Funny and Sad at the Same Time

We can't go anywhere these days without hearing that retail is having significant issues globally, as well as locally in the United States. Over the last 20 years, big-box retail has become the most popular form of merchandising and, in many ways, it's easy enough to see that its popularity is directly related to the systems and economies of scale that they have been able to provide. Marks & Spencer is one of the United Kingdom's largest retailers with 600 stores. They must be doing a lot of things right, and so with that in mind, I found the following article (read the headline a time or two if you need to) really entertaining and sad at the same time. Could they be dropping the ball with their customer data? Laughing out loud with visions in my head of the two profiled shoppers that I best not share with you, leads me to believe that someone ...Marks & Spencer...isn't keeping track of the mounds and mounds of available data within the organization.

M&S Finds Little Support for China Debut
By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai Published: January 17 2009

So far, the vast new Marks and Spencer store in Shanghai seems to be underwhelming consumers in the shopping capital of China...... German matron Claudia Scharting bemoaned the fact that there were no D-cup bras in the lingerie section, although there were plenty of vast UK size-20 girdles.

Expatriates complain that the bras are too small, Chinese shoppers say that the clothes are too big, and no one likes the under stocked food section.

Now I'm not picking on Marks & Spencer, but this really funny commentary is a great example of why it's so important to not only gather what your customers and prospects likes, dislikes and interactions are, but to put that information to good use. But aren't many of us really guilty of exactly this same behavior? Don't we sometimes deliver a "one size fits all"? Don't we know how to do it better, but just don't?

Of course we do. So with the economy swirling with uncertainty, why not make a pact to do it better. Quit using stand-alone silo systems. Use something where everyone in the organization has access and responsibility to contribute and use responsibly. My favorite pet peeve in this category is people who think Outlook straight out of the box is useful companywide. If you are using good systems to gather data, be sure you do something useful with the data. This market won't reward you if you don't.

Truth is we have become very accustomed to the people (complete strangers) we interact with knowing an awful lot about us. We expect that information, since we've been willing to give it, to be used to make our world better through personalization. We're desperate to be catered to. There are greater opportunities today than ever before to fill that need - to be the firm or the person who knows what to "deliver".

My challenge to myself and to you is to be diligent in making sure we're not delivering our products and services the same way Marks & Spencer seems to be, which clearly isn't generating the kind of press anyone wants, even if it is really funny. We all could stand more laughter these days!