Paula Rosenblum's Blog

JetBlue Redux

2011-11-19T12:24:00.002-05:00

I got a lovely note from JetBlue with a $25 credit towards my "next flight". How can an airline believe that a minor markdown for a future flight on an airline I have no intention of ever using again is a good thing? It's not like I need the $25 but cash money would have been a far more compelling apology.

Sheesh.

JetBlue - Not for Business Travelers

2011-11-17T18:32:00.004-05:00

Warning: Rant below. I don't post on this blog often, so you know if I do, I've got something to say.

I'm sitting here at the White Plains airport after a very successful business engagement. And that's the end of the good news.

Because the client is in Westchester, it seemed to make sense to fly to this airport and avoid New York City traffic. Normally I quite happily fly on American Airlines, but that airline didn't have any direct flights here. So...I left from Fort Lauderdale, instead of Miami, and flew JetBlue instead of American. I should have known better.

I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before scheduled flight time. We were done with our work early. When I got here, I found out my flight was delayed, but there was a flight boarding that was going to West Palm, not to far from FLL. I figured they'd let me on. The door was open, there was clearly time, and that flight itself was a couple of hours late. I know the drill, I fly a lot. I knew it would cost me some money, but it was worth it. Out of the cold, back to the warmth, and I'd figure out how to get to my car when I got back to Florida.

Not so fast, Paula Rosenblum.

The gate attendant refused to let me get on the plane. She said "it's too late, the flight is closed." The flight was not closed. She was still calling passengers to get on it. I said "look, I'm willing to pay." She was adamant. "No, our system wont let us change you." All of you who fly know that any airline will let you on an outbound flight if there are empty seats and you have a ticket. It may cost you money, but they will let you on. Not JetBlue. The best part? She blamed it on their computer system! Seriously???

Anyway, I got instantly hot and asked for her to get a supervisor. It took the supervisor 15 minutes to get here - and yes, the plane was still at the gate for all that time. By the time the supervisor arrived, the plane was closed. The supervisor was sympathetic but obviously not helpful. The gate agent had told her one story, and that story was not true. The only one with any sense of urgency was me.

So I will eventually get home tonight - just way later than I planned. But I keep thinking about that JetBlue pilot on the tarmac on October 30. He called the airport begging for help because, in his words "...I can't seem to get any help from my own company." That flight was (ironically) headed FROM Fort Lauderdale to Newark. I think I have a sense of how he must've felt.

JetBlue employees don't care, they don't go the extra mile, in fact they won't budge an inch. It offends me greatly that the gate attendant actually blamed "the system." And even as the pleasant supervisor said "Well there was no room on the plane" when I asked her directly if it was full she replied "There were only 10 empty seats." Honestly, I would have fit in ONE. Even on a bad day.

Maybe the occasional traveler can tolerate this kind of service. Business travelers really can't. I don't care if there's a TV behind my seat. I don't care that for "only" $40 I got to have 4 inches extra legroom (10 dollars an inch, I know there's a joke in there somewhere). What I care about is my TIME. These people wasted my time, insulted my intelligence and stranded me. I won't forget, and I won't ever fly them again. And if anyone asks me I'll encourage them to do the same. Do.Not.Fly.JetBlue.

Say it with me, people. Do.Not.Fly.JetBlue.

South Florida: Snookered at Sawgrass Mills

2010-11-30T14:12:00.001-05:00

Last Black Friday I ventured out to Aventura Mall, the 5th largest mall in the country. This year I went to Sawgrass Mills, one notch smaller and the 6th largest mall in the country. I just re-read last year’s article, and I had to laugh. It turns out the year and venue may have changed, but my strategy was pretty much the same.

Even though the mall opened at 12:01am, there was no way I was heading out early. Nikki ventured out at 3am last year and returned somewhat shell-shocked. Add to that Target’s Black Friday ad campaign that seemed to be focused on a 50+ year old housewife cum meth addict, (seriously….were these ads meant to inspire? They scared the beejezzus out of me! I hope Target had all the sudafeds locked up tight), there was no way I was going to try that. So I tried a different approach, which turned out to be a lot like my approach last year. And that was, go as late in the day as possible, in the belief crowds would have thinned. Boy was I wrong. Again.

