I dash into Victoria's Secret to buy a few new bras. (I really have to remember not to put them in the washer and dryer!) I know what style I like and I know what size I take. I plan on this only taking a few minutes. I go to the usual display and no bras in my size and a note saying that they now only make this style in smaller sizes. What the hell? Aren't we all getting fatter, shouldn't they be dropping the smaller sizes? I call over the manager. She confirms my suspicions. Tells me that others have been upset about it too. I ask her if this was a big seller and she confirms it was the best selling line the store carried. So I ask her why on earth they would stop making it. She confirms that they must be crazy and says I should write a letter to Corporate. First mistake. And she makes no attempt to tell me what the new replacement product is. Second mistake. I would imagine that they did away with that style to promote a new, improved, better (read more expensive) line. But how would I know which product that was.

So a chance to get feedback from me, the Loyal Customer, me, right away if they had a form to fill out to be sent to Corporate and a chance to move Loyal customer of Product 1 to Loyal Customer of more expensive Product 2. A big F on both.

Please think about all of the ways that your customer can give you instant customer feedback and implement them right away. And if you cancel a product line be sure that your salesforce knows how to steer customers of the old product to the new one.

Great companies know how to do all this and more...that's what makes them great.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen