Customer Service
Most Topular Stories
Customer service: take the helicopter view
very best service
3 Jan 2012 | 11:55 am
Your understanding of the environment where your company offers its business services will be crucial in determining the success of your operation. What are the constraints? Where do the customers come from and what will be their state of mind when they finally reach you? Taking an helicopter view can often be useful to understand these factors and help you define the broad parameters before focusing on the details of your service deliveryPicture courtesy of Claire Boyles with our thanks - http://www.success-matters.com/
Give Them Enthusiasm
Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning
17 Feb 2012 | 7:12 am
I’m a fan of enthusiasm – and always have been. I’m confident at least part of the reason is because of my parents. Â That is one reason I like today’s quotation. The other reason is that it suggests something that isn’t always talked about . . . but that I will talk about below. Enjoy! [...]
Express genuine interest
Steve Curtin
15 Feb 2012 | 11:07 pm
This post is the first in a series that will identify 10 different customer service advantages that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you have capitalized on one or more of these advantages in your own business? The first advantage is to express genuine interest. Expressing genuine interest takes many forms: engaging communication; anticipating needs; displaying attention to detail; following-up; conveying a sense of urgency; etc. In this post, I’ll reference a Feb. 15, 2012 Wall Street Journal article titled, Shopping Secrets of the Pros by Ray A. Smith…
Ensuring Employee Satisfaction Impacts Customer Experience
Think customers: The 1to1 Blog
16 Feb 2012 | 5:54 am
Making sure that customers are satisfied with their experience with a company is an essential part of any organization's job. However, it's also imperative to make sure that employees are happy, since they're the ones interacting with customers and can have an important impact on their experience. There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
Playbooks and visual explanations
Church of the Customer Blog
6 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am
By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field. A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's…
Church of the Customer Blog
Playbooks and visual explanations
6 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am
By the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field. A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's…
People trust people
1 Feb 2012 | 2:27 pm
[Click on chart to see larger version.] The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer study just came out showing CEO's in the dog house when it comes to being trusted. Who do people trust? Academic and tech experts, sure. But the biggest movers in the study are "a person just like me" and "regular employee." Look at your 2012 marketing plan. Are you providing ways for your customers to get together in-person and online to encourage word of mouth? Are you showcasing your best employees in social media, at conferences, and at private events with customers? Source: 2012 Edelman…
FedEx's apology: expertly delivered
21 Dec 2011 | 10:29 pm
We've seen this before: 1) company makes an egregious service mistake and is outed by a customer via a YouTube video, 2) video goes viral, 3) mainstream media picks up the story and amplifies it, 4) PR nightmare begins. This week's culprit is FedEx. A California FedEx driver is caught on a security-camera video flinging a package containing a computer monitor over the fence of a gated Southern California house. At no time does the driver attempt to ring the bell for delivery. Just a toss over the fence, and he jumps back into his truck. In two days, the video has over three million views. …
The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing
28 Nov 2011 | 2:38 pm
Nice video from WOMMA on the basics of word of mouth marketing. Tweet
14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing
17 Oct 2011 | 1:45 pm
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has a neat infographic detailing the latest stats about word or mouth marketing, online and offline. Source: WOMMA Note: the WOMMA Summit is coming up November 16-18 in Las Vegas. It's a great conference to learn the latest WOM marketing techniques from leading brands and agencies. Tweet
Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning
Give Them Enthusiasm
17 Feb 2012 | 7:12 am
I’m a fan of enthusiasm – and always have been. I’m confident at least part of the reason is because of my parents. Â That is one reason I like today’s quotation. The other reason is that it suggests something that isn’t always talked about . . . but that I will talk about below. Enjoy! [...]
Are You Observing or Judging?
14 Feb 2012 | 2:42 pm
Yesterday, I was thinking about observation and judgement, and how it relates to effective communication and coaching. Â It reminded me of a particular incident that took place a few years back – an incident I had previously written about on the blog for my book Remarkable Leadership. We were driving somewhere as a family and, [...]
Five Love Affairs Leaders Should Have
13 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am
Caught up in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, that day we celebrate romantic love, I began thinking again about the connection between the words love and leadership. Before you even read about these five love affairs, you might be put off by using the word love in the context of your work. Don’t be. Am [...]
Building Skills for Your New Supervisors
13 Feb 2012 | 4:30 am
A year ago, we released From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership. In the last year, thousands of copies have been sold. Individuals have purchased copies because they wanted to succeed in their transition to a new leadership role or continue their leadership growth. Copies have been purchased by leaders [...]
Does Example Trump Reason?
10 Feb 2012 | 8:49 am
The question posed in the title of this post is answered, at least by one person, in today’s quotation. I’ll have more to say below. “Example has more followers than reason.” – Christian Nevell Bovee, 19th century author Questions to Ponder Do I agree with the quotation? What would I like to influence others about? [...]
Conversation Agent
Doing the Right Thing, Use Value, and Marketing Mojo
18 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
I started this series of posts to show the increasing convergence of business and technology and this week's stories exemplify some of the emergent themes. As apps are going mainstream and more people are using them, tech companies grapple with inspiring confidence that their personal information is safe and won't be abused. This is as much a communication as it is a product design issue. Maybe you read about the sale value of your personal data and how you might profit for it as marketers are willing to pay good money to use it. Should you be running to claim it? And as long as you're…
t.G.i.f.
17 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am
When you're talking about making connections online, it's not about Twitter (t), Google+ (G), or Facebook (f), it's about information/intent (i) -- the things you say, and those you intend to do. Small "i", not capital "I". The tools are there to help you do the most possible -- you get out of them what you put into them. They're very useful when powered by resources and thoughtful effort. The Web is a powerful tool that goes beyond social media. As Macrowikinomics author Don Tapscott explains (hat tip Gunther Sonnefeld), younger generations are using the Web to change the model -- the…
Doing Work You Want to Feel Good About
16 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am
Stop what you're doing, take 16 minutes to watch this Gel video of Noah Scalin about his "One Skull-a-Day" project. As I watched the whole thing twice, my first instinct was to go look for a skull I could contribute. By the third day in the video story, I had to make it a narrative. So I stopped and looked for an image I had saved of a skull that also happens to make an unmistakable brand promise. So there. Here it is. I want you to watch it because of what he says about the way things go on the Internet. The story makes a solid argument for adding social technology integration into what you…
The Way You Look at Things Changes the Things You Look at
15 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am
Dan Frommer at SplatF links to Apple's Tim Cook interview at the Goldman Sacks tech conference (the full interview is here). Frommer observes it's worth listening to because of how he says what he says. Cook delivers the message from where he sits, sense of humor included. His point of view, as I shared in a recent conversation about alignment between brand vision and product delivery, is truly operational. Look at things from the operational standpoint and you're doing marketing that makes business sense. His example of the iPad matched the uses we discussed at the recent social IRL event in…
Announcing the First Ever Conversation Agent Workshop
14 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am
Whenever I speak at a conference or summit, often people often ask me lots of excellent questions afterward. It's a similar dynamic to the conversation we have in the comments -- the comments themselves are a gem and help others see like challenges, which we can all apply our collective smarts to. In the last six months, I broke beyond the content I would normally use for a talk and developed a thinking framework for a more interactive experience. This is something I'm more comfortable with from the many years I worked on creating exchanges for and with customers (3 User Groups), clients (2…
CRM Daily
MSN Adds New Feature To Take Internet's Pulse
17 Feb 2012 | 8:40 am
Microsoft is hooking up MSN.com with a hipper sidekick to broaden its appeal and stay on top of the Internet's hottest topics. The trend-tracking service, called "msnNOW," tunes into the buzz by sifting through millions of Internet searches and links circulating among the hordes on Facebook and Twitter. The chatter is then distilled into the equivalent of a digital water cooler -- a place where people can go to keep in touch without taking up a lot of their time. After months of development, the new feature debuts Thursday at http://now.msn.com. The service is primarily aimed at college-age…
FTC: Parents Need More Info on Apps for Kids
17 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am
Kids have easy and inexpensive access to hundreds of smartphone applications, but parents are in the dark about what personal information is being collected from their children and how companies are using the data, government regulators said Thursday. The Federal Trade Commission said companies that make mobile apps, and the stores that sell them, should be providing parents with basic, simple-to-understand information about their products so they can choose which apps their children can use. The report also says developers should disclose whether their apps connect with social media services…
Morris Stemp Writes as Tech Guru for Dermatology World
17 Feb 2012 | 7:43 am
Long Island City, NY, February 13, 2012 -- Morris Stemp, CPA, MBA, CPHIMS, and CEO of Stemp Systems Group, Inc., published his first of a series of technology articles for Dermatology world, a publication of the American Academy of Dermatology. After hearing Morris speak about "Technology considerations in implementing EHR" at the AAD conference in NYC, AAD asked Morris to be a contributing columnist on subjects related to healthcare technology in their monthly publication. Stemp's first article focuses on "Crisis Management" related specifically to planning for a systems crash in key…
SpeechCycle Announces SmartCare Mobile 2.0
16 Feb 2012 | 9:10 am
NEW YORK, February 16, 2012 -- SpeechCycle, the leading provider of customer self-service solutions for service providers, today announced the latest version of its mobile customer care application, SmartCare Mobile 2.0. With the release of SmartCare Mobile 2.0, SpeechCycle has added new capabilities around automated troubleshooting for customers, particularly in the area of high-speed Internet and video services, making it even more convenient to address and resolve service inquiries via the smartphone application. SmartCare Mobile 2.0 is designed specifically for enterprises and…
FCC Puts 'Robocalls' on Its Hit List
16 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am
You should soon be getting fewer of those annoying "robocalls" at home. The Federal Communications Commission today is set to approve tougher rules giving consumers additional protection against unwanted autodialed or prerecorded calls to home phone lines. "We have gotten thousands of complaints," says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "Consumers were still getting robocalls they don't want and shouldn't get." He expects the commission to approve new rules that will require telemarketers to get written consent before making such calls. Even though Congress in 2008 passed legislation making Do…
theIdeaStudio (Customer Crossroads)
Social media analysis simplified
14 Feb 2012 | 7:57 am
Despite what you may hear, there are really only three types of social media "listening" you can do.
