“According to RetailNetGroup, AmazonFresh, the online giant’s grocery business that’s been tested in the Seattle market since 2007, isn’t about “competing with a small market with razor-thin margins and a checkered history.” It’s all about helping Amazon.com attain the scale to support its ambition to build a national same-day delivery shipping model. [...] Amazon views steady grocery delivery as a “powerful way to drive frequent customer interaction,” and opens up avenues to entice consumers to shop for other products with each order. [Source: Forbes]

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“Walmart.com is introducing a new home page, and says it will begin testing in-store delivery lockers later this year, to make it easier for shoppers to use its popular “ship to store” option. [...] That reflects a shift in the retailer’s thinking over the last two years, Neil Ashe, Walmart’s EVP, as well as CEO of its global ecommerce division, says. There used to be conversations about channels — are we omnichannel? Are we multichannel? Are we metachannel? And those are exactly the wrong questions, because that’s looking at the world from our perspective, not the customer. We need to look at things from her eyes. Are we satisfying her when, where and how she likes to be served?” [Source: MediaPost]

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“Retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Macy’s Inc., and Nordstrom Inc. have all begun to fulfill and ship some online orders from select stores in the past three years or so, and more are expected to hop on the band wagon. While retailers three years ago were talking about how better to link their store and online inventory, ship-from-store is no longer just about getting that extra sale made in case an item is out of stock in an online distribution center. It’s just as much about getting products to customers faster to please them, making store employees more productive and lowering shipping costs, said GSI President Christopher Saridakis.” [Source: MarketWatch]

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Over the weekend The New York Times ran a collection of letters sent to the Haggler, its column on the service economy penned by David Segal, by consumers who received exceptional service and wanted to tell the world about it. Retailers praised by consumers for going “above and beyond” include Conair Corporation (the parent company of Cuisinart), Philips, West Elm, General Electric and Amazon. The article demonstrates the importance of getting service right with every customer, every time. [Source: NYT]

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Tesla Motors unveiled a new service and warranty program Friday that’s catching headlines for its features including a valet service designed to save owners from the hassle of dropping off and picking up the car at the dealership when servicing is needed. Eighty-five Model S cars and Roadsters will be made available on loan to owners while their cars are being serviced. And the new warranty covers nearly all damages or issues with Tesla Model S batteries, which are expensive to service and replace. “If something goes wrong, it is therefore our fault, not yours,” founder Elon Musk said. [Source: The Next Web]

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“Shawn Score, Best Buy’s senior vice president of U.S. retail, who started out selling VCRs and camcorders at a Best Buy in North Dakota 26 years ago, acknowledges the electronics chain has ‘let its customer-service muscle atrophy.’ [...] He has boosted sales training to better educate workers on the products they are selling; begun incentive pay to reward workers who increase sales and help their store sections raise customer satisfaction scores; and made sure managers schedule their most-experienced workers on weekends, when stores are busiest.” [Source: WSJ]

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“Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin is joining forces with Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo to push for improved customer service standards for the millions of Americans accessing government services. Their “Government Customer Service Improvement Act of 2013″ would require the Office of Management and Budget to set government wide customer service standards. The legislation makes federal agencies more transparent and efficient through tougher accountability measures and service improvement targets.” [Source: Houston Chronicle]

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United Airlines today awarded Guam-based employee Mayflor Hattori with a $50,000 check for delivering top-notch customer service. As part of the company’s Outperform Recognition Program United will give out a total of $125,000 to 16 employees selected from a total pool of 5,200 nominees. Marybeth Torres nominated Hattori after receiving her assistance with a change to an existing itinerary. “I felt like I was talking to a friend,” Torres said of the interaction. [Source: Pacific News Center]

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FedEx Corp. today launched a service that enables residential customers willing to pay extra fees to better control when FedEx will deliver packages to them. [Source: Internet Retailer]

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The Senate is considering legislation that would effectively end tax-free shopping on the Internet. Here’s a closer look at some of the many wrinkles in this complex debate. [Source: Wall Street Journal]

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