Service comes in all shapes in sizes. Friday when I called Verizon to tell them that the Blackberry Storm they just sold me had more bugs than entomology section at the Natural History Museum, they couldn’t have been more helpful. As I explained that the camera had a funny way of going on when you were trying to type an email, they listened politely, told me how to send it back and helped reset my old phone. So even though I was disappointed with the equipment, I couldn’t fault Verizon. Their service is simply stellar and assuming I can find a satisfactory phone, I’ll end up renewing my subscription with them.
That’s service as service. Before you should even think about Marketing as Service, you better have your service basics in order. One such company is UPS. Their service is consistently excellent, something you used to really appreciate when you had enough money to buy a lot of last minute gifts. But, what’s a smart shipper to do when new gift purchases are expected to be down in the dumps?
Duh! Encourage regifting. That’s right, regifting. Send you friends the stuff you never used but for some reason couldn’t part with. Actually, I’m only half joking. UPS has set up a mildly amusing website called UPS Regifter.com that allows you to choose from a series of wonderfully tacky gifts that you can then email to a friend. (Thanks to MediaPost for delivering the head’s up about this one.) I elected to use the Facebook application and sent my assistant a Hawaiian dancer (doll), which she will no doubt appreciate.
While the concept is funnier to talk about than it is to play with, I give kudos to UPS for trying to deliver some levity in this otherwise bleak holiday season. And who knows, UPS may actually get some extra shipping biz out of it as people identify some real “regifts” they can pass along.