Looking for innovation: Expand the context
9 Feb 2012 | 10:16 am
There is nothing that a human being does in this life that does not have an expanded context. We wipe a mess up in the kitchen, we have laundry or garbage or both as a result. We shampoo our hair, now we need to dry it and style it. It's as simple as asking "why".
Launching a new look and a new name: theIdeaStudio
7 Feb 2012 | 6:33 pm
We're relaunching as theIdeaStudio. A new name, and some fresh graphics.
Word for the day: Transmedia
30 Jan 2012 | 6:05 pm
Transmedia is kind of the new convergence.
When intellectual property is the product as well as the raw material, and we are all creators
17 Jan 2012 | 4:57 pm
In this age of the democratization of the creative process, the processes associated with creation have changed. As always, we create on the shoulders of those that came before. We copy and borrow. The difference is that now -- you don't have to learn to paint like Rembrandt, you can actually start with Rembrandt and go from there.
Gartner Blog Network
Governance: Getting to “Noâ€
17 Feb 2012 | 3:41 pm
With all due respect to William Ury and his negotiating strategy book “Getting to Yes,†the difficulty faced by owners of governance projects in organizations not used to governance is how to get to the point that saying “no†is feasible and actually works. After all, you don’t need to do anything with governance if you the answer to everything anyone wants to do is “yes.†I talk to many intranet, portal, and SharePoint owners that are about to instantiate governance. About half the time they tell me this is the first attempt at governance in IT (at least around any…
Security is personal and professional more than technical
17 Feb 2012 | 10:19 am
I don’t blog a lot about security. I leave that to the security experts like John Pescatore and others. But recently in the last three weeks security has become a question raised by CIOs and business leaders. Security is a big issue related to technology given recent security lapses at high profile companies and ongoing concerns with the cloud. The consistent disclosure of hacked accounts, security breaches and sites shut down. Each story makes news because risk, threat, loss attracts attention and attention makes money. Media and management attention relative to security can easily…
Exploring the limits of social media transparency, privacy and free speech
16 Feb 2012 | 8:01 pm
This morning I spent some time listening in on a hearing on DHS monitoring of social networking and media. The hearing was held by the US Congressional Sub-committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, chaired by Patrick Meehan. Transcripts of the testimony are available here ( http://homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-dhs-monitoring-social-networking-and-media-enhancing-intelligence ) as well as a video playback of the hearing. The substance of the discussion did not offer any surprises, but the expressed motivations of the subcommittee members was fascinating. There were…
Musings on eBook Publishing
16 Feb 2012 | 4:16 pm
I own a lot of books. Our family library (an enclosed bay of our garage) is lined floor to ceiling with shelves sagging under the weight of a few thousand cloth-bound volumes. I’m also an avid fan of electronic readers. At one time or another, I have owned just about every eReader ever produced. Last night, I purchased a new Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch. We’ve come a long way from Sony’s original DD-1 Electronic Book Player with its ascii texts on mini-cd, but not as far as I’d like. As I was loading eBooks onto my new device I had to explain (read:…
Cloud IS Different: So Monitoring Must Be Different?
16 Feb 2012 | 3:25 pm
I’m tired of hearing quotes like “cloud is completely different from traditional IT†as well as those that say “cloud is just like outsourcing, mainframes, etc.†Those who like the former quote will sometimes add that organizations should scrap all the tools they use for traditional IT and buy new tools for the cloud. Those who like the latter quote would say that organizations just need to continue doing what they’re doing, with the same tools. At this point, it should be clear to most of my enlightened readers that the truth is somewhere in between. Some tools and…
Shep Hyken
Create a Customer Board of Directors
15 Feb 2012 | 11:03 am
One of the seven customer service strategies covered in my latest book, “The Amazement Revolution,” focuses on creating a community of loyal customers. This strategy is often viewed as a marketing strategy, but I disagree. It is really a very customer focused strategy, with two approaches. One is to deliver a great customer service experience that converts a group of satisfied customers into a community of customer evangelists. The other is to create a community of customers that are willing to help you provide a better product and customer experience for all of your…
Watching and Listening to Customers Can Help You Deliver Exceptional Customer Service
8 Feb 2012 | 11:01 am
My definition for delivering “amazing” customer service is to consistently be above average. At a minimum this is just a little above average. That’s what the best companies do. They are consistently above average. Note that word “consistently.” That’s the key. It needs to be all-of-the time to be amazing. The customer has to count on it – know it is going to happen. It becomes the expectation. Exceptional customer service means you go above and beyond what is expected. You create those “WOW” and “POW”…
Six Strategies to Compete In Business
1 Feb 2012 | 10:21 am
This article started out to be about how the little guy company can compete with a big company. Specifically, in a recent interview I was asked how a small local business can use customer service to compete when a large national competitor, known for aggressive low pricing, comes to town. As I wrote out the answer, I realized that the business strategies used by a small company competing against a big one are actually sound strategies for a company of any size. By the way, customer service is important, but in this situation, there is much more to consider. A “Big Box”…
Being Off Duty Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Responsible for Customer Service (and More)
25 Jan 2012 | 7:52 am
This may start out to sound like a rant, but it isn’t. It’s simply the set up for the customer service lesson to be learned. I’m at an airport, working my way through the security line for about fifteen minutes. During this time , a number of flight attendants and airline personnel went ahead of me and everyone else, cutting in front of paying passengers to get through the metal detectors and x-ray machines. What I noticed is that most of these airline employees didn’t smile or talk to the passengers as they cut in front of them. Some of the passengers were…
Five Ways to Create a Customer Service Culture
18 Jan 2012 | 9:21 am
The reason an organization can deliver good or bad customer service comes down to one thing; what is happening on the inside of that organization. To sum it up in one word: culture. The culture inside of the organization is impacting your customer service. It’s more than just hiring the right people, and it’s more than customer service training. At the same time, it’s simple. It’s just setting an example of customer service behavior at the top, and pushing its way, through all employees, toward the customer. Starting at the top means that leadership and…
Customers ROCK!
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
24 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
This post is part of the Social ROI Blog Carnival at Think Customers: the 1to1 Media blog. Visit the blog carnival post at the link above to check out the full list of posts from numerous well-known social media thought leaders. There are many ways to measure the success of social media at an organization. Some of these metrics are often focused only on tactical results (ex: number of followers or fans). Other metrics tie directly back to the bottom line (ex: value of sales coming directly from Twitter). On occasion, we see true ROI calculated from social media initiatives. Most companies,…
Using Social Media to Build Relationships
10 Jan 2012 | 9:53 pm
A lot of businesses love social media because they feel it helps them spread the word about their organization and what they do. And it does. However, I strongly feel one of the most effective uses of social media is to build and deepen relationships with customers – be they consumers, clients, donors, or constituents. I predict this will be a big focus for social media in 2012. How can this be effectively done? Let’s take a cue from local government. No, really. Tweet the Mayor One of the most interesting stories about local government and social media is that of Newark, NJ mayor…
The Bathroom Experience
28 Oct 2011 | 3:28 pm
Once again I am participating in the Bathroom Blogfest. As I have mentioned before, if you have a physical presence, whether you are B2C or B2B, your bathroom is an important part of the customer experience. What does it say about your brand? I have been on the road A LOT these past few months since my book launched, so I have had the opportunity to stay in many different hotels across the country (and at a variety of hotel brands). I thought it would be fun to post photos of some of the bathrooms I encountered during my travels (mostly in my hotel room). Which bathrooms do you think belong…
Influencers vs Advocates
24 Oct 2011 | 10:00 am
What is the difference between an influencer and an advocate for a brand? A lot of people recommend that a brand practice “influencer outreach”; others suggest a brand advocacy program is paramount for an organization. In his recent book, Smart Business, Social Business, Michael Brito discusses these two important points. Michael and I shared the stage recently at the Lithium Technologies “Likes to Loves” event in Orange County, CA, and I had the opportunity to interview him briefly on this very topic. What do you do at your organization? Do you reach out to…
Customer Service Through Social Media: The game has changed
18 Oct 2011 | 8:53 pm
Today’s post is written by a guest blogger, Harry Rollason. Harry is with Useful Social Media, and I will be presenting at their New York Conference on Social Media and Customer Service next week. Plus, Harry interviewed me about my book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers. Here is some food for thought from Harry. The rise of social media has changed customer service beyond recognition. In today’s competitive landscape, customer service is more important than ever. A company’s reputation for satisfying their customers…
Social Studies Blog
It’s Not Me, It’s You: Consumers Breaking Up With Brands
13 Feb 2012 | 10:57 pm
The dark side of Valentine’s: Why are consumers breaking up with brands? According to a recent ExactTarget study, 77% of US online consumers admit they’ve become more cautious about giving companies their email address. Now, popular brands are wondering if social media is the way to a customer’s heart. But before companies find themselves all a-Twitter they should first gauge what interactions will make them “the going steady type” or “the overbearing ex.” Click below for the big-ass version:
Brands Are Lies
8 Feb 2012 | 2:52 pm
Last week, I was in Atlanta to support Brent Leary’s Social Business Atlanta event. When Brent called me last year and said he was putting together an event I said “sign us up” without even knowing what he was planning. I trust Brent and have confidence in his ability to pull together an interesting roster of speakers, participants, and most importantly, an audience to engage with.Trust… let’s talk about that for a minute. The social technology industry has come up with an entire array of words that ultimately convey the notion of trust between an institution…
Gradle Roadmap and Community Integration
27 Jan 2012 | 7:13 am
Gradle is an open source build system that can automate the building, testing, publishing, deployment and more of software packages or other types of projects such as generated static websites, generated documentation or anything else. The company behind Gradle is Gradleware and they are a Get Satisfaction customer.I recently discovered how they are presenting their product roadmap, which is directly linked to community topics that are relevant, and I love it. In a nutshell what they are doing is presenting their roadmap as a collection of headlines, a summary, and a status with each discrete…
Community Manager Appreciation Day 2012 #cmad
22 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pm
On the fourth Monday of the new year, we take some time to celebrate and recognize the thousands of community managers on the front lines of customer service and social business.  Our ‘Inside the Mind of a Community Manager’ infographic (on the right, click to view) is still one of our most popular infographic ever.Monday’s big event: GetSat co-founder and Chief Community Officer Amy Muller, will be joining a cadre of community management experts on a Google Hangout sponsored by Dell. Click here for full details on Facebook or on Dell’s Google+ page.Track…
Get Lucky: How to Prepare for the Unpreparable
18 Jan 2012 | 11:30 am
Last month, we told you about the upcoming book from our co-founders Thor Muller and Lane Becker, Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business. We snagged an exclusive first-look at what is sure to be the hot business bestseller this spring: (available for pre-order now)The audience greeted the young entrepreneur with a hero’s welcome. He walked out onto the stage of the conference hall and looked out into the audience. The applause was deafening.It was the fall of 2005, the last day of the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Sergey Brin, the 32-year-old…
Steve Curtin
Express genuine interest
15 Feb 2012 | 11:07 pm
This post is the first in a series that will identify 10 different customer service advantages that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you have capitalized on one or more of these advantages in your own business? The first advantage is to express genuine interest. Expressing genuine interest takes many forms: engaging communication; anticipating needs; displaying attention to detail; following-up; conveying a sense of urgency; etc. In this post, I’ll reference a Feb. 15, 2012 Wall Street Journal article titled, Shopping Secrets of the Pros by Ray A. Smith…
Advantages
15 Feb 2012 | 10:52 pm
The statistician W. Edwards Deming once said“In God we trust; all others must bring data.†When I begin a project, the first thing I do is gather data to assess the current state of service quality. I do so by interviewing stakeholders such as managers, hourly employees, and, when possible, actual customers. I also pour through customer feedback on review websites like TripAdvisor, Priceline, and Yelp. And, when available, review proprietary data such as customer satisfaction survey results, customer verbatims, and mystery shop reports. The purpose of this analysis is to gather data that…
Self-service with a smile
15 Feb 2012 | 2:01 pm
Last month, I received a review copy of The Customer Experience Revolution: How Companies Like Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks Have Changed Business Forever by Jeofrey Bean and Sean Van Tyne. Among the companies profiled in the book is EMN8, a manufacturer of self-service kiosks for quick service restaurants (QSR) and fast casual dining restaurants. EMN8 has succeeded in creating an easy, fast and engaging experience for restaurant customers that also benefits the business by increasing the average check, improving the speed of service, and lowering transaction costs. But still, won’t…
Don’t give it away!
