The economy has not been the greatest and it has caused us all to cut back. In some cases buying store brand or buying bulk items to save a few dollars. I have done the same, but a few things caused me to start thinking about cost verses service. There is always a balance for companies and individuals as they determine the best things for those needs.

Certain areas I have alway cut costs. One of those areas to me has always been food shopping. On the higher end, I love shopping at Wegmans for their food selection, bakery, prepared foods and my favorite is their recipes. I have always found I spend more when I go there, but overall I love the experience. To save a few dollars I do like to shop at Giant Foods in PA. I have found they typically have the lowest prices. There is a difference when I shop at each place. I do not expect wow service at Giant (although many times I feel I get it). I do expect that service at Wegmans, and virtually always receive it.

So now you know a little about my shopping habits, I have to tell you about a new supermarket that I went to this week. The supermarket is called Bottom Dollar. As you can judge from the name it is about the lowest price. I knew before going there that selection would not be huge because it is located in a much smaller building than the supermarkets in my area. The location was probably a supermarket that was closed in the early 1990’s or earlier. They advertise brand name products at the lowest possible price. I went there Friday night to pick up a few things, but when I walked in I decided to do a full amount of shopping. I grabbed my cart and entered the store. The first thing I noticed was the small produce section, which was in a refrigerated area. The produce was in boxes and all looked very fresh. There was not a huge selection, but the basics were all there. I grabbed a few things and continued my way around the store. I noticed quickly that the prices were low. They were not the lowest prices I have seen if I compared to sale prices, but much less than regular prices at other places. As an example Pepsi products were $2.88 for a 12 pack. Other places I have seen regular price $3.99 or $4.99 but sale prices as low as $2.50. Lean Cuisines were also similar price. I think they were $2.48 compared to others at $3.99 regular price with sale prices as low as $2. To give you an example of selection, they had maybe 10 different types of Lean Cuisines instead of the large quantity I find at Wegmans or Giant. They did not have a deli or bakery but they did have some of these items that were prepackaged. I was a little disappointed at the lack of deli, since I was planning on buying cheese, and I usually do not like some of the processed cheeses. The lack of bakery actually helped save me money since that to me is usually an add on purchase because ‘it looked good.’ Wegmans bakery always gets me on the add on’s.

Overall I had a full cart load of stuff. Not bad since I was only going for 3 items. I went up to the cashier and started to unload my cart. I immediately noticed the cashier had another cart at the other end of the register. I quickly noticed the cashier was taking all these little items I purchased and placing them in the other cart, just like I was at a warehouse club with very big items. Unfortunately I did not have big items. I had a whole cart load of small items. I also did not bring any of the bags we own from other supermarkets, so I was not sure how I would carry the items into my home. I quickly looked around and found a spot where they had bags for sale. I ran over, grabbed 5 and gave them to the cashier. The cashier immediately rang in the bags and placed them in the cart then proceeded to ring up all the remaining items, piling them on top of the just purchased bags. No effort was made to place any of the items in a bag. This meant at 9:00 PM on a cold night, I was out by my car trying to bag all these little items of food. This took a while and due to the cold it was not done with as much care as I would like. Overall I spent $98, which probably was a savings of $10-$12 compared to other supermarkets. This caused me to think about it and for me I decided it was not worth the saving compared to my time and the better selection. I am sure others will love it and it will be right for their needs. So I know I am willing to pay a premium of 10-15% for better service at a supermarket. Are you willing to pay a premium for service? If so, how much?

Now a funny ending to my supermarket situation. In my rush to fill the bags and load the cars, I must not have loaded the 12 packs of soda in the best way. When I got home and opened the hatch to my Prius, my 2 12-packs of soda fell out of the back of the car bursting on my driveway.

There is always a cost and value debate we always make when we purchase products. I know I prefer Apple computers compared to other brands. The reason is I have always had amazing service when I needed it, and the product I have had from Apple have lasted a long time, compared to similar machines with other operating systems. I still have a Mac that is close to 10 years old and runs as well as it did when I first bought it. During that time I have had a number on non-Apple computers that have not lasted at all. At the same time I know I pay a premium for the computer. It is probably at least 20%, but in my view and for my needs, I am willing to pay for it because I know they will last. I also know that if I do need service, the Apple store team is empowered and very willing to create a great experience. What items are you willing to pay a premium for? What items do you look to save and expect less service?

