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Top of Mind Thursday – October 17, 2024: Prescription for Failure
This week, Walgreens announced they will be closing anywhere from 1200 to 2000 drugstores within the next three years.
This is not much of a surprise. For awhile, it looked like there was a new Walgreens opening up on every corner. Did we really need that many drugstores (not to mention all the CVS stores and other chains!)? For awhile, Walgreens complained about theft being a major factor in their store profitability. Then last year, they backed off—saying it was not nearly as big a factor as they had originally noted. As a long-time Walgreens customer who swore off using them for anything last year, I can tell you exactly what the problem is: customer service. Or, more accurately, total lack of it. For decades, we used Walgreens because they had an excellent nationwide system for filling prescriptions and enough 24/7 locations to make it easy to pick up those scripts. But for the last few years, there were never enough people in the store to serve the customers, particularly in the pharmacy. When they began to close locations, prescription orders were moved to other locations, without adding staff to compensate. It was impossible to reach someone who could help by phone. Going to the store meant standing in an interminable line, just to find out the status of your Rx, which usually then meant waiting till they decided to eventually fill it. The clerks in the pharmacy were extremely overworked and likely underpaid, as they were surly at best and more often obnoxious. The breaking point was when we asked the status of a prescription that should have been filled days earlier and a clerk yelled at us, “It’s somewhere in that pile of hundreds of unfilled prescriptions. How should I know where it is? And no, I have no idea when it will be filled!” We moved to CVS, which has built up a nationwide system and actually delivers prescriptions to customers. They aren’t the paragon of customer service, but working with CVS is an order of magnitude better than Walgreens. Lines move fairly quickly. The pharmacy seems to be well-staffed, and the people there actually smile and look glad to be helping you. Walgreens, let me help you out here. You have a bad case of ignoring and maltreating your customers. The prognosis is grim: This could be fatal if not treated promptly. It’s time to change your habits and start running a healthy operation. Treat your employees right and insist they treat their customers right too. Otherwise, all the interventions in the world won’t cure what ails you. Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Let us help your business rise to the top. linda@popky.com |
Top of Mind Thursday – October 10, 2024: In the Eye of the Storm
Hurricane Milton hit Florida with a wallop last night.
This may have been the strongest hurricane to hit Florida in a century. It’s too soon to add up the damage, but roofs were torn off buildings, entire towns were flooded, cranes toppled off of buildings, and millions are without electricity and will be so for some time.
This comes only two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the Southeastern US, causing severe damage in some of the same areas.
Extreme weather events appear to be happening more often and with more intensity as our global climate changes. Sadly, the political climate appears to be just as turbulent and intense.
No sooner did impending storm warnings appear than some politicians started spreading unfounded rumors about a lack of federal funding (not true), delays in getting funding to states based on their political background (refuted by local governors), and even that “They” who can control the weather had the storm “geoengineered” in order to harm Republicans (not even physically possible!).
At a time when people are hurting and need all the help they can get, these accusations spur mistrust and fear. As a hurricane survivor myself, I know that Mother Nature is the great equalizer—she doesn’t hit one political party or ethnic group or religious denomination any more than any others. Water seeks its own level—and those in its way are inundated.
When disaster strikes, we need to come together to help those in need—not propagate this kind of nonsense.
Florida will dry out and recover—with help from government, nonprofits, and private organizations. But what kind of storm is brewing offshore for our country? There is no FEMA to rescue us from our political mis-steps. It’s time to come together to do the right thing for everyone—before the next big storm hits.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – October 3, 2024: A Better Year Ahead
Today is the first day of Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, for 5785.
Tradition has it that this is the time when we celebrate by wishing each other a sweet year to come.
That’s a little harder to do this year. Monday is the first anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel that killed over 1200 people and resulted in more than 250 being taken as hostages (some alive, some as corpses).
Almost immediately after that attack, Hezbollah started shelling Northern Israel from posts on the Lebanese border. After almost a year, Israel has pushed back, attacking Hezbollah operatives and killing the founder of the group, who was also responsible for killing more Americans in terror attacks than anyone except Osama bin Laden.
Meanwhile, antisemitism has spiked around the world, growing like wildfire on US college campuses and among ultra-progressives. While some may disagree on Israel’s tactics, these people think the country has no right to exist. Some, like singer Macklemore, think that applies to the US as well.
With all this going on, it’s difficult to feel joyous on day #362 of October 7th. But we still look forward to a better year ahead—to a day when these conflicts are behind us and we can focus on simple things like happiness, health, and prosperity. In the meantime, I leave you with the words I wrote here last October:
Know that even as we fight through all of this, our prayers all end with a wish for peace.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 26, 2024: Someone is Always Watching!
This week, news reports broke the story that Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, had made a number of inflammatory comments on the chat forum of a porn web site, including calling himself “the Black Hitler.”
That would be bad enough for any politician, but Robinson’s comments were often diametrically opposed to the extremely conservative, anti-abortion, anti-transgender stance he has taken as a politician. Following this revelation, most of his campaign staff and staff in his current role as lieutenant governor have resigned, though Robinson says he intends to continue in the race.
How was this discovered? Turns out Robinson had used the same user IDs across social media, as well as using his real name and address. Yet, Robinson denies the charges, saying these were AI-generated and not real—in spite of the fact that many of the comments were made before today’s AI tools were released.
In this day and age, it’s hard to believe that anyone—let alone a politician running for office—wouldn’t know that everything we say and do online is recorded somewhere. This includes things you said or did before you entered the public sphere. As I’ve told clients for years, the web is enduring, not endearing. Once something is out there, it’s almost impossible to make it totally go away.
Robinson was significantly behind the Democratic candidate before these revelations were made public. While it was unlikely he’d win before, now his chances for victory are practically nonexistent.
Meanwhile, there’s a lesson for the rest of us. Be wary of what you say or do online. Very few online forums are really, truly private. Presume everything you do is recorded and someone out there will be watching what you say and do—if not now, in the future.
Someone is always watching. Act accordingly!
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com