12 Feb 2012 | 10:44 pm
In my previous blog, Pouring profits, I posed the question: “How have you observed businesses capitalizing on (or forfeiting) opportunities to capture revenue and increase profit by offering customers enhanced service experiences?†While the post received a fair number of clicks, there have been no responses to my question. Undeterred, I resolved to identify my own example and found one at my local Albertsons supermarket: Albertsons offers two prices for fresh salmon in its seafood case: one price for unseasoned and another (higher) price for seasoned salmon. There is a valid reason for…
Pouring profits
7 Feb 2012 | 11:12 am
Last month, a colleague and I had dinner at a Maine microbrewery. Being unfamiliar with its selection of microbrew beers, I ordered a beer flight from our server in order to sample the variety of ales available on tap. For the uninitiated, a beer flight is a selection of beers (often arranged from lighter to darker) that offers samples of a variety of beers. Specifications vary but, generally, a beer flight consists of six 3 oz. pours and costs around $5. To my surprise, our server had no idea what a beer flight was. I then turned to the bartender and inquired about a flight. He said that…
Return Customer
How Storytelling Better Sells Your Products
15 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am
I was in Seattle for a conference this past summer and wanted to eat some fresh salmon. I asked the server at the restaurant which salmon I should get. She told me that people wait all year for the sockeye salmon catch at the mouth of the 300 mile long Copper River in Alaska. The salmon are then flown all over the world to be enjoyed fresh. Her description, beyond just “this tastes good”, painted a very vivid picture of where my meal came from. And you know what? It tasted better because I knew the story behind the product. I knew that just yesterday my dinner was swimming down…
Is Yelp Helping or Killing Your Business?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am
Listening to your customers is essential to a long and healthy relationship with them. The good news these days is that you can easily listen to your customers because they are talking about you all over the place. The review site Yelp.com is a great example of how your customers are giving feedback. Are you listening? The potential for good and bad is huge with a site like Yelp. A collection of negative reviews can scare away any potential customer that is looking for your local business. Conversely, a Yelp listing with customers raving about your awesome service is a golden marketing and…
Shipping Happiness is Achieved with Great Customer Service
6 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
The proliferation of fax machines in the 1980s and email in the 1990s raised consumer expectation for quick turnaround more than any previous technology change. Today, on demand viewing, text messaging and mobile applications are taking those expectation levels up another very significant notch. These days, social media even plays a large role in terms of receiving and viewing customer service reviews. When you provide a product or a service, consumers have come to expect you to know something about them and their interests. They expect customized messages designed just for them. They expect…
Why Too Many Choices Scare Away Your Customers
1 Feb 2012 | 9:01 am
Imagine you are pushing the shopping cart down the aisle at your local supermarket. As you round the corner you see the free sample table. Unbeknownst to you, this is a classic research experiment by researchers at Columbia and Stanford (read original research here (PDF)) to determine how the number and complexity of choices we give to customers affects their purchasing behavior. At a grocery store they set up a free sample table. On the table they had a display of 24 jars of jam. They tracked how many people visited the table. They gave those folks a coupon for a discount off the purchase of…
Improve Your Presentation Skills to Increase Your Sales
30 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
Many people struggle when giving presentations. They feel nervous and they do not like being in front of others. This can have an impact on business sales if presentations do not come across effectively and in a convincing manner. Even those who do not feel nervous can make crucial mistakes. Read through the following tips on how to improve your presentation skills. Put them into practice, and you’ll start to feel more comfortable, leading to increased success in selling. Make Eye Contact Eye contact is crucial. Do not look at any one person for too long, or you may cause them to feel…
Service Untitled
What Two and a Half Men Can Teach Us About Customer Service
15 Feb 2012 | 8:14 am
Customer service isn’t an easy task, and for the representatives who successfully calm angry customers, soothe irate tempers, and are able to solve consumer problems in a polite and reasonable manner are those employees any great company should consider giving a raise in salary. Staying calm isn’t always the easiest task to do, especially when the attacks are often met with rudeness and unprofessional behavior on the part of the customer. Angry clients, customers that feel a product is defective, poor service, an insecure co-worker may be all in a day’s work for an…
Does America run on “Dunkin’ Donuts�
8 Feb 2012 | 2:29 pm
Brands Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index sets Dunkin’ Donuts as number one in customer loyalty for the coffee category. Second only to oil production, coffee is the largest commodity sold. The coffee category included ratings on consumer preferences, the consistency of meeting customer expectations for taste, quality, service, and brand value. This is the sixth year in a row the quick food coffee shop has been recognized with the award. Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 7,000 restaurants in the United States and District of Columbia and another 10,000 restaurants in 33 countries.
Interview with Rob Siefker of Zappos – Part 3 of 4
7 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am
This is the third of a four part interview with Rob Siefker, the Director of the Customer Loyatly Team at Zappos. In this part of the interview, Rob talks more about the service metrics that Zappos tracks, how the company empowers its Customer Loyalty Team Members (and has avoided bureaucracy), how escalations to managers work at the company, how the Zappos compensates its employees, and the extensive continuing education programs employees have access to at Zappos and how they work. You can read part one of the interview here and part two here. To read this part, click “read…
Are mobile devices serving customers properly?
31 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pm
Before I leave my house in the morning, I grab my car keys, purse and of course, my smartphone. AT&T sold 9.4 million of these in the fourth quarter of 2011. Is it any wonder that the 2X4 inch tidy packages of computer chips have revolutionized everyday behaviors including the way we shop? We read on them, play Words With Friends, make dinner reservations, buy concert tickets, and frequently text. Now smartphone application users have even surpassed the amount of people texting and talking. Online sales from mobile devices continue to increase as applications scan, share favorites, share…
Interview with Rob Siefker of Zappos – Part 2 of 4
27 Jan 2012 | 8:08 am
This is the second of a four part interview with Rob Siefker, the Director of the Customer Loyatly Team at Zappos. In this part of the interview, Rob discusses how Zappos motivates members of their customer loyalty team, what programs they have in place to recognize good service, and what service metrics the company tracks and how. You can read part one of the interview here. To read this part, click “read more.” Service Untitled: So how do you motivate Customer Loyalty team members? And then how do you keep that motivation up over time? A lot of companies institute programs and…
The Chief Happiness Officer
Wells Fargo: “We believe shareholders come last.â€
17 Feb 2012 | 4:09 am
Someone sent me a link to this Forbes article about The Gospel According to Wells Fargo There’s some good stuff in it, but my favorite has to be this: We believe shareholders come last. If we do what’s right for our team members, customers and communities, then—and only then—will our shareholders see us as a great investment. More and more companies subscribe to the same philosophy and have realized that they make more money and serve their investors better by putting investors last.
HCL Technologies puts employees first
16 Feb 2012 | 2:26 am
This is not only one of the best recruitment videos I’ve ever seen it’s a stirring tribute to employees everywhere: It’s from Indian IT company HCL Technologies. Read more about the video here – you can even give them your company name and logo and generate a version of the video specific to your company.