This year when I awoke the weather was warm, but the skies cloudy. I thought for sure everyone would do their shopping right then, since it really wasn’t a beach day. So I languished and at around 4:30, I headed up to Sawgrass (last year I headed to Aventura at 2pm). I expected to see some traffic, with most people leaving. Wrong, Bunkie! People were leaving, heavily laden with bags, luggage, carts and anything else that could hold merchandise. But as many people were still arriving, and it took me more than a half hour to find a place to park.

I’m just a little sensitive to parking situations in large lots, as I was born without a particular sense – the sense of direction. And having already lost my car once last week, I was disinclined to wander far in a strange place without adult supervision. I checked all the landmarks around my car, and headed into the nearest mall entrance, which turned out to be a food court. Again, I was disinclined to wander far, so I ordered some pizza and sat. That’s when the fun began.

Holy QR Code, Batman: Mobility is HOT
Last year I was excited to find JC Penney’s mobile web site, pretty much the first I knew of that would work on my Blackberry. This year, as I sat munching on my pizza, I watched the TV screen hanging overhead. Everything was about mobile something. Sears offered me to text a number and get a 15% off coupon. Another company showed me a QR code (not knowing how far away the screen was at that location). I could take a picture of that code to take advantage of another deal. All along the way on th split screen there was a quasi-location-based network called myakoo.com (or akoo remote), that would allow me to text a set of numbers to akoo, and they would then play my favorite video free, right there in the Sawgrass Food Court. Yes, the sound of Justin Bieber is still ringing in my ears, and no, I did not text it, but someone did. The mall operator, Simon Property Group, has fully grasped the “problem” of the mobile device, and has found multiple ways to engage the customer.

Along with myakoo and the ads I described on the digital TV’s…you guessed it, there’s an app for that. Simon has its own iPhone app which allows you to find out about stores, dining, events, a mall map, a parking reminder (maybe it’s worth it to buy an iPhone just for that!), and driving directions to any of its properties (and there are a LOT of them).

I ventured carefully away from the food court and even wandered into a store or two. Employees had done a nice job recovering the floors – it was nothing like a party supply store before Halloween – things looked downright tidy. At some point I’d had enough, and headed back to my car. It was 7pm and vehicles were still streaming into the lot. In fact, I quickly abandoned the idea of doing a drive-by of Aventura. Aventura is the place I got lost looking for a restaurant with a client, even with my GPS on. I wasn’t going there in a crowd.

Small Business Saturday: A New Phenomenon
I had every intention of heading out to my local stores to see if American Express’s new special day “Small Business Saturday” was having an impact. The problem is it was hard to know from a distance which small businesses were involved and which ones weren’t. Since this is the event’s first year, I suppose it wasn’t completely thought out. I expect to see better publicity around it next year. After all, the very retailers Amex is trying to promote have the least resources to promote themselves. What I would expect to see, along with that nice Facebook page, is a location-based listing of participating retailers, and yes, I’d like it delivered right to my phone.

That might have been worth more than the $25 credit Amex offered me for shopping at one of the retailers. After all, who’s got time for a $25 Easter Egg Hunt the day after Black Friday? Amex, take note – these guys really DO need your help.

So ends our Black Friday tale from South Florida. The sun was not shining, but the store windows were most definitely gleaming. Frugality Fatigue is in full swing. People WANT to have a good time, and for Americans that means one thing: consume. Once you’ve consumed your dinner, it’s time to work it off by consuming some products. Then, we all go back to the beach, which is where I spent Sanguine Sunday, my own special day of rest.

The Impact of the Elections

2010-11-02T14:06:00.003-04:00

I've been asked to opine on the question of whether a Republican win will be "good for retail" or not. Here is my answer.

It may be sacrilegous for me to say this, but what may seem good for retail in the short term (less overt regulation, continued unfettered imports) can likely affect it negatively in the long term. The off-shoring of jobs that continues unabated ultimately affects American consumers, as we can observe in the stubbornly high unemployment rate. We have off-shored most low-skilled labor jobs and are working our way up the economic food chain into the middle class. In other words, we continue to be a nation focused on consumption, and an unregulated economy of consumption is unsustainable. I am forced to ask myself who will advocate for the longer term and the greater good. It's not as though the Democrats have done a bang-up job of protecting those interests, but less government is not the same as good government, and the US is sorely in need of the latter rather than the former.

The longer view says continued erosion of the middle class and continued re-distribution of wealth to the very wealthy will happen after this election. How can that possibly be good for retail?

The Zone Alarm /MSFT Security Update Farkle

2008-07-10T08:31:00.004-04:00

In my spare time, I provide pro bono tech support to a charitable organization. Yesterday, the subject of Microsoft's new security patch came up. It turns out that installing the patch on a machine running Zone Alarm (free or paid-for editions) kills internet connectivity. As of this moment, there are two fairly simple work-arounds: 1) don't install, or uninstall the security update or 2) set Zone Alarm firewall security to medium.

That's straightforward enough. One would expect Zone Alarm to fix their problem and get the program running again. Yet, Zone Alarm's recommended patch is to uninstall the update. and I have actually read comments on the net saying that "Microsoft has broken Zone Alarm". This makes me say "You're kidding me, right?"

Let's review: a vendor builds a product designed to support an operating system. The operating system is improved to eliminate a vulnerability. The people (and to some extent the vendor) blame the operating system? Nope.

Frankly, on my last remaining XP machine, I switched to Comodo anyway. It's much more elegant and requires a lot less thinking anyway.

Don't call me a Microsoft apologist...I'm not...but when you're a parasitic part of a food chain, one should not bite your host. Zone Alarm, fix the program and say "Oops".

Oops - Of course I meant Putnam

2008-02-08T09:29:00.000-05:00

A reader of RSR's corporate blog pointed out that in my passionate discussion of the book "Bowling Alone", I had named the author as Robert Palmer, when in fact it is Robert PUTNAM. Of course I knew the right name, I've used it many times, but my fingerswent faster than my brain.

I've corrected the author's name everywhere I could find it. Sorry Dr. Putnam. My bad.

Social Capital, and Website Design: How Can We Stop “Bowling Alone”

2008-02-04T11:10:00.000-05:00

This piece is similar in intent to one posted on RSR's corporate web site, but is a bit more pointed.

Last week I had the opportunity to hear an executive for Walmart.com speak to retailers about what’s hot in web site design. Debbie Kristofferson talked quite extensively about Walmart.com’s most recent web site redesign and how important it was to create a sense of community. Wal-mart’s research revealed that community was best manifested by offering consumers the opportunity to write product reviews, and give loyal customers a voice on the site.

That's research into customer needs for community. On the employee side of the equation, sometimes it feels like 1984 has come, but 24 years late. Workforce management systems insure that hourly employees punch in at their solitary workstations, to gain a pathetic extra 10 minutes of "productivity" ostensibly lost when they punch in at a centralized time clock and the walk to their workstations, or heaven forbid, have a conversation with co-workers at the clock. Executives (myself included) carry around Blackberries and other smart phones to insure that we can be productive even in our short periods of downtime. For us, no warnings are needed - we ignore friends and relatives if "duty calls" on the work front. We vacation less...we work more.

In 2001, my friend Dr. Henry Abraham told me about a fascinating book – “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam. Putnam, like many a social theorists picked one area as metaphor to describe an overarching phenomenon. Dr. Palmer’s metaphor? Bowling. He observed that over the previous 25 years, while the number of people bowling had actually risen, the number of people bowling in leagues had declined. He cites other statistics to show how the United States has become an ever more isolated collection of individuals, rather than a collection of groups. Putnam believes that the social capital of society – “the fabric of our connections with each other” – is as important as its other form of capital, and that social capital is declining precipitously.

All of us who live in the US recognize our lives in this remark. We seem to have more gravitas, less fun and fewer social gatherings than before, and we work in cubicles in front of our computers, following an endless quest for productivity. We vacation less, work more, and most of us are focused on just making financial ends meet. I actually read and posted on a blog last week that objected to on-line chats at work because they were counter-productive to "productivity". I objected to that objection. Sometimes, enough is enough.

