9.45 pm update: I forwarded a copy of my last post to Dixons Chief Executive so that he could discover why the company is losing customers.
TIP: Remember if you're emailing the Chief Executive do it at the weekend or late at night if you want a personal reply (see previous post - Chief Executives love their Blackberries).
This time (and almost immediately) Dixons CEO emailed me a personal (although perhaps little over-used) reply;
I am not sure what I can say. I get a lot of approaches that I cannot directly reply. What I do is read all the complaints sent to me and I am using them to help work out how to fix the business.
My apologies that I have not been able to correspond directly on your issues.
Yours sincerely
John
Well, fair play, he is using complaints to 'help work out how to fix the business' and he's still reading his email at nearly 10 at night.
Unfortunately judging from my experience the business is unfix able, so Mr Browett should put his Blackberry aside and get some sleep. The sale of technology products is based on 2 fundamentals - price and knowledgeable service. Dixons group don't do either. They can't even run a web store successfully - despite their enormous buying power. What they do offer is a high street showroom where canny shoppers can go and see in the flesh the product they plan to buy cheaper online. In store their sales staff treat the customer with little more than contempt.
Contrast with John Lewis. JL has realised they can't compete with online retailers on price alone - but they can offer knowledgeable customer service and free extended warranties. So you might just leave the store with the product anyway; confident that if things go wrong John Lewis will still be there to help. Try taking something back to Curry's or PC World - or just take a look at the queue at the PC World 'Tech guys' counter - that should convince you you'd be better off shopping anywhere else.
Anyway in fairness to the Dixons chief executive - who's burning the midnight oil trying to work out how to fix the business, I reply:
Thank you for your immediate reply. Your personal directness and openness is exactly what customers want to hear when things go wrong - not some more nonsense.
Good luck with the enormous challenges you face. You are clearly fully focusing your energy on them.
If you're a frustrated Dixons, Curry's, PC world customer perhaps you'd like to send him your suggestions on how to 'fix the business'. His email address is hard to find, so here it is:
john.browett@dsgiplc.com
Late at night is the best time to catch him, but please be gentle; he's probably had a long day.
If you're a frustrated Dixons, Curry's, PC world customer perhaps you'd like to send him your suggestions on how to 'fix the business'. His email address is hard to find, so here it is:
john.browett@dsgiplc.com
Late at night is the best time to catch him, but please be gentle; he's probably had a long day.