Book review: Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky
10 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
I just finished reading Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky and I was struck by two observations: 1: Apple gets a lot of things exactly right and some other things exactly wrong. Ie- the design-driven development, the commitment to making great products and the pride their employees can take in contributing to that are all fantastic. On the other hand, Apple’s culture of fear, paranoia and mistrust really comes through in the book. Check out this article about Apple’s secret police. I think Apple could be even more successful (hard as that is to imagine) without the paranoia and bad…
When your boss saves your job
9 Feb 2012 | 3:33 am
Bob Sutton, author of the excellent book Good Boss Bad Boss tells this story from the very early days at Pixar: The company was under financial pressure and much of this pressure came down on the heads of the Division’s leaders, Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith. The new president, Doug Norby, wanted to bring some discipline to Lucasfilm, and was pressing Catmull and Smith to do some fairly deep layoffs. The two couldn’t bring themselves to do it. But Norby was unmoved. He was pestering Ed and Alvy for a list of names from the Computer Division to lay off, and Ed and Alvy kept blowing…
Kom til Arbejdsglæde Live! konference 24. maj (in Danish)
1 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am
We just announced our annual conference about happiness at work in Copenhagen. Here’s the announcement – in Danish. Vi er super glade for igen at kunne invitere til Arbejdsglæde Live! konference, hvor du og 300 andre deltagere blandt andet kan høre: Will McInnes – MÃ¥ske Englands gladeste direktør. Hans Erik Brønserud – Direktør for en af Danmarks absolut gladeste arbejdspladser. Wikke & Rasmussen – Fra Voldsom Volvo til Flyvende Farmor. Med glæde. Lise Egholm – Ã…rets leder i Danmark 2011 fortæller hvordan hun skaber arbejdsglæde. Rowan Manahan – En ekspert…
The Engaging Brand
Show 373 - Hiring for Attitude
17 Feb 2012 | 6:53 am
This weeks The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast is ready! - Talking about social media, leadership and marketing and sponsored today by MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup - for special offer try today! Mark Murphy of Leadership IQ joins Anna Farmery to discuss Hiring for Attitude. And why not take the Free Leadership IQ Test! What is the definition of great people, of a great hire? The top 2 reasons why people fail in their new roles. Is it easier or harder to find good people during high unemployment? How to choose the right person for your…
Are you in a Thinking Rut?
16 Feb 2012 | 9:56 am
Fact:Â In a psychological experiment a person shown a photograph of him/herself and then one of a reversed image of the same picture consistently preferred the reversed picture. Why ? Simply because that was the one they were used to seeing in the mirror !You know we are all creatures of habit and we can often read the same blogs, listen to the same podcasts, ignore people who don't agree with us.....but that doesn't help to expand our thinking, it doesn't help our personal development. Do you tend to like similar people with similar opinions ? Do you tend to go to lunch with similar people ?
Do you know your augmentation gene?
15 Feb 2012 | 8:12 am
Many say we are in a knowledge economy - for me we have passed through that and in a .....well, unsure on the name at the moment but lets say an augmented economy. What do I mean by augmented economy? Well, knowledge is no longer the subject, the product which suffers sparcity, open only to a few. The internet has changed our relationship to knowledge and often that means your consumer has more detailed research on your industry than you do! Knowledge has moved from a sparce product to a service, a service that translates what it possible into tomorrows, reality...TODAY! Knowledge has moved…
What I learned from George Clooney!
13 Feb 2012 | 8:09 am
George Clooney in an interview on The Andrew Marr Show this weekend commented on how film can never lead public opinion as it takes too long for an idea to go from concept to production. Therefore it can only reflect public opinion. In the past media it has been left to the papers to both reflect and lead public opinion. It strikes me that social media is changing the way society forms opinion. In the past the opinion lead the public...now the public leads opinion. However, when you recognise the role of social media. it illustrates the need to keep changing your RSS feeds, changing who you…
Show 372 - Effect of 3D Printing on Marketing and Business
10 Feb 2012 | 8:06 am
This weeks The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast is ready! - Talking about social media, leadership and marketing and sponsored today by MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup - for special offer try today! Today Paul Armand from Inition joins Anna Farmery to discuss the growing concept of 3D printing and the effect on the future business model. We discuss What is 3D printing and what can it achieve now Are there boundaries to what you can print out in 3D How close are we to replacing production lines with 3D printers Is 3D printing in the future for…
The Social Customer Manifesto
Thank You, Senator Boxer
17 Feb 2012 | 9:44 am
Senator Boxer responds to my email regarding PIPA. Thank you, Senator.
A Grab Bag Of Links
14 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am
A grab bag of interesting things that have come across the radar… The Right Content At the Right Time: Some good thoughts on influence analytics from Dr. Michael Wu at Lithium Burberry’s Evolving Role As A Media Company: An analysis from Mashable Your Company’s Social Media Architecture: Some cool visualizations in here JP Rangaswami talks about Facebook Timeline and increasing returns: The money quote: “Transactions are outcomes of relationships and discovered via conversations.” Intuit’s online community: An interview with Ant’s Eye View’s…
On Customer-Driven Interactions
14 Feb 2012 | 7:38 am
With all of the hue and cry around “big data,” the forward thinking folks are actually looking the other way. Here’s the ‘graf that matters: “Much the way powerful mobile devices store your biometric information and translate your language, personalized information filters and search engines will bring you only the information you want. This will invert the premise of marketing,†Mr. Meyerson said. The phones “will start to be your advocate, recognizing what is near and dear to you and getting it. Instead of companies speaking to you, you will reach out to…
Counting “Fans†And “Followers†Is The HFCS Of Social Engagement
13 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pm
Earlier this month, the NYTimes took a deeper dive into the idea of “good attention vs. bad attention.” I wanted to keep the ball rolling on this idea, as it’s fundamental to thinking about social engagement with (and as) customers. Although many of us are working in or with enterprises in a role related to connecting with customers, we need to do a shift in perspective. For right now, put on your “customer” hat; we all are customers, in addition to trying to connect with them. Through that lens, ”good attention” is the type of attention you pay…
Good Attention vs. Bad Attention
5 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pm
The confluence of the Super Bowl and its focus on immense ad spend, coupled with speaking at last week’s NetPromoter conference triggered a thought. Are there two kinds of attention (let’s call them “Good Attention” and “Bad Attention”), in the same way that there are two kinds of profits? We know that there are two kinds of profits. Good profits are profits that fuel growth, and come from serving customers in such a way that they are willing to recommend your organization to others. Bad profits, conversely, are the types of profits where the customer feels…
Think customers: The 1to1 Blog
What's Trending for Marketing in 2012
17 Feb 2012 | 11:03 am
You've doubtless heard the now-clichéd phrase, the only constant is change. When it comes to marketing, however, the only constant is complexity, according to Bruce Biegel, managing director of Winterberry Group. During his presentation at a Direct Marketing Club of New York luncheon, Biegel shared some insight into that complexity, as well as related trends to watch in 2012. There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
Customers Love a Company That Keeps Its Promises
17 Feb 2012 | 7:33 am
Newegg.com is loved--by everyone from technical wizards to those who are just beginning to introduce technology into their lives. A big reason for this adoration is because the company tells the truth about its inventory to customers. The minute its warehouse runs out of an item, Newegg.com marks that product as unavailable or it is removed from its site. There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
Ensuring Employee Satisfaction Impacts Customer Experience
16 Feb 2012 | 5:54 am
Making sure that customers are satisfied with their experience with a company is an essential part of any organization's job. However, it's also imperative to make sure that employees are happy, since they're the ones interacting with customers and can have an important impact on their experience. There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
Mapping Out a Mobile Blueprint
15 Feb 2012 | 11:55 am
I stated in this January article that 2012 will be the year that mobile more successfully integrates with other customer interaction channels. As Forrester reveals this week in the report, "Mobile is the New Face of Customer Engagement" for mobile to successfully blend with other channels and engage with customers, CIOs need to rethink their role, strategy, and organizational structure. There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2012
14 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pm
Each year we put a stake in the ground to identify trends that marketers should pay special attention to. This year we see these on the horizon: There’s more… To read the rest of this blog posting click here or visit www.1to1Media.com/weblog
A blog about time tracking, task management project management, and other useful tales and tips, from the minds at Intervals
Adventures in Analog Time Tracking
10 Feb 2012 | 12:14 pm
Before there was such a thing as online time tracking software, I was already obsessed with tracking my time. I’d worked in creative agencies, web design agencies, web development shops, software development companies, and even dabbled in IT. Regardless of my role at each job, I wanted to know how much time I was working, [...]
Tracking the Untracked with Online Time Tracking Software
24 Jan 2012 | 3:41 pm
Most of us using online time tracking software are already tracking the important stuff, like client work and internal projects. But there are plenty of other miscellaneous tasks we perform day-to-day that we don’t think to track, because they aren’t billable or directly related to any current projects. When we take the time to track [...]
We’ve Improved the Intervals Search for Time, Tasks, Projects and More…
19 Jan 2012 | 3:09 pm
We are quite happy about the fact that Intervals has been increasing in size and popularity since we first launched it six years ago. One of the “growing pains” we encountered was the challenge of providing a fast and relevant search for our customers as the amount of data in their accounts increased. Intervals’ customers [...]
How Web Designers and Developers can Contribute to Open Source Projects
18 Jan 2012 | 3:02 pm
Most Web designers and developers I’ve met use Open Source projects in some way. We design using free icons and develop on a LAMP stack. Popular MVC frameworks are widely used and supported. It’s rather difficult for a Web designer or developer to get very far without Open Source software. Most of the Open Source [...]
Three Time Tracking Myths Debunked
15 Dec 2011 | 2:18 pm
When it comes to time tracking, small businesses and freelancers alike either love it or hate it. On the love side are those who’ve embraced time tracking in a way that benefits their business, clients, and empowers individual team members. On the hate side, some track their time because they are required to, while others [...]
Leadership Consultant - Bill Hogg » Blog
7 Must Have Transformational Leadership Qualities
14 Feb 2012 | 4:02 am
Today, more than ever, we need courageous leaders who empower others to reach heights they never thought possible. We need our leaders to expand their capabilities and move outside of the transactional space and into a transformational space that focuses on long term solutions rather than short term gains. Transformational leadership – growing beyond transactional leadership Developing your leadership capacity is moving beyond focusing on the day to day operations and expanding your decision making process to focus on long term strategies that are able to sustain business over time. Leaders…
What Values Are You Communicating?
30 Jan 2012 | 8:20 am
Recently I executed an employee engagement survey across a client organization. When I compared the senior executive team with the blended front-line results I discovered a very troubling outcome. The senior executives were almost unanimous in the belief that they had done an excellent job of communicating the core values of the organization — yet results from the front-line indicated exactly the opposite. Even worse, some of the comments indicated that the values the front-line were observing were inconsistent with the “advertised” values. Too many organizations believe…
Is Your Leadership Limiting Your Organizations Ability to Grow?
12 Jan 2012 | 10:43 am
This is the first in our series of articles that looks at leadership capacity and its impact on organizational growth and transformation. The full series will be available for download as a white paper once it is completed. Leadership capacity is more than simply skill development; it’s about performance, growth, transformation and change. For the purpose of our discussion in this series of articles, let’s define it as; “Leadership Capacity is the skilful use of leadership attributes for the growth and development of ourselves, our colleagues and our organization”.
Are You Really Incubating Fresh Ideas and Thinking?
3 Jan 2012 | 1:46 pm
Are you finding that you are not hearing the fresh ideas and new thinking in your organization that you would like. Are you often faced with sitting through presentations that sound like the same ideas rehashed again and again. Well maybe you are burying good ideas under a bad process. Before you hear their ideas — are your teams spending time getting them “right”? Are they vetted, reviewed, revised and debated around in circles until all the edginess and excitement has been “fine-tuned” right out of existence. Imagine if ideas for the iPhone had been fine-tuned…
Start, Stop, Do Different
1 Dec 2011 | 8:41 am
Many people are familiar with the expression, Start, Stop, Do Different from personal evaluation processes — those regularly scheduled reviews by our supervisor. They will often use this outline to give us feedback of our performance. But I also think it should be used more regularly, both personally and with colleagues. No leader improves without feedback and personal introspection. So rather than waiting for a formal review by a supervisors, consider asking your colleagues these questions. What should I start doing? What activities or behaviours should I add into my daily activities…
X-Squared On Demand LLC Blog
Workflow ISCHANGED() translated to Apex trigger
2 Feb 2012 | 10:02 am
Workflow is great. I can simply and declaratively make changes, and can easily update things like email templates, criteria, tasks, etc. without using Eclipse and writing/running unit tests. Sometimes, however, workflow isn’t enough; we need to use a trigger. Today, I had a use-case that when a DateTime field is filled, a contact (identified via a lookup on a parent object – so a grandparent record) should receive a notification. That’s easy enough to do with a ISCHANGED(DateTimeField__c) workflow criteron, but the Email Alert can’t “find” the contact. A…
Best Practice: Multiple Chatter Posts of the Same File
11 Aug 2011 | 11:27 am
Salesforce Administrators learn to remind users: “Search before you create a new lead.” Pretty simple, right? Duplicated records are a pain. Then why do I see some very accomplished Salesforce users in the Dreamforce app posting duplicate Content/Files in Chatter? Here are some examples from the Files tab: I've learned my lesson in the past 8 months... I promise! The better thing to do – assuming that you need to post the same file multiple times (this should be rare, as it might be considered Chatter Spamming, but when referring multiple users or groups to a document,…
Next Birthday Formula
6 Jul 2011 | 11:45 am
How would you display your Contacts with upcoming birthdays? I’ve seen people use “Birthdays This Week,” “Birthdays This and Next Week,” and other reports to display the list. I’ve also seen requirements for showing a person’s next birthday, to trigger an automatic email to each Contact on his/her birthday. Let’s see how it’s done: if( Month (Birthdate) < = Month(Datevalue( NOW() ) ), if ( Month (Birthdate) < Month(Datevalue( NOW() ) ), DATE( YEAR( DATEVALUE( NOW() ) ) + 1 , MONTH( Birthdate ) , DAY( Birthdate ) ), if ( Day…
PageReference Best Practice
5 May 2011 | 11:30 am
I've seen a lot of coders put the following into their custom Visualforce controllers: public PageReference customsave() { try{ insert acct; } catch (DMLException e) { /*do stuff here*/ } PageReference acctPage = new PageReference ('/' + acct.id}; acctPage.setRedirect(true); return acctPage; } I've decided that I don't like this approach. It feels too much like a URL hack, and though I'm sure that it will always work (meaning that salesforce.com will never change its way of referring to a record by /<recordID>), I'd like to suggest a different method that may use more resources, but…
Content Latest Version Flag
4 May 2011 | 3:29 pm
Yesterday, I used Content Delivery to send a pdf to a client. Simple, right? Upload the Word document to Content, associate it with a record, and deliver the content. Surely if I upload a new version, the delivery will refer to the latest version, right? There’s no place to select that option, so I can assume, right? Wrong. This is the screen I see when I choose to deliver a given file. Note that I can choose whether to allow access to the original file or only to a pdf… but nothing about which version to deliver. (There are 4 versions right now.) Content Delivery OptionsThe…
AmazingServiceGuy.com
Customer service book and blog update
8 Feb 2012 | 7:29 am
Here’s a quick update on two resources to help improve customer service and retention. First, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss were kind enough to send me a copy of their latest book: UNCOMMON SERVICE. In it they discuss a new model organizations can use to improve customer service and improve loyalty. I will be reading [...]
Customer Service Conference to Focus on Loyalty and Retention
7 Feb 2012 | 7:32 am
In March, the Multi-Channel Virtual Contact Center Conference will be held. As a virtual conference it will enable people from all over the world to participate without incurring travel costs or time. The conference, presented by CRMXchange, Yankee Group and Vanguard Communications, will focus largely on best practices in improving customer loyalty as well as [...]
The Importance of Incorporating Customer Service Strategies in a Business Plan
2 Feb 2012 | 7:04 am
By Sara Mackey Having a well thought out customer service strategy is essential when developing a business plan. Large organizations and small businesses alike must incorporate well planned customer service strategies into their business goals to build a profitable return customer base. The ultimate success of a business will depend on how well the customers [...]
Three Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back
10 Jan 2012 | 6:52 am
Last week I was interviewed by Daniel Bortz, a writer for Entrepreneur.com. He asked my opinion on some things small businesses can do to keep their customers coming back. The ideas in his article focused on tactics that most small businesses can do and can be made easier using technology tools. Â The suggestions centered on [...]
Customer Service articles, books, blogs and more.
28 Nov 2011 | 8:49 am
Welcome to the world of Amazing Service! I am Kevin Stirtz and this blog is my creation. Â It’s here to help you improve customer service for yourself, your team and your entire organization. I have written over 600 customer service blog posts, articles, ebooks and other resources and published them here, for you to use. [...]
Can I have that with!
create the context for wpork to get done
16 Feb 2012 | 4:10 pm
Brad Feld explains the need to create an environment that is motivating;If you generalize this, it plays out over and over again every day. The great entrepreneurs I know work incredibly hard at creating environments that are motivating. They don’t pound away at the specific task of “motivating peopleâ€, rather they pay attention to creating context, removing barriers, being supportive, putting the right people in the room, and leading by doing. All of these things create a context in which people are motivated.
The quiet of a snowfall
13 Feb 2012 | 9:02 pm
The heart of the city is a boisterous resonating enclave.People and vehicles are continually juxtaposing nosily for position on the verylimited concrete that the streets and sidewalks afford. Add the hum ofbuildings, the swoosh of revolving doors, horns from aggrieved drivers, the vibrations, the static dim andthe decibel levels are deafening. On a winter afternoon, imperceptibly at first, snow startsto fall and fall and fall. The sounds of the city that were so pervasiveearlier begin to muffle. The clap ofshoes against the sidewalk is not discernible in the gathering…
Taking control of events
8 Feb 2012 | 2:47 pm
There are a lot of lessons that can be gleamed from Sunday's Super Bowl finish. First let me set the stage.Your team is leading, time is winding down in the game. The opponent is getting very close to scoring the winning points with no time on the clock. The probability of scoring is high thou not absolute. The coach of the Patriots chose to allow the Giants to score uncontested, thus giving his team the chance to come back and win themselves.1) I give the coach all the credit in the world for making a decision. He chose to take control rather than let events unfold. To…
Kicking the can down the road
5 Feb 2012 | 11:55 am
Joshua Brown explains the last six years pretty succinctly. This has not been your average Great Recession. Individuals and businesses that are still drawing breath have had to adjust in major ways. We've all been through the ringer. Some of us have gained a little extra weight and sprouted some premature white hairs. Some of us have had to give up things and activities we loved. Some of us have downsized our lifestyles substantially. This economy has cost us all something - vacations, cars, jobs and even marriages.And when you're living in a state of lowered…
National Pizza Day
5 Feb 2012 | 11:43 am
More pizza will be consumed today than on any other day of the year.Raise a slice to nature's most perfect food.Enjoy a pizza today!
Customer Service Voodoo
Nothing Says Love Like Walnut Shrimp
12 Feb 2012 | 1:11 pm
Valentine’s Day is feared and loathed by men around the world.  While I understand the pain that anyone in a relationship can face, I am personally glad that I do not have to go through these questions: - what do I get her that says the right thing? - can I get by with a card and flowers? - what kind of message do roses send? - should I get her a diamond? - maybe just a small necklace? - who was the genius who invented Valentine’s Day anyway? - I have to pick her up in 15 minutes and I am at the grocery store, will chocolate suffice, who doesn’t love chocolate, right?
spark new thinking!
