Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Zero Out for Sanity

About 46 seconds into a recorded infomercial, I decided there must be a better way to renew my prescriptions over the telephone.

The poor pharmacist..he nervously laughed and said "corporate" is insisting that he (and other pharmacists) are also required to attempt to upsell while engaged with the customer standing in their physical proximity.

This is where we currently stand in the world of BigCo marketing; and this practice started WELL before the economy hit the skids back in the year 1388.

I won't tell you the name of the mega-pharmacy chain that just pinned me to the wall (though it does rhyme with Height Laid) though I find it astonishing that a company with this type of marketing muscle has been reduced to this type of horsebleep. After re-reading the sentence I just plucked, why should this surprise me? The aforementioned one-to-one "marketing" example is EVERYWHERE. People who are compensated on a par with heart surgeons to "increase growth"...this is the best they got.

If the U.S. is no longer in the business of actually making anything anymore we better be Rock Stars at the other stuff, e.g., any type of services.

So how's "Customer Service" treating you these days/daze?

I repeat: If the US is no longer going to manufacture stuff, we need to be nothing short of spectacular in any type of commerce that would be categorized under the heading SERVICES.

Now pardon me while I prepare for my two services related visits later today with: A.) My primary care physician, his staff and Managed Care and B.) The Registry of Motor Vehicles. I'm not expected to survive.