Software Journal

This morning I finally decided to get a new camera – the Sony W180, but let me not take the credit for it – the previous Nikon Coolpix had coolly stopped working entirely, after 2 years of great service. Pretty much every camera now a days is 10 or 12 Megapixels, which in my humble opinion is just crazy because I cannot even find the difference between images snapped using 5 and 6 megapixel cameras. (But don’t let my feeble eyesight get in the way of your 40 mega pixel ambitions).

Best Buy has perfected the art of selling to technically challenged people, and I saw many cases of that glorious event happening as I walked through the store. The Sony W180 was available for $129, but you also need to buy your 20$ Sony digital memory card (standard camera memory cards don’t work, and for pretty much the first time, I also decided to buy the 35$ 2-year warranty on it. The sales people there are extremely cordial, and helpful, and that is one of the strengths of Best Buy (although, just read on).

When I checked out of the store, the person on the exit door gave me a hard hard look, kind of reminding me of the time when I stood in the passport control line when entering Israel and answering questions about whether I am Jewish (I am not) or Muslim (I am not), and whether I am writing a book or a blog (I am yet to figure out what the interrogator was getting at on that one). The only difference is that this time I was just exiting a store after shelling out 200$, and by jove – the receipt was in the same clear bag that the salesperson packed and gave me, and was clearly visible from even the outside.

I remember a while back, Michael Righi got arrested for not showing the receipt at a store, so I am not sure if I would like to rebel in the same way, but that said, the experience of shopping at Best Buy didn’t become better for me either. I have a steely resolve never to buy at Best Buy again.

So, what does this have to do with customer service, software or with anything? Perhaps not much, but it does reiterate a cheesy lesson we are taught in school – a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I am currently involved with many customer service initiatives in my day job at NTELX, and it just reiterates to me that when checking the customer satisfaction, we don’t have to get an “overall” or an “average” picture, rather, check what is the worst aspect of dealing with us from each client’s perspective, then work backwards from there.