Skybus

There is a new game in town with regard to the airline industry: Skybus.

They are a start up airline out of Columbus that is in a word a minimalist. Hopefully this initiated change throughout the industry. They are a low cost provider of airline travel. It is refreshing that someone took out all of those idiotic "perks" that no one used anyway. This airline makes sense, and they don't take themselves too seriously. Check out their rules for flying:

The Skybus Rules of Flying

(A.K.A. How we keep our tickets so darn cheap.)

1. Don’t pay for everyone else’s baggage.

On Skybus, you pay only for what you check. The first two bags are 5 bucks apiece. After that, it’s $50 a bag (yeah, so pack smartly). Less baggage means faster turnaround and cheaper tickets. Fair deal?

2. Hungry? Thirsty? Bring cash.

Most people love our full cocktail bar and food menu, but if you’re not into that, it won’t cost you a penny. Why should your ticket cost include your neighbor’s dinner? That also goes for blankets and pillows–which, by the way, you get to keep if you buy. Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane.

3. Bring a book.

We’re not big fans of fancy in-flight entertainment systems. So grab that best seller at the airport, or buy a Sudoku puzzle onboard if you’re feeling brainy. You’ll touch down before you know it.

4. Don’t call us.

We don’t have a phone number. Seriously. We’d love to chat, but those phone banks are expensive. And a good website like skybus.com is even more convenient.

5. Don't be late. We won't wait.

Please arrive no later than 30 minutes before takeoff, or we’ll leave without you. Really. By that time, there won’t even be anyone to check your bag. It’s nothing against you–we just have to keep our flights on time, or things get expensive in a hurry.

6. Don’t expect an army of gate agents.

You probably won’t see any agents at the gate until boarding time. Remain calm! Just print your boarding pass at skybus.com and relish in the savings.

7. Yeah, we’ve got preferred seats. Sort of.

There are no fancy reclining beds onboard, but you can pay 10 bucks extra to board our brand-new A319 airplanes before anyone else.

8. Tickets are nonrefundable.

Refunding a ticket costs everyone, so we don’t allow it. Of course, our tickets are so cheap it wouldn’t have been much of a refund anyway. If you need to change a ticket, your punishment for breaking a date with us is $40.

9. Bigger is not better.

Big airports can be a big pain. We choose less crowded and more convenient secondary airports for better punctuality and, of course, lower prices.

10. No spontaneous dancing in the aisle.

We realize you might be excited about paying a ridiculously low fare, but please refrain from any unbridled dancing onboard. This includes jumping for joy, disruptive cheering, and celebratory break dancing.

Stadium Hunt!

Stadium hunt: Information and directions to hundreds of stadiums across the US.

A friend of mine that now lives in DC has been busy at work compiling a database of stadiums for almost every sporting event. The premise of the site is really quite simple. Aggregate information on most major stadiums in one place:

• MLB
• NCAA Basketball
• NHL
• NFL
• NCAA Football
• NBA

He claims it is still in beta format, but it is already quite refined. The best part of this mash up is that you get the satellite image as well as a link to order tickets for that venue. Very clever. Also he is a benevolent dictator: There is a suggestion button.

Great idea. Fun site. It might just inspire you to take that road trip. Enjoy!

Blame Canada!

I was in Vancouver Canada over the Easter long weekend. Which leads me to a very unique experience that I hope you all will take note of if you are in the service industry.

The reason for my visit to Canada was an International Association of E-Business conference. My father was publishing two papers at this conference and so my mom and I tagged along. Thanks to the University of Dayton fitting the bill the hotel was free, the rental car was free, and we stayed in the swankiest place in town: Robson Street. Right up my alley and all I had to do was pay for a plane ticket.

We found this very unique restaurant called The Bread Garden that served excellent breakfast food and we found ourselves visiting this place again and again for breakfast. We loved, and still love this place. I do not want our experience to negatively reflect on the quality of the restaurant. In fact, I wish we had one in Dayton. Our third visit led to an unexpected result. As we were eating breakfast my mom went to get something from her purse only to find out it was not there. We searched the entire restaurant only to find it had been stolen. Of course everything in her purse had been stolen as well: Passport; Cell phone; wallet (a few hundred dollars); and medication. We called the police, filed a report, and the Constable was amazingly helpful. After this terrible experience I have come to have nothing but respect for the police system in Vancouver. In 2010 when they host the Olympics I feel confident they will protect everyone with the same professionalism that we experienced. Kudos to them, they were more than helpful.

