USAA go read your ads

Posted on December 13, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

And then there’s that other paragon of customer service, USAA, the big auto insurer.

I’ve been a customer of theirs for over 40 years.

But, they raised their rates $20 US per month. Not bad, but I told them I was going shopping, after one of my speeding tickets dropped off after five years, and one of their reps insinuated that I wouldn’t get a rate increase.

Predictably, GEICO, who always smells blood in the water, shows up with a quote that knocks $55 per month off the USAA rates.

Now GEICO will probably jack up their rates after the first year, which is what they did the last time, but I’ll then go back to USAA, having saved about $600 in the process.

Jeez, one wonders what is going on out there in the firmament.

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VZ no BZ

Posted on December 13, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

Today was the day.

Not only did Chase screw up, Verizon (VZ) apparently lost my cell phone payment and threatened to cut off service.

Turns out, they deposited the check, because it cleared ol Chase, but Verizon can’t figure out why they didn’t credit my account.

Hello, go look inside your not too sainted company. Sounds like some fraud going on.

Jeez, I was about to re-up and trade my IPhone 7 in for a free 11 which VZ is giving its new customers.

They apparently aren’t going to extend the same offer to existing customers.

So, the existing customers might become former customers.

Free stuff works.

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Chase Overdraft Crap

Posted on December 13, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

About a year ago, I seriously overdrafted my checking account at Chase. So, I went down to the local branch to see what I could do to fix the situation.

Turns out they can send a text to my smartphone and send me an email.

Well, my checkbook said that I was about to overdraft again, so I looked at my online statement and discovered I’d already done it, and Chase was merrily whacking me for overdraft charges.

It took them a week to get me an email saying my account was overdrawn, and I didn’t get any texts at all.

Frankly, I think overdraft charges are a profit center at Chase.

Now they say that they (one Cathy Rezab) don’t want to reverse the current charges because of my past history.

Well Chase, you can become history.

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White Castle No Comprende

Posted on December 11, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

White Castle, the venerable seller of sliders, recently opened in Scottsdale AZ.

I decided I’d bring a bag home; my wife doesn’t know ol White Castle.

I wanted to know if I could order a bag of 10 through the drive through, but wanted to find out if I could do a bag through drive through, which isn’t clear from the menu.
Counter person couldn’t understand this at all. Mistake 1.

Mistake 2: Saying ‘you get in line. ‘

Good lord. Let’s hope Nikki Buchanan, the legendary Eat Beat foodie, doesn’t try White Castle yet.

The moral of this tale is that you should put your best people on the customer line, even if you’re new, and even if you’re the manager. Don’t leave the no comprende folks out there to die and sully your reputation.

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FBI, Fix Your Culture

Posted on December 11, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

The FBI, and to a lesser extent, Department of Justice, need a culture makeover.

They are both probably notoriously top down driven, and not too tolerant of diverse opinions, we imagine.

We have seen this before in government agencies, because we did a rather groundbreaking study about 25 years ago of the Navy’s leadership culture,

BTW, we see some signs that the Navy is reverting to its former top down drive…..go fix that, too.

When we did the Navy study on leadership, we found many of the same problems that now apparently exist at the FBI: CYA in the extreme, political infighting when you’re all on the same team.

We have no idea whether the FBI is very diverse, either, but we suspect not, because women leaders might leaven some of the bad male leadership practices.

So, FBI, go figure out best leadership practices and get yourself fixed.

One way we got compliance from Navy commanders was to make compliance with Deming-style leadership maxims a fitness report item.

The FBI could also make it a management reporting item when managers are reviewed for promotion or wage increases. However, the Civil Service isn’t exactly a meritocracy.

We’re not sure Chris Wray is the right guy to lead the change, but it’s better to start with the devil you know that the one you don’t.

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Bonfire of the Vanities

Posted on December 5, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

So Nancy Pelosi is going to refer the House shenanigans to formal impeachment inquiry, or something.

The stock market greeted the news with a collective yawn.

The Democrats probably just lost the 2020 election to Trump, and might well have lost the House majority to the Republicans. Up in smoke, Nancy. Back to the backbench where you belong.

The business community seems not to care, either.

These people are so vain, they have no idea that what they do and say has no impact on anyone, except the news media, who get to report something for the current news cycle.