"What A Waste"
13 Feb 2012 | 9:23 pm
Quick, what's the first thing that pops in your mind when I say the name "Whitney Houston?" If you're like most of the people I've talked to this week, your gut reaction is very likely something like "What a waste." The world is mourning the wasted talent of a once-brilliant star. Not me. I'm mourning the wasted talented of all those who are still alive (including me). When someone like Whitney dies I don't spend much time thinking about what she could have accomplished if she hadn't wasted her talent. It makes me wonder what the world would say about me if I died prematurely. It…
How Fear Paralyzes Your Positivity
12 Feb 2012 | 6:38 pm
Did you know that 60% of our fears are completely unwarranted? In this clip, I share the story of how fear kept my son from experiencing something that -- in the end -- completely rocked his world (in a good way). The lesson here is that we all do this to a certain degree.
Confessing My 10 Year Love Affair
7 Feb 2012 | 12:31 pm
I have had a love affair for ten years. My love affair has given me countless hours of pleasure. Sometimes late at night. Sometimes early in the morning. I've even snuck away in the middle of the day for a steamy rendezvous. There have been many, many days I've experienced it twice in one day. My love affair makes me lose all track of time. I'm obsessed by it. I think about it when I can't be there. It's one of the first things I think about every morning and sometimes I just can't go to sleep without it. It's the source of much of my creativity. My greatest fear in life is the…
Stop Wasting Your Time Off
31 Jan 2012 | 9:10 am
Somewhere, somehow, somebody decided that vacations & weekends are the reward for all of our hard work. The result? We slave 50 weeks a year so we can sun tan for 2. We stare at our computer all week so we can stare at our TV all weekend. Then the alarm buzzes on Monday morning and we hit the snooze button once, twice, thrice, or more, squeezing out every last drop of our "free time" before heading back to the grindstone. That's a sucky way to live. And it's completely backwards to the way it's supposed to work. Vacations and weekends are supposed to be refreshment, not…
How To Give Everybody What They Need
25 Jan 2012 | 6:39 am
Ever see a sound board in a recording studio or at a concert? You know, the kind with hundreds of knobs, buttons, and sliders, and banks of blinking lights that rival the bridge of the Starship Enterprise? We've got one of those at our church that allows us to control the sound of the microphones, instruments, etc. that we use during our worship services. There's a section on the board (which I captured part of in the picture above) that controls which sounds get sent to the the individual monitors throughout the auditorium. There are several different monitors besides the main speakers…
Justin Flitter
What can you Pluk from your TV?
15 Feb 2012 | 8:58 pm
Pluk is a new smart phone app that extends deals, offers or content from TV adverts to your phone. It’s only available in New Zealand at this stage. I think this a very interesting use of technology, hence this post about it. Advertisers are always looking for smart ways to keep people participating with and engaged in their content after they’ve seen the ad. So while someone else’s ad is playing the user is busy looking at their second screen entering a competition or watch a video perhaps. Pluk listens for audio codes in TV Adverts that directs the user to competition…
“Find Us on Facebook†is ineffective
13 Feb 2012 | 7:15 pm
Many businesses and brands simply add “Find Us on Facebook” or the Facebook logo to their advertisements which is not helping them connect with the fans searching for them In this article the problems with Facebook’s search function is well and truly highlighted. “I’d say Facebook search is broken, but it was never working right to begin with,†said Berkowtiz. Ian Schafer, CEO of digital agency Deep Focus, said that official brand pages not always popping in Facebook search results is a “definite issue†and “one of the primary causes†for unofficial pages…
If you’re not integrating you’re missing out
7 Feb 2012 | 2:14 pm
This is my challenge for 2012, with each and every project we work on. I’m sure it’s the same with most digital marketers. The word is Integration. And it’s about raising profile, awareness and generating traffic to your social profiles from traditional advertising. Some people use QR codes on adverts, some simply add Twitter and Facebook logos. I think the best option is to add the Twitter, Facebook or YouTube URL’s to everything you do. Every billboard without social links is a failed opportunity to drive traffic and build awareness of their social profile.
5 things I learnt producing our social media guide
5 Feb 2012 | 3:17 pm
2012 Beginners Guide to Social Media for Businesses Over the last two weeks more than 20 people have been compelled to email me their feedback, comments and suggestions about the Social Media Guide for businesses. That’s in addition to the countless DMs, tweets and LinkedIn messages I’ve received. The experience has taught me a lot. And I’m humbled by the response. I spent the best part of 150 hours over three months producing the SM Guide. It’s aimed at beginners researching or planning social media for their company. It’s not a bible, it’s intended to be…
How Facebook rules can actually help improve your competitions
3 Feb 2012 | 7:12 pm
This week we spotted The Warehouse promoting a Facebook competition on their website. There are three main problems with this competition. Can you pick them?  1. Facebook’s Competition rules specifically states you cannot use the upload a photo to the wall function as a mechanism of entry Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or…
Your Source for Providing a Better Customer Service and Customer Support Experience
3 Questions That Every Company Focused on Customer Service Should Ask
16 Feb 2012 | 7:32 am
In its recently-released 2012 Customer Experience Index, Forrester Research asked more than 7,500 U.S. consumers about their interactions with 210 large North American brands across 13 major industries. From the answers they received to three very important questions, they calculated a CXi (Customer Experience Index) score for 160 brands by subtracting the percentage of customers who reported a bad experience from the percentage who reported a good experience. Brands were grouped into categories based on their score: “excellent†(85 and higher), “good†(75 to 84), “OK†(65 to…
Multi-channel Customer Service Mythbusters
15 Feb 2012 | 7:37 am
We’ve taken five major multi-channel customer service myths and without any C4, test dummies or wind tunnels (although our product development team really wanted to use wind tunnels), we’ve come up with some busted, confirmed and plausible answers…. 1. MYTH: The majority of customers use phone and email for customer service. BUSTED. According to a recent Ovum study of 8,000 consumers from across the globe, the majority of consumers use three or more communication channels when engaging in customer service. Results show that 25% of consumers use one or two channels; 52% use three to…
Multi-channel Matchmaking: Pairing the Customer with the Perfect CSR
13 Feb 2012 | 2:17 pm
Customer-centric organizations would be wise to take a lesson from Cupid-esque companies like Match.com and eHarmony. These masters of matchmaking take total strangers who have come to their website and entered data and pair them with an individual whom they believe they would best get along with based on select criteria. The same type of matchmaking is done to a lesser degree by those companies using CRM software which features routing capabilities. Those customers submitting a help desk ticket, engaging in live chat, or posting a question on social media can successfully be matched with the…
Tweets of the Week: February 5 – 12, 2012
10 Feb 2012 | 1:56 pm
It’s our goal to share compelling quotes and interesting tweets that we feel can help our followers, customers and potential customers learn best practices and discover new information and trends to improve customer service delivery and ensure a great customer experience. Here are some terrific #custserv tweets that we came across this week. To keep up to date with weekly customer service tips, articles and information, follow us @Parature. @KateNasser Heart based leaders are needed whenever your customers matter! #custserv #leadfromwithin @hyken Don’t hide what you do well. It may be…
Rise of the Social Customer
9 Feb 2012 | 3:50 pm
There is a revolution underway. A new species of customer is rising from the online environment and flexing its collective muscle. It does not want to be confined by restrictive customer service silos. Its numbers are growing; it has found its voice, and it expects equality with any larger group it comes into contact with. The Future of Customer Service: The Rise of the Social Customera newly-released report by UK social media consultancy ItsOpen, heralds a new era of customer service – one of social power that is transforming the relationship between individuals and institutions.
The Think Zone
Super Every Day
5 Feb 2012 | 12:07 pm
No matter who is the champion of whatever sport we happen to be following, we know that there are some important characteristics of teams (and individuals) that win:They are talentedThey are well trainedThey are unified in their objectivesThey are focused on achieving the goalCan we say that about the teams we work with? Do we have the right people in the right places?Is marketing getting the word out and presenting our products and services in the proper way? Does sales handle the "play" properly and, as Lou Imbriano would say, "Win the customer"? Is our service and support…
Do. Improve. Repeat.
15 Jan 2012 | 11:27 am
If you've been following me on Twitter for any length of time, you've read these three words before: Do. Improve. Repeat. I call it my "mantra." I've used it in just about every aspect of my life. Of course, it's my personalized version of "Practice makes perfect" or "La práctica hace al maestro" or "Kaizen," but with emphasis on a central step: Reflection and the conscious intention to make the next golf swing, guitar riff, kata routine, blog post or paragraph better than the last.Every day presents a new opportunity to get better at something, whether it's being a better follower, leader,…
Customer Empowerment: Lessons Learned
2 Jan 2012 | 9:39 pm
Some very large companies learned lessons this year about the power of customers. There was the Bank of America fee story and the Verizon fee story. Now, those fees hit customers in the pocketbook, and it's easy to see why people rebelled against them. But things get very interesting when we look at what happened to GoDaddy, which lost upwards of 72,000 domains when customers decided there were better alternatives.GoDaddy didn't increase its fees, or do anything directly draconian to its customers; the company did, however, indicate that it was supporting SOPA, the very controversial…
Was It Customer Service?
27 Nov 2011 | 8:17 pm
A couple of years ago, my (then) employer moved me into a windowless office. I decided to buy a full spectrum desk lamp. There were two home improvement "big box" stores on my way home from work, practically across the street from each other. I'll call them Orange and Blue. The Blue one was fairly new and I'd never been there, so that's where I went.After a couple of minutes of looking at the choices, I picked out a nice, inexpensive lamp that I felt would look good on my desk and get the job done. As is usual, there was a display unit and a shelf full of corresponding boxes. The only…
I Learned Customer Service from a CEO
17 Oct 2011 | 7:24 am
There are some people around the web who seem determined to shoot down the customer service community that has taken root here, and one of the things they say is that the people who take part in the discussions and chats don't understand business. Well, I don't understand the kind of business that thinks it's ok to refer to "dumb customers" but that's another story.I began my customer service education when I was in high school, working part time at a business a few miles from where I grew up. After about a year, I was promoted into the customer service desk, which was seen as a desirable…
Scott McKain Viewpoint
Bringing something the core group cannot…
17 Feb 2012 | 8:24 am
I disagree with Seth Godin. Don’t get me wrong, I admire his work and usually am in lockstep with his viewpoints. Just not this time… A couple of days ago, Godin wrote: “It’s an insult. If someone (who isn’t John, Paul, George or Ringo) calls you a fifth Beatle, they’re not being nice.” Problem is, I don’t think that’s historically true. Two people have been cited most often as the “fifth Beatle.” Billy Preston was one — in part because after the Beatles became renown, he was the only artist credited with performing along…
Why book a professional speaker for your meeting?