We did all that we could do including canceling cards, getting legal paperwork to get across the border, and changing our keys to the hotel room. So, as I was explaining the situation to the hotel manager to my surprise she actually showed a great amount of sympathy. She apologized for our loss and said that she hoped it did not reflect poorly on our experience in the city. She gave me numbers to all the major credit card companies and the police department. I did not have the heart to tell her we just spent the entire morning already calling them. After this my family then made sure our new keys worked at the room and went to lunch to try and forget about the purse. Upon our arrival back at the hotel room we found that the hotel manager had made us a visit. She had placed a tray on the table with M&M's in a champagne glass, popcorn, beverages, and a hand written note expressing her sorrow for our loss and that all of our local calls we had made would be complimentary.

This bears repeating: She was not the restaurant owner where we were robbed. She was the hotel manager. Talk about impressive customer service! Granted, our hotel was fantastic, but this is going above and beyond. Complimentary phone calls which we did not ask for, complimentary candy and popcorn, and a hand written note (almost a thing of the past anymore). It was completely unexpected, and actually made my mother cry. For all of you customer service professionals: When is the last time your service made someone cry?

Bravo. If I ever come back to Vancouver, and the chances are likely, The Pacific Palisades is the only hotel in which I will stay. Please see the pictures I took of the tray and the card.

What a lesson I learned: Your customers problems are your problems. If you can help solve problems for your customer that you never created, you are looked upon as a hero.

The process of buying a car

I have decided to buy my first car. After seeing the cost and frequency of repairs increase for my 1992 Cadillac Seville over the past two years I have come to the decision that it is time.

Being in the auto industry you would think I would have some fabulously sneaky insider knowledge about how to bend over dealers and get a screaming deal. Unfortunately, even though I have been through extensive training on dealerships, it basically comes down to sales and a basic working knowledge of the structure of dealerships. There really are no tricks.

Here is what I have heard from truth or rumor:

• Do not tell them the final price you want to pay
• Do not tell them you have a trade until after the price is negotiated
• Tell them you have been shopping around
• Get 3rd party financing from your local bank or credit union
• Come to them at the end of the month to get a better deal
  

This list is certainly not exhaustive, but I am sure it is nothing new to anyone reading this. We are all basically clueless. In order to minimize my cluelessness I tried to find out more.

How I began my search:
I did a ton of research on www.automotive.com which is a site that makes its money by dealers and private individuals listing their cars for sale. They have some of the best and most accurate listings that I have found when comparing competitors sites. They also have an exhaustive analysis of just about every single car being sold on the market.

Further Research:
After my research was complete I took a stroll to a dealership last Sunday, when they were closed, and looked at the brand of car that I wanted and what they had on the lot. I am looking for a 2003 so there was naturally a limited selection.

Why I made the decision to look now:
I was not planning on doing anything until I received my tax return, typical I know, but alas my car broke down again. Another $500.00 for the water pump. I guess I would break too if I had to pump 160,000 miles of water. Regardless that was my reason to contact the dealership. I was fearing that next big repair that would be the big repair. So there you have my buying motivation: Fear.

First Contact:
This morning, after driving my car to the shop and consequently arriving late to work, I got a wild hair and contacted the local dealership via their lead generation tool ...err website. you know the drill. You can click to view their inventory and if you do not see what you want you can fill out their form with all of the information. I clicked send and not one minute later I got a generic e-mail from the dealership telling me I would be contacted in 24 hours. It was probably 5 minutes after that that Shawn, my dealership representative, sent me an e-mail requesting more information. Impressive.

First quote:
I responded to his further inquiry and let him know what I wanted:(this is basically verbatim the e-mail I sent)

• 2003
  
• 30-50k miles
  
• price range of $18,000 to$ 24,000
• Anything but Red exterior
  
• Sunroof, Brembo brakes, spoiler, leather, no Navigation, 19inch performance wheels etc...
  

Based on my research there are probably 30 of these cars listed as of today in Dayton/Cincinnati/Columbus. Not exactly a rare car. Shawn responded back within an hour with a 2006, Red, 18 inch wheels, no spoiler, stock brakes, with Navigation and the price was $41,000.00 and was only good until 8:00pm today. Final offer.

Here's your test as a consumer: How did he do meeting my stated, specific requirements?

Idiots:
I politely responded that while I am sure that car was great, it met none of my requirements. It is not hard to imagine what happened on his end. The dealer probably told him that he has some 2006 that didn't sell and he is simply pushing it on everyone possible. It is the typical sales technique of "one size fits all" or "throw it on the wall and see what sticks". I filled out the form they specifically created for lead generation and they did not use any of that information.