Maybe when the Republicans take over, we can get some stuff done that the country needs, such as USMCA and border legislation.

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A Tale of Two Products

Posted on December 3, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

Mike Lindell is a smart guy and an excellent businessman; look what he’s done with a plebian product (pillows) and leveraged them into an empire. He really hasn’t put a foot wrong….good usp, good selection, leveraging pillows into associated products, guaranteed success with the product, good customer experiences provided. OK price points, but the value is there, so it works.

One also senses Mike has been around the block more than a few times.

On the other hand, there’s Tom Patterson and Erin Fukimoto, also trying to take a plebian product (mens and women’s underwear) into the big time. But the value proposition isn’t there (their products are about twice as expensive as others on the market), there’s no guarantee of success with ‘best pair you’ll ever wear’ (which is good, but there isn’t a free trial period and guaranteed success….free returns. Only money off, which is just part of the promotional equation.

One senses Tom and Erin still have a lot to learn, but they’re out on a limb with the underwear. Where Lindell did his market research at county fairs, it’s not clear T & E have done much. Even at 25% off, my research suggeests that their underwear is still much more expensive than the competition.

T &E could offer a money back guarantee…none of our clients has EVER had more than 10% of sales returned, which is not too bad. 60 day trial would be good. Free returns with a 60 day trial would work. In other words, go look at the Lindell playbook. OK T&E, Christmas is coming, you’re sorta stuck where you are, but you can fix things for the New Year.

The bottom line for all you readers is that when you’ve got a product idea, do some customer focused research, be guided by it and use all the promotional elements. Make sure they’re all considered before you even launch.

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If You’re Big Why Aren’t You Profitable?

Posted on November 26, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

Back in the day when I was in charge of all financial planning at Ford Credit, whenever a division would come up with an idea, they had to come up with a ‘steady state’ level of sales, or branches, and we would work with them to figure out how profitable the idea was, when it became profitable, and whether it hit or exceeded Ford’s return on equity criteria.

These days, when one looks at the losses of Uber, Lyft and We Work, one wonders if the financial houses backing these companies has ever done some basic financial planning for them.

None is profitable, or apparently expected to be profitable anytime soon.

We guess that it must be part of the ‘greater fool theory of investment: I might be a fool for investing in something, but there’s a greater fool out there that will buy my stake for a profit.

Maybe one of the underwriters of these stocks will send me a rejoinder about how and when they become profitable, and how much.

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Robocall AI

Posted on November 22, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

We get 4 or 5 robocalls a day selling car or personal insurance, health plans or somesuch.

All are high volume call applications.

We have noticed when we’ve answered the local ones (who might be potential clients) that they apparently use some degree of AI at the first screening level, e.g., you tell them who your auto insurer is and they automatically, using a human sounding nice feminine voice, direct you to the program that might best suit you.

No apparent human intervention.

Ergo, there seems to be some AI going on here. And, today on Fox Business News, there was a small company CEO on selling AI application software.

Hmmmm.

I’m throwing this one out there to our readers to find out if they know of such an AI company and its application software.

The world wants to know!

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WeWork Wobbles

Posted on November 20, 2019 by asechmentor@gmail.com

We like the idea of co-working spaces. We have occasionally operated from one, and have recommended them to our smaller clients. One of our clients operates a worldwide business from a co-working space, with a big assist from 40 or so people in the Phillippines.

A lot of entrepreneurs like them, too, as evidenced by the success of WeWork, a New York-based developer of coworking spaces. Plus, WeWork operates Meetup, a division that allows entrepreneurs (or any affinity group) to recruit members and operate. We run four Meetup locations in the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

However, having advsed owners of coworking spaces, we think, at least in the Phoenix market, and maybe elsewhere, that WeWork is overpriced for what it delivers.

At present, we have only one client operating from coworking spaces, but we’re going to do a survey of our existing clients to find out what’s what, because we need to know, to properly advise future clients. We plan on asking our worldwide client how he’s doing operating from one, too.

So, the bottom line on coworking spaces is check out at least a couple of them before you commit to one. Our personal experience was that it was difficult to get out of the coworking space once our requirements had changed, about a year after we originally signed on.

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