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Friday, July 10, 2009

How Do They Do That?

I am not an early adopter. I still have an old cell phone that pretty much only makes and takes calls. No pictures, no internet, just a phone. I want an iPhone, but haven't gotten around to getting one yet.

I only recently signed up for Netflix. And I am impressed. How do they get those DVD's to me so fast? I'll put my return envelope in the mailbox at the post office at 2:00 or 3:00 pm and get an email notice from Netflix that they've received my envelope sometime later that night. Then only a few hours later I'll receive another email confirmation telling they've shipped my next movie. Amazing.

What can your organization learn from this? How can you increase your efficiency and customer service? I await your answers.

5 comments:

Peter Jackson said...

Hey Steve:

I am suprised that you would be impressed by that. In today's business movie business, anything that it is not instant is inefficient. Try apple tv, or movies on demand or some other instant rental service. With apple tv in 30 second you can start wAtching the movie.

Steve said...

Petros, thanks for the comment! The thing is I don't want movies on demand, which I could also get with Netflix. I want the DVD. I'll watch it when I want, and I might take it to a friend's house and watch it there. Netflix is giving the customer (me) what it wants and are doing it well.

For those of use who do want the DVD in the mail, they are very good at providing it. I've chosen the option where I only have one DVD at a time. I could have chosen to pay more and have multiple DVD's at the same time, and where it probably wouldn't matter to me how fast they processed the return and the new shipment.

But since I've chosen this option, Netflix has satisfied me and I'm very happy with their service. How many organizations can claim that? How can they improve their operations so that they can claim that?

Aloha,

Steve

Peter Jackson said...

I see your point and you are right some people still choose DVDs over digital format. With respect to takin the movie with you, I transfer the movie to my iPhone and I take the av cable with me and just hook it up to the tv and play the movie. Yes, the iPhone is also a portable movie player.

Now, it sounds to me that you are very satisfied with netflix. How can other organization provide that kind of service? Well it is hard to say becuase every business has different needs an different must and do's. but a general element that every business should have to be succesful is attention to detail.

Peter Jackson said...

I see your point and you are right some people still choose DVDs over digital format. With respect to takin the movie with you, I transfer the movie to my iPhone and I take the av cable with me and just hook it up to the tv and play the movie. Yes, the iPhone is also a portable movie player.

Now, it sounds to me that you are very satisfied with netflix. How can other organization provide that kind of service? Well it is hard to say becuase every business has different needs an different must and do's. but a general element that every business should have to be succesful is attention to detail.

Steve said...

Petros, as I mentioned, I'm not an early adapter. Not even a late adapter in many cases. I'm still thinking about the iPhone, and still like the physical DVD.

Yes, attention to detail is very important. How about where that attention is focused? Do you want to be detailed and very good at things that are of no interest to your customers?

Netflix has different options for different customers. If all they had was on-demand options I wouldn't be a customer. You can't be everything to everyone, but you have to know your customers.