*Insert rant*

Unfortunately that is where I am currently in the sales process and this article is getting quite long.

To be continued...

Jeff Schmidt Cadillac

If you have been paying attention to television commercials for Cadillacs recently and you live in Dayton you are probably aware that Jeff Schmidt just purchased Roberts Cadillac. It is now Jeff Schmidt Cadillac. As stated in the Dayton Daily News Mr. Schmidt is planning on "attracting a younger crowd" to the Cadillac market. Say What!?!

Per my father (who has a Ph.D in Marketing and follows these kinds of things) the median age of a man who purchases a Cadillac STS is 52 years old. The median age of a man who purchases a Cadillac DTS (The flagship car) is 56 years old. These are descriptors that help define what Marketers would call a Target Market. There are many reasons for this high median age you can probably name a few without any help.

• The cost of a new STS is $49,775.00 per Jeff's website. The cost of a DTS is $54,685.00 fully loaded.
• The styling, while chiseled and modern looking, is not what this younger demographic is after. (see Pontiac G6 with it's new curved lines and convertible 2-Door option.)
• 4-door large wheel base luxury sedans do not sell to families who have parents in their 40's and need practical cars (i.e. a Minivan)

I assume Mr. Schmidt is meaning someone in their 40's when he claims to reach the younger market. See above description and think of the 40 year olds you know: Do they have $50,000 to spend on a car? Will they allow their pre-teens to haul their muddy soccer gear all around town in a new STS?

Marketing 101. The answer to the questions above is "No". As we learned in our consumer behavior courses, the target market selects the product. Not the other way around. Groups of people are naturally drawn to products for specific reasons. If you try to "push" or suggest a product to a group outside of the primary target market your marketing efforts will have a very minimal effect.

From what I can tell Mr. Schmidt is doing his very best to be different. Understandably so as he bought a failing dealership. He does need to do something. Age, however, is not the place to change the game. Perhaps he should focus on service, possibly he could throw in an extra year of that fantastic OnStar service. He could maybe even buy the first "X" people who purchase a Cadillac a round of golf for 4 at a local swanky country club.

What ever he decides it needs to appeal to the same group that buys Cadillacs normally. Think 50+. What do they like to do? What is their stage of life? Where do they travel? Who is their peer group? Who are they trying to impress? What is their primary reason to purchase?

I wish Mr. Schmidt the best. But unfortunately his current model will not work in the long run. He is making a classic mistake. He is trying to change the customer base, rather than focusing on the customer.

Woot!

Woot! Stands for " I Want One Of Those"

Woot! is probably the best example of the power of the internet that I have found for consumer products. It is also the perfect example of the power of economies of scale. For those of you who do not know here is a little about Woot!

Woot! is a website that offers only one product every day at Midnight for discounted price. They give pictures, descriptions, even a clever blog that talks about the product. Most of these products have some kind of technical theme. I have seen everything from headphones to padlocks listed. Every day it is some new surprise.

In regard to price, I have checked around and it is almost always the best deal going no matter what product. How can they do this? Volume. Their economies of scale are phenomenal. Every day there is a different market and a different consumer base that is attracted to that market. Products that seem to have no real place anywhere else fly off of the shelves of Woot. Some of these products are sold out before I get to work at 8:00AM.

They are also very clever in the information that they give out. You never know exactly how many they have in stock, but they do have histogram graphs letting you know how man people purchased this product and at what time.

I am not sure if this was intentional but Woot! has built this off of the QVC phenomenon we are all so familiar with. QVC sells one product for a limited period of time, and they have written the book on television sales. Not only do you get to view the product, learn a little bit about it, but it is also entertaining. Woot! has captured all three of these aspects.

What is next...Woot! TV?

Stay tuned to find out.

Watch UD Basketball online for free

On the Dayton Flyers official site all of you Flyer fans from across the country can watch UD Basketball for free. They just added a feature supported by CSTV that allows you to stream the live feed onto your computer. I hope that this will continue with the NCAA tournament when we make it (Crossing fingers)

You will need the latest version of Internet Explorer (which pains me since I am an avid Firefox user) and the latest version of Windows Media Player as well. Unfortunately those are kind of annoying to upgrade to, but well worth it I assure you.

Other than the stiff software requirements I am pretty excited about this. I also was messing around on the site and found out that you can stream many of the games earlier in the season as well. So for all of you that missed a home game...enjoy!

Go Flyers!