Somehow my wife and I only recently discovered the phenomenon that is New Girl on television. Netflix is an amazing way to discover the things that you haven’t seen yet. So after numerous recommendations we watched the first two seasons over the last few weeks so that we could be ready for Season 3 to start this fall (which was actually 2 weeks ago).
So yesterday we went to our Time Warner Cable On Demand to catch up with the two episodes that had already aired. Please note that the first one is now 2 weeks old and the second is 1 week past now. Imagine our shock that we couldn’t fast forward through the commercials! What kind of terrible service is this from Time Warner Cable. If I think ahead and DVR it I can fast forward. But if I watch it from them I have to sit through all of the commercials for Lawyers trying to recruit prescription drug users for class action suits. Lesson learned – we’ll DVR going forward.
But then one of the commercials came on that was different than the others. This one was for New Girl on DVD. Out on October 1st.
Think about that now. The DVDs for the second season of New Girl was being released two weeks AFTER the season 3 had already premiered. Apparently the only people who buy the DVDs are those that have already seen the show and have no desire to catch-up on what happened before the new season begins. I have to believe that releasing the DVDs before the new Season begins would be better for sales. If only because there would have to be a desire to catch-up on what had happened before the Season Premier.
This to me shows a complete lack of thought about the customer. Customer desires take a backseat completely to corporate boardroom interests. If HBO would make their content available for purchase or independent subscription I would ditch cable right this very second and purchase individually shows and episodes. #1 it’s cheaper and #2 it’s infinitely more flexible and consumer friendly.
But this long little analysis only goes to show how important it is to focus on the customer. You are in business because of them. They are the ones who pay your bills. They are the ones who will switch to something else if you piss them off enough (even the cable providers are starting to realize this even though they have a virtual monopoly).