you start advertising "Pre-Boxing Day Sales", well, your customers will catch on eventually.
People will either start holding back all their major purchases till "Boxing Month" or they will realize that not everything can be discounted all the time and will theorize that maybe your margins are a little too high and future advertising for boxing day sales will be completely lost in the clutter of regular flyers and regular advertising.
Either way it will be interesting to see how far in front of and behind the 26th of December retailers can move. I look forward to when Boxing Day sales outpace the first Christmas commercial of the year which usually comes around about September 1st.
What unfortunately has happened with boxing day is companies have captured consumers attention and wallets on that specific day and are now trying to bottle it up and unleash it for longer and longer and now are starting earlier and earlier. Therefore they will eventually erode all the hard work that Boxing Day put into building itself up to being the ultimate shopping day of the year. Now maybe this works better for retailers because they get a longer length of increased sales from customers looking for deals during "Boxing Week" but when you start advertising "Pre-Boxing Day Sales", well, your customers will catch on eventually.
People will either start holding back all their major purchases till "Boxing Month" or they will realize that not everything can be discounted all the time and will theorize that maybe your margins are a little too high and future advertising for boxing day sales will be completely lost in the clutter of regular flyers and regular advertising.
Either way it will be interesting to see how far in front of and behind the 26th of December retailers can move. I look forward to when Boxing Day sales outpace the first Christmas commercial of the year which usually comes around about September 1st.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Overpromise & Underdeliver
That seems to be the mantra of General Motors. They just don't get it.
I've written in the past multiple times about how frustrating GM is to deal with and how they are clearly one of the worst run car companies in the world. But they just leave themselves so open to criticism with their practices it's embarassing.
How long have they been touting their electric car The Volt for? Years and years. The car looks great and is forward thinking......or at least it was back in 2005 or whenever they first launched it. That was cutting edge and they surprised people with the look of it then. As Andy Nulman constantly writes about on his POW! blog using the art of surprise is a great marketing tactic. Unfortunately GM couldn't back up their surprise anytime soon and now everytime the word Volt is used in conversation it is met with a snear.
....and then you get this from Nissan
I didn't even know Nissan was working on an electric vehicle (one however, would assume most smart car companies are working on an electric vehicle)! So what do they do, they role out a model and show it actually being used in the world. Wow! Surprise and the novel concept of showing the car exists and can-in-fact function in the real world. Not just concepts or dreams or figments of someones imagination. A real live test model.
Thumbs up Nissan, and yet another loss for GM. Your culture of losing is getting well established at this point General Motors.
I've written in the past multiple times about how frustrating GM is to deal with and how they are clearly one of the worst run car companies in the world. But they just leave themselves so open to criticism with their practices it's embarassing.
How long have they been touting their electric car The Volt for? Years and years. The car looks great and is forward thinking......or at least it was back in 2005 or whenever they first launched it. That was cutting edge and they surprised people with the look of it then. As Andy Nulman constantly writes about on his POW! blog using the art of surprise is a great marketing tactic. Unfortunately GM couldn't back up their surprise anytime soon and now everytime the word Volt is used in conversation it is met with a snear.
....and then you get this from Nissan
I didn't even know Nissan was working on an electric vehicle (one however, would assume most smart car companies are working on an electric vehicle)! So what do they do, they role out a model and show it actually being used in the world. Wow! Surprise and the novel concept of showing the car exists and can-in-fact function in the real world. Not just concepts or dreams or figments of someones imagination. A real live test model.
Thumbs up Nissan, and yet another loss for GM. Your culture of losing is getting well established at this point General Motors.
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