Daily Archives: November 4, 2014

Nadia Gonzaga’s blog post from September describes a few benefits of Costco Canada’s new partnership with Capital One and Master Card and how the overall effect of the partnership can greatly benefit Costco Canada customers. As an avid Costco patron myself, I support the overall change to MasterCard; however, there are some key elements from the article and Gonzaga’s blog post that I would like to expand on that show the complexity of the situation.

Costco’s New Capital One MasterCard Cr. CapitalOne

What does Costco have to consider?

I agree with Nadia and the article that MasterCard is a lot stronger and more renowned than America Express.  MasterCard already has a strong user base internationally, compared to American Express which is mostly popular in America, and better benefits overall. I personally believe this will greatly benefit both Costco and MasterCard. MasterCard benefits as Costco customers are required to create a MasterCard-Costco Membership card to shop while Costco gains by having the popularity, attractiveness and strength of the MasterCard attached to its membership. Personally, there is no surprise why Costco would partner with MasterCard over Amex!

MasterCard Cr. MasterCard

However, I have noticed a few cons that are not addressed in the article. Despite that MasterCard may be better than America Express, the majority of Costco customers have already grown accustomed to Amex. I personally believe this switch may deter customers who enjoy their current Amex or are too lazy to go through the switching process. Amex might not be as popular, but for fifteen years, it has been a symbol of Costco. Completely shifting to MasterCard is a humongous change – a change of an entire system.

American Express Cr. American Express

Yet, in the end, I still believe the pros outweigh the cons. The shift will be chaotic, but I believe in the long run, Costco will benefit as much as MasterCard, if not more.

Recently, the top 100 Employers of Canada Rankings came out for the 2015 year. I noticed that all these companies are powerful leaders in their industry, which range from Airlines such as Air Canada to banks such as CIBC. So, this led me to wonder do happier employees lead to happier customers? In an article by The Globe and Mail, Dianne Jermyn lists the 100 companies and how they treat their employees and the correlation to their success.

Canada’s Top 100 Employer 2015 Cr. EmployeeSummit

I personally agree with the statement that happier employees will lead to happier customers. Recently in a Comm101 lecture, I learned about organizational culture and behavior and how the culture of a company can affect its success. The example used in the lecture was Zappos, an online shoe company that had outstanding employee benefits and training.

Zappos Diagram Cr. JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME

I believe this allowed Zappos to succeed; I believe that the culture and happiness of the employees made them more willing to work and enjoy their workplace, leading to better customer interactions and relationships. I believe this leads to more long-term loyal customers and attracts new clients, a result of happier employees. Noticeably, the companies in the list also provided similar employee benefits, which included healthcare, extended paid vacation and parental leave. I believe this increase of employee happiness benefits the company as more top-level workers are attracted to work for the business and many strong workers are willing to stay. In terms of customer service, a worker that is glad to be working is more willing to help and suit the clients’ needs compared to an unhappy worker waiting for his shift to be over. Happiness spreads, and it seems to me that it is a benefactor in the success of companies.