Bridgestone set for Apple style store innovation
When you think of the customer experience of tire industry and the automotive industry as a whole, it would seem that many of would draw a blank. Bridgestone Americas’ new president of retail though, Stu Crum, wants all this to change and has proposed his “Vision 2020” to get Bridgestone up alongside the very top retailers in the U.S. What’s his plan you ask?
Crum says that the real shift has been in breaking out of their industries set mode of thinking. Which has been to move from seeing the customer as a commodity to being a valued partner; the lifetime value of the customer has become king. As Crum so aptly puts it:
“With a lifetime view in place, we don’t need to repair every single thing at that moment in time. Instead, we’re only going to recommend what absolutely has to be done so that they trust us as a lifetime customer.”
As such no longer are topline sales and profits the ultimate goal. Instead NPS is becoming their new KPI with a bonus program that rewards Net Promoter Score’s rather than profits.
Furthermore Bridgestone is following the example of other innovative top retailers by creating stores that incorporate digital tools and removing the old barriers between employees and customers. Such that counters dividing customers and employees will be removed in favor of pods, pods that will incorporate touch screens for use with customers. Video be employed to help customers understand the service they are receiving, for example explaining the difference between types of brakes.
Want to find out how Bridgestone plans to be the only automobile car care service company in the top 100 retailers in the U.S. then read the whole article here.
Vodafone, design and customer experience
While in the world of design we find Vodafone. Not two things you would normally put together but as a well-reported user of NPS, its division in the Czech Republic has teamed up with design firm IO studio to create a customer experience center in their Prague headquarters.
The showroom that was built inside their office slowly transitions customers from the real world outside to a futuristic but organic space. Here the company’s clients receive a personalized tour of the company’s latest technology and services.
Through the tour of the space, clients are first brought to a relaxation zone, where after clients are lead into the central part of the structure for the main presentation. All of it intended to help address clients individual needs.
Although not intended for the general public. The initiative that Vodafone has been showing over the last couple towards every aspect of customer experience, be it their B2B or B2C clients, is a promising sign that maybe one telecommunications company wishes to be different from the rest.
In brief
Extol International, a provider of end-to-end integration software and services company has posted a score of 70.15.
Masergy Communications, a leader in managed networking and cloud services is sitting nicely at 61.