14 Feb 2012 | 1:50 pm
After my post asking why experts are often such lousy speakers, a few people wrote to ask me, “Why book a professional speaker?†Well, let me begin to answer by stating a couple of obvious points. First, I’m very prejudiced when it comes to the subject. (It’s somewhat akin to asking a jeweler, “Why should I wear a watch?â€) Naturally, I’m going to be enthusiastic and emphatic about the field in which I have spent over half my life. This response won’t be an impartial evaluation. Second, the reaction I provide will be chiefly based upon my own experience. It puts me in a tough…
Why are “experts†such lousy speakers?
7 Feb 2012 | 9:30 am
It was the question asked on a LinkedIn group board: Why are experts such lousy speakers? As the professional speaking side of my business is booming, one of the points Shelley in our office is hearing constantly from our clients and prospects is: “We have tried booking less expensive ‘industry experts’ to address our conferences, and we are now returning to invest in a speaking professional, because our meetings have become so dull and uninspiring.” (Don’t get me wrong — there are drab professional speeches and exciting industry experts. It just…
Beware of bias…
3 Feb 2012 | 2:30 pm
Back when I was involved a bit in local television news — I was a free-lance anchor and entertainment commentator for the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis in the late ’80′s and early ’90′s — a broadcast veteran and I were talking about the media’s role in reporting Presidential politics. “Watch the next campaign,” he wisely told me. “It’s in the media’s interest to get the number of candidates in either party down to two as quickly as possible. The audience can’t follow closely when it’s six or seven running for…
An ultimate experience from a reliable source
27 Jan 2012 | 7:44 am
I’m flying from Baltimore to Vegas on an airline I don’t normally take…usually I would go Delta for the SkyMiles, but this airline has a non-stop, arriving two hours earlier, and I need the sleep. In the middle of the 5½ hour trip, a flight attendant makes an announcement, naming two passengers, and asking them to walk to the front of the plane. Confused, and not knowing one another, an older man and younger woman from separate parts of the aircraft approach the forward galley. Flight attendant now announces these two have something in common. It’s their birthday! She leads us in…
the customer experience for profit blog
Exceeding expectations or solving customer problems: What’s more important?
3 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pm
Let’s say you set out to improve your company’s customer experience to drive better organization performance (kudos to you). What will be more important in attaining that goal: exceeding customer expectations, or solving customers’ problems? Photo: Jason-Morrison That’s the question that came to my mind after reading Robert Passikoff’s recent article on Forbes.com, “The Final Frontier: Customer Expectations.†Passikoff points to a shift in the past 15 years: customer expectations have increased significantly, rising 24 percent in all categories. That number has increased even…
A customer experience lesson in honor of Andy Rooney
10 Nov 2011 | 2:37 pm
On a Delta flight from Chicago to Minneapolis, I caught myself thinking about customer experience - Andy Rooney style. I confess I was not a consistent follower of Andy Rooney, the rumpled but sage commentator from the CBS news show 60 Minutes. Yet when I did catch Andy, he never failed to provoke a chuckle or a question or a smile. I like that. Hoping to work until he died, Andy very nearly did, passing away on November 4. In honor of Andy, here is my simple story: My .42 ounce bag of peanuts I was handed a package of lightly salted peanuts. It’s small. I note it contains .42…
Q & A with Crowe Horwath’s Aimee Lucas
14 Oct 2011 | 8:06 am
One afternoon in the spring of 2010, a colleague and I ducked into a fruit smoothie place in Manhattan. We had just finished a meeting and were halfway back to our hotel, put off by record breaking 95 degree heat and humidity on an afternoon in April. I settled in, opened my email and found a note from Aimee Lucas. I’ve devoured Domino and am a follower on Twitter and am reaching out to begin a conversation…. …and I’ve been honored to say “I know Aimee Lucas” since that day. Aimee has been a force of nature at Crowe Horwath, one of the largest  public accounting…
Why does B2B customer experience get the short shrift?
20 Sep 2011 | 1:31 pm
Photo: Aveus LLC I recently sent out a tweet about B2B customer experience asking people to brag about their company or the work they’re doing. The silence was deafening. I even sent the tweet out again a few days later and still came back with nothing. It’s not often that you can’t find at least one person willing to brag about the good work they’re doing. Frankly, I’m not all that surprised. When it comes to customer experience it’s almost as though B2B doesn’t exist. Just take a look at Bruce Temkin’s recent loyalty ranking report where retail dominates the top 20…
10 tips to strengthen your customer experience using four social media platforms
19 Aug 2011 | 3:11 pm
I recently had the outstanding opportunity to lead a Webinar for MarketingProfs (transparency alert: I blog for the MarketingProfs Daily Fix regularly) members on how to strengthen customer experience using four key social media platforms. For an hour-and-a-half we discussed where customers are in their experience online, what customers expect from brands on social platforms and 10 tips you can use to strengthen your customer’s experience using four social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube). Here’s the full deck—it’s full of examples, case studies and, of course,…
Write The Company
Carlson Gets the Drop on Vitamins
16 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am
There’s more than one way to get your vitamins. But the way I’m getting one of mine led to these questions for Carlson Laboratories… Dear Nutritional Supplementers: I use Carlson Vitamin D3 drops mainly because I hate swallowing pills. The great thing about drops is they never get stuck in your throat and feel like [...]
Is ASICS on the Ball?
14 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am
What happens when running shoes and balls don’t make for a good team? That’s what I hoped ASICS America Corporation could explain… Dear ASICS Footwear Customer Service: I emailed almost two months ago and no one responded. So I took matters into my own hands, or should I say feet? Either way, I purchased new [...]
Cutting to the Cheese Chase
9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am
It’s only a matter of time before cheese goes bad. Some cheeses stink so bad you might even think they’ve gone bad when they haven’t. Others smell pleasant enough, except it’s their taste that stinks real bad. But how much time do you have with normal, fresh-smelling, tasty, organic packaged cheese like a Mozzarella before [...]
Nothing Flaky about Head & Shoulders
7 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am
People love being told they’ve got a good head on their shoulders. However, millions of others are considered flaky because their heads and shoulders are covered in dandruff. Since Head & Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo is a Procter & Gamble brand, I contacted them to see what they know that allows them to stay a head [...]
Evening Primrose Oil Time
2 Feb 2012 | 7:30 am
Why people take Evening Primrose Oil is their business. What interests me is when to take it. That’s why I consulted NOW Foods — a health food and nutritional supplements supplier since 1968 — for guidance… Dear Award-Winning Manufacturer, Respected Advocate of the Natural Product Industry and Leader in the Fields of Nutritional Science and Methods Development [...]
The UP! Your Service Blog | Uplifting Service Cultures for Sustainable Competitive Advantage
6 Ways to Get Customer Feedback to Improve Your Service Brand
15 Feb 2012 | 12:28 am
Brand perception is simply the way customers perceive your organization. This perception is influenced by many factors: your products or services, style of communication, corporate culture, and the quality of service you provide at every “perception point.†A prime example of effective branding is Starbucks. Core values of the company are service and relationship and this is clearly articulated in the brand message. Starbucks isn’t simply a place to buy a cup of coffee, it is distinguished by offering a personal touch to service. Regular customers at many Starbucks locations form…
Five Types of Leaders in a Customer Centricity Initiative
5 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm
In my last blog post, I described the six most common reasons why customer centricity initiatives often fail. One of these is the lack of commitment demonstrated by senior leaders in the organization. Here at five types of leaders you see most often, and their level of involvement: 1. THE PACIFIST This leader delegates the business of creating the customer-centered culture to others and reviews occasional reports. He is not really fired up about customers and focuses on other perceived success factors like operational excellence or technological superiority. 2. THE BANKER This leader hears…
A Customer-Focused Structure Leads to Success
30 Jan 2012 | 8:24 pm
A great service culture is always a product of a whole architecture that includes education, service processes and structures that support customer-focused behavior. Most customer-service improvement efforts fail to provide this type of architecture because their design misses, in particular, the strong impact of structure on behavior. Structure may include reporting relationships or physical structures that best facilitate service process. The designers are wary of changing structures to support service outcomes because such change is emotionally charged, takes a significant amount of effort…
Why is Leadership Support so Elusive?
23 Jan 2012 | 9:41 pm
I have been in the field of training, leadership, and organizational development for over 20 years. Through all these years, I have heard one message (and complaint) from practitioners, consultants, authors and gurus: for cultural change to succeed, top leadership must support it. It’s amazing. This message is so consistent. And there is so much evidence to prove it! Yet the issue persists as a key barrier to successful culture change. As a previous blog post stated, leaders who want to create a cultural revolution—and make it stick—must get everyone involved. They must engage and…
In Service Revolutions, Size Does Matter. Go Big and Go Fast.
17 Jan 2012 | 9:37 am
2011 was an extraordinary year. There were more revolutions around the world, violent and otherwise, than we’ve seen in many years. These dominated local and global news channels, political and business conversations, and the attention of people everywhere. Even Time magazine acknowledged the Protester as the Person of the Year. Some of these revolutions were due to growing frustration at their countries’ dysfunctional systems, some were more forward looking. Most began as independent affairs, not creations of specific political parties. Many were enabled by easy access to—and the…
Zengage - a Zendesk Blog
Our CEO Sits Down with Founderly
17 Feb 2012 | 1:33 pm
Ever wonder what this Zendesk thing is all about, or how we got started? Our CEO Mikkel Svane sat down with Founderly this past November to talk about his journey from idea to present day, which conveniently doubles as an in-depth company history. He then waxes poetic on Zendesk’s involvement in the early days of Twitter and Groupon, before discussing our grand plan for the future. We dare you to try and resist his subtle Danish charm: Episode 1 (of 2) zenDesk1of2QT from FounderLY on Vimeo. Episode 2 zenDesk2of2QT from FounderLY on Vimeo.
Tip of the Week: Helpful New Features for Your Zendesk
14 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pm
We’ve unleashed a slew of new features in the past few months that you may not know about. So in this week’s tip, Jill’s giving us a rundown of three of her favorites: - Zendesk Activity Stream in Google Chrome - Social sharing in your knowledge base - Knowledge base topic suggestions Check out Jill’s tip in our forums.
Zen Masters Webinar Series: Q&A with Author Joseph Michelli
8 Feb 2012 | 3:58 pm
Have you ever heard about Zappos’ amazing customer service and wondered just how they’re able to do it? Author, speaker and consultant Joseph Michelli went inside Zappos to harvest their know-how into juicy tidbits for his latest book, The Zappos Experience. On February 15th, he’s giving away some of Zappos’ secrets in our latest Zen Masters webinar. We caught up with him for a quick conversation in anticipation of next week’s webinar. How did you get your start writing business focused books? I have a Ph.D. in systems psychology, and began my work as an organizational development…
Evolution of Phone Support
8 Feb 2012 | 3:45 pm
On a scale of 1 to 10, one being “please, anything but that” and 10 being “this is the best thing that might have ever happened to me,” how much do you like picking up the phone and calling customer service? We’d venture to say the majority of the answers would hover around the lower end of the scale (with some wishing that negative numbers were also an option). Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a stigma around being a customer service rep. Yet, a recent customer service survey conducted by callcentres.net and Forrester Consulting found that most folks pick…
Tip of the Week: Hiding Parts of the Web Portal from Logged-out Users
7 Feb 2012 | 12:47 pm
There are some portions of your support portal you want everyone to see, and others that need to remain exclusive to certain types of users. For example, the average users might want to read your frequently asked questions (FAQs), but you only want registered users to submit and view tickets. In this week’s tip, Dave shows us how to hide certain tabs from logged-out users with a bit of simple CSS, so that only registered users get the velvet-rope treatment. Take a look here.
Global Institute For Inspiration
31 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
31 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
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65% of Workers Rate Their Boss As Less Than Inspiring
6 Dec 2011 | 12:36 pm
Atlanta, Georgia, December 6, 2011, The Global Institute for Inspiration (GII) commissioned a survey in the U.S. and the UK to determine how workers perceive bosses when it comes to inspiration. The survey was conducted by global digital market research specialist DigitalMR. A vast majority of 4,590 respondents in the U.S. and 4261 in the UK seem to share the same general impression of their bosses… NOT INSPIRING. 33% across the board thought of their boss as being neither inspiring nor uninspiring and worst, another 32% perceived their boss as being uninspiring to very uninspiring. In…
Building Inspiring Employees, Teams & Leaders Builds Business
18 Nov 2011 | 5:00 pm
Tapping into Inspiration to Engage & Empower  According to Gallup, 60% of American workers are actively disengaged. 40% of workers intend to leave their job this year and loyalty factor of customers is at an all time low of just 25%, down from 28% from just one year ago. In an effort to address this growing trend, U.S. businesses spent over $40 Billion in workplace training and another $14 Billion in various employee engagement initiatives. Factor in that traditional learning activities seem to be having little affect since research has now made it clear, 85% of workplace…
Engage, Inspire, Act! Unilever’s Prescription For Success
12 Oct 2011 | 5:02 pm
Contributed by Nicos Rossides, MASMI Last month, I attended the annual ESOMAR Congress in Amsterdam. Whilst the need to create a deep connection with consumers was a theme that ran through several of the presentations, there was one that clearly identified inspiration as a key plank for a global leader’s brand strategy: that of Unilever. The speakers talked about Unilever’s recipe for brand success which involves three key steps: Engage, Inspire, Act. First comes engagement, which ideally happens on three levels: ‘Hearts’ of employees: establishing a culture of consumer centricity…
It’s Here! 2011 Most Inspiring Companies List
27 Sep 2011 | 12:01 pm
Find out what consumers from the U.S. and U.K. determine are the most inspiring companies and why! It was not long ago that the Balanced Scorecard changed the way businesses strategically focused on objectives and measures that drove short and long-term performance. That was a major step in management theory and practice. And now we have a case for adding ‘inspiration’ as a new metric. From a business perspective this might sound like a lot of fluff but when respondents in our survey were asked if they could name an inspiring company or brand, 58% answered in the affirmative. But, the…
very best service
Customer watch
31 Jan 2012 | 10:22 am
At all times, it is crucial that your customer watch is in place. If your customers are in need of simple advice or find themselves in serious difficulty, you should be at hand, ready to provide immediate assistance. This will prevent a situation from deteriorating and causing irreparable damage. If successful, a rapid intervention will contribute to the establishment of a real bond which could last a lifetime. So, who is watching over your customers right now?
Customer service innovation
16 Jan 2012 | 11:28 am
Customer service innovation has become increasingly valuable as a way to differentiate from the competition and avoid an all-out price war. The challenge for companies is to determine to what extent the service innovations should be radical and if they are not a re-hatched copy of what someone has done before, are they achievable? To succeed management needs to be daring yet make sure that every element has been perfectly assessed and calculated so that the newly built process stays in place for many years to come. Are you brave enough to have a go?
Customer service: take the helicopter view
3 Jan 2012 | 11:55 am
Your understanding of the environment where your company offers its business services will be crucial in determining the success of your operation. What are the constraints? Where do the customers come from and what will be their state of mind when they finally reach you? Taking an helicopter view can often be useful to understand these factors and help you define the broad parameters before focusing on the details of your service deliveryPicture courtesy of Claire Boyles with our thanks - http://www.success-matters.com/
Bread and butter customer service
8 Dec 2011 | 10:19 am
Is it the end of bread and butter service? The increasing sophistication of marketing tools and techniques mean that many businesses have upped their game to improve the shopping experience they offer to their customers.These activities can lead to the creation of extra layers of costs and inefficiencies which are not always fully valued by the customers. As a result they develop a bargain hunting instinct whereby they wait for heavy promotional periods and sales during which they are prepared to buy at what they believe is a fair price. In turn, such behaviour leads retailers to invest in…
Preparation for customer service
28 Nov 2011 | 4:59 am
Preparation for customer service: for many companies, the next client is only a number, a customer record who happened to place an order for product xyz at a given time during the day.But it is not at all the same thing when you look at it from the clients' point of view. In many instances, the purchasing decision is an important act in the eyes of the customer who has spend hours if not days and weeks to compare products, to chose the colour, to check if he or she could afford the spend. After such a build up, when the big moment arrives, the client wants everything to be perfect and…
ILS Customer Service Blog
Customer Experience vs. Compensation: a Customer Service Showdown
17 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
The other night, I went to dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants. When I sat down, I couldn’t help but notice the table next to me was not having a pleasant dining experience. The two diners’ body language said it all. They both had their arms folded and were clearly trying to get the waiter’s attention by staring and gesturing for him to come over to the table. He apologized several times for something I could not decipher. A few minutes later, what seemed to be a complimentary dessert arrived. This experience got me thinking: was the dessert enough to turn the unhappy diners…
Selling Skills: Understand the Product
10 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
Are you happy with the performance of your sales team? Do they have a thorough understanding of your products and how to present them to customers in an engaging way? In-depth product knowledge is a critical component of sales success. Use Product Knowledge to Simplify Explanations Salespeople may understand how a product works, but they may not know how to explain the product clearly and succinctly to a prospective buyer. Think about the last software demonstration you viewed.. The salesperson has given the presentation countless times, whereas you were seeing it for the first time. Were you…
The Role of Consistency in Professional Support — Part 1: Employee Coaching
7 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
Consistent support is fundamental to maintaining high customer satisfaction scores, customer loyalty, and customer longevity. It is a key element in world class service. Customers generally do not care if you have one call center in Georgia or multiple centers around the globe. They want timely, professional, and consistent service regardless of its point of origin. Consistency is perhaps the most elusive of these customer demands to fulfill. Why is Consistency Important? Consistent support gives customers a sense of control over their technology infrastructure. For the vast majority of…
When to Use Customer Service Games in Training
3 Feb 2012 | 10:09 am
Customer service games can add spice to a training program. I ought to know, I wrote the book! Unfortunately, I've seen too many games used just because–well, I'm not sure why. The game was fun, but didn't increase learning or help participants perform better on the job. Customer service games are fun, motivational activities. The key is to use them in conjunction with skill learning and skill use. When relevant to participants and their jobs, the games build confidence, lift morale, spark enthusiasm, stimulate creativity, and ultimately achieve results. Games can be quick, fun energizers…
A Little Rapport Goes a Long Way
31 Jan 2012 | 10:30 am
No matter what product or service you offer, selling to a customer you have truly connected with is much more fulfilling than a sale to just some random customer whom you’ll never think of again. Not only will you come away feeling excited and optimistic, but your customer will too, and that can prove very valuable. Developing a connection with your customers can do wonders for your company and give you a competitive edge by increasing customer loyalty, the potential for outside referrals, and of course the chance to sell more. So, how do you build this connection? Following are a few tips…
Riverstar.com
Are Inbound and Outbound Calls Really That Different?
15 Feb 2012 | 9:18 pm
The way customer workflows are designed and interactions are handled should be independent of the call’s origin – inbound or outbound. When