John’s Blog

Every retail conference that I attend there is a discussion about the needs of the retail industry to improve customer service. Alas, many retailers are not sending team members to workshops on customer service training and as a result most surveys I look at indicate that customers believe customer service is on the decline. You […]

Over the last two days I have received a number of communications concerning the price war going on in the hardware and garden market around the world. Many parts of the USA are seeing bad weather delaying the spring rush into the garden. This means that many large retailers have asked nursery suppliers to reduce

According to researchers the three industries that get the most complaints from consumers are retailing, budget airlines and Telecom providers. We can relate to the last one as we are in the process of having a dispute with our own provider. They billed us for an unknown $1,500 and we then contacted them to ask

Take a look at consumers, more and more of them are walking in and “fiddling” with their phones. What are they doing? Well according to the research 52% of those new customers have used that phone to find your store, 48% of them are browsing products using their phone, 40% are comparing your prices with

Istanbul is the second largest city in Europe after Moscow with the population reaching 20 million people. The city is one of the oldest in the world and can boast the fact that it has the oldest retail complex in the world …. in fact the oldest and the second oldest! The Grand Bazaar or

This was the title to a presentation I made to the International Council of Shopping Centres Conference at their 2011 conference in Istanbul, Turkey this April. When you look at the initial research on shopping centres and shopping you may believe customer boredom is not the case. In Turkey in 2001 there were 53 shopping

Pick up a local newspaper or switch on the TV or radio and there is a retailer promoting a special on something. In Australia supermarkets have been promoting cheap liquor and a thumbs down promotional sign on specific “loss leader “items. Then across the world to the UK and “Everyday Low price” signs are scattered

Don’t get me wrong. We are strong supporters of organic and biodynamic foods and whenever possible we use organic / biodynamic products at home. Plus we grow our own vegetable s and fruit as much as possible and only use organic methods at home. The 2011 UK Organic Market Report published by the Soil Association

Over the last few weeks a number of clients have asked me what I thought about the book “Priceless” by William Poundstone. I have had to be honest and tell them I have been unable to get a copy of the book. I have finally found a copy at an airport bookshop. Priceless, (ref 9781921640957

I recently spoke at the Hangzhou Lifestyle Conference in China. One of the other speakers was Kevin Castllani, Publishing Director of Furniture Today, the USA trade magazine. He presented some interesting data on the lifestyle furnishing industry which I thought some of you may be interested in. According to the US Customer Service International Trade