Putnam had many suggestions on fixing this problem, and even co-wrote a follow-on book “Better Together”, with prescriptions for improvements. But something surprising has happened: Social Networking. This phenomenon has created global and local communities of interest.

People who otherwise are isolated have found their voices on line. They participate in product reviews, are fearless in challenging those faceless corporations who they feel might have wronged them, and cheerfully join myspace, Linked In, Facebook, Second Life and other communities of interest.

Of course there are those who feel the social networking phenomenon is a poor proxy for direct human interaction. It’s true that my Second Life avatar, Masuite Loon, is 20 years younger, lots thinner and dresses way better than I do in real life. But the connections I make around the web in all my incarnations are deep and real. In fact, our company, RSR, had our first face to face meeting EVER at NRF’s Big Show. Yet these are people I feel as close to as any I’ve ever worked with. If there was a scale of Social Capital, I’d say we’ve generated a lot. And we know each others’ real names and what we really look like.

By now I’ll bet you’ve figured out I was a sociology major in college, and love social theory…but I’m a retailer too, and I see a convergence. Social networking on ecommerce sites is more than just a tool to extract more money from customers. It also fills a valuable gap. Just as a physical community gathers in a coffee bar in Athens to discuss the issues of the day, a virtual community can gather at places like Walmart.com to discuss issues pertinent to that location – i.e. the quality and experience derived from the products being sold.

So, what’s the bottom line? Good web site design must include a method and means to review products…a vehicle for connection between otherwise disconnected individuals. It’s not a perfect replacement and it’s not going to solve all our issues of isolation, but it will build customer loyalty. We can debate among ourselves and debate whether on-line communities are "grandfalloons" or "karrasses" a la Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”, but community is an important need. Community is attractive. We may still bowl alone, but we can rate the Wii’s bowling game all together.

WSJ - It's easy to Misunderstand

2008-01-30T10:13:00.001-05:00

Someone passed along today's WSJ article on Aberdeen Group and the sponsored research model. As you may know, in many ways RSR is competitive to Aberdeen in retail, in that we also offer sponsored research. Of course, like all good free marketers, I like to think we do a better job of it. I also know there were some serious factual errors in the piece, since I was at Aberdeen in 2004, which was after the white paper era ended, prior to purchase by Harte-Hanks. And yes, long before Steven Gold arrived at the company.

But I am not here to blame or praise Aberdeen. I'm here to make one very simple observation. Shouldn't the author have asked some of the consumers of Aberdeen's research if they find value in it? That's the end of the story really.

I know we get lots of thank you's for our research from our retail readers around the world. And we NEVER EVER say that technology can solve a business problem. You have to fix the business, and then technology can help. Oh yes, we also NEVER play "rate the vendors". That's so 20th century.

So that's a personal, Paula observation. The article was incomplete. Again, I'm not an Aberdeen fan - the company has many flaws that I saw first-hand...but I am a proud research analyst.

Why I'm Here

2008-01-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

Everybody's got to have a blog....so why not me?

For the most part, I'll write about retail, which is my business passion, but sometimes I might write about my other passions. None of us is one-dimensional, after all....

I'm a managing partner of Retail Systems Research (RSR). To read the "full monty" on our view of retail, be sure to visit our corporate site. But if you're looking for a glipse at the random, unedited thoughts of my busy little mind, come here.

Probably the most interesting part of our company is that we're all former or current professional musicians. It's true. Brian's CD's are available on iTunes...Steve still plays bar gigs. I'm not sure when the last time Nikki worked her pipes was, but she did it too. Me, I did singles gigs in bars in the mid-70's. Gave it up because I realized I would never be great at it.

At analyzing retail technology, I'm great. So I keep doing it. If I ever think I'm not great at it anymore, or if it stops being fun, I'll quit.

Anyway, that's it for now...post #1. And now I will prepare for the "Death March 2008" otherwise known as NRF's Big Show. 25 meetings in 2 days. Yikes. Wish me luck.