It is not about being a Mac person or a Windows person. I know there are many personal preferences to that debate, but our decisions are based a lot on our history. This post is not about swaying you toward Apple or any other product. It is about services and what that does to long term value that it creates. My first Apple experience was with the Apple shore within the Comp USA store in 2002. I purchased my first iMac. This was not for regular use, but really a means to test websites using it. I did not start using it on a regular basis for a number of years after. After going through a number of Windows based machines, I did not want to purchase another computer, so I brought the Mac to the main place in our house where I use the computer. With this I began to get used to the Mac. The one thing I realized was it was still in perfect condition even as the years went on. Eventually I purchased a newer iMac and upgraded to a new one this year. Besides the iMacs (which are all still around, and working well), I purchased a Macbook for for when I am not at home. At work I also have an iMac and my work phone is an iPhone. All this is well and good, but it is not the software or hardware that develops a raving fan such as myself.

I have had a few incidents where I visited the Apple store. Each time I have found myself having a wow moment. This is the type of service most companies want to have, but very few are able to achieve it. Well Apple Store has in multiple locations (King of Prussia and Ardmore, PA). My first time was about a 1 1/2 years ago. My work iPhone was broken since the day it was delivered to me. The power button on the top of it did not work. The phone was not registered in my name, but the name of the company I worked for. They did not care about that at all. I showed no documentation. I told them what the problem was, he looked at it and immediately gave me a new phone and told me how to restore it. It was that easy. My next wow moment was when I decided to upgrade my iMac earlier this year. I went to the Apple store, not due to prior service, but I knew they would have the model in stock. It was a busy Saturday at the Apple store in King of Prussia. I loved the way they handled these sales, although at the time I was frustrated by the wait, since I knew what I wanted and just wanted to pick it up. When the sales person came over, he turned my frustration completely around, and he did not even know I was frustrated. He did it in a simplistic manner. He was having small talk as we were doing the order. This lead to me telling him how I preferred the larger keyboard. His reaction was to throw it in. I did not expect it, but I was very appreciative. He also included some other items, and even talked me out of a more expensive accessory I was thinking about. To top it all off he even realized I worked for Comcast and proactively added a discount available to our employees (I did not even know about that). All this was done in minutes. I did also find it cool that he did the entire transaction on his iPhone or iPod Touch. He even emailed the receipt instead of printing and I was ready to go.

Since that time I had a few more visits to the Apple store. The first was to check out the iPad when it was released (I already had the 3G version on order but that would not be in for a number of weeks. After checking it out, I could see the value it offered and could foresee fights in the house without multiple iPads. So about a week later I went to the Ardmore store to pick one up. While I was there had a great conversation with their business service coordinator. It was a personal connection that she was able to build as we discussed Apple in a work environment. She followed up with emails checking on the purchase and an invitation to a few events to learn more. After I received my 3G iPad I had a problem while I was flying to San Francisco. This made the iPad frozen on the boot up screen. When I arrived in San Fran, I tried to restore the device but I had no luck. I went to the Apple store. Unfortunately they did not have appointments, but I was able to wait for a Genius Bar member to have free time. It was a long wait, but much better than waiting 4 hours for the next available appointment. The technician tried some things, showed empathy and eventually restored the device. The wow moment was not at that time, but instead later on. While I was waiting I shopped for a few accessories since I switched bags prior to the flight and left a few things home. I went up to pay and the cashier was very pleasant. As he finished the payment and I was pulling out my credit card, he noticed my Comcast business card. He immediately stopped and said we can save you money, you get a discount. A fact I learned when I bought my iMac, but in my rush failed to mention. His proactive offering was very much appreciated it.

This brings me to what happened today. Earlier this week I was traveling and at one point I looked at my iPad and it was dented in near the power button (even though it was in a Sena iPad Folio). I was not even sure how it happened, but it obviously bumped into something, and my guess is, that it did so fairly hard. It was very odd looking, with 2 small indentations that went further in. I was upset, but what caused a problem was the power button did not work (not a big deal since it was on at the time). So I set up an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar to find out what the cost of fixing it would be. I showed the gentleman the damage. He took it into the back to see what he could do. He came back and told me the cost would normally be about $400, but since I have been a valued Customer (he tied in prior purchases), and said he would give me a new one for free. I was completely wow’ed by this offer. I did not expect and I knew it was not covered under warranty. I expected to have to pay for cosmetic damage. Instead I paid for a protective edge that I placed on the iPad and squeezed back in the folio (I am not sure I will get it back out, so if there are any designers out there, I love the Sena case, but would recommend making it a little bigger and include a protective piece for the edge).

Anyway, the moral to all of this is great products are just part of the picture. What really drives dedication is the employees within your company. Empowering them in ways like this will really lead to dedicated Customers. I know I will be an Apple Customer for a long time because these employees turned me into a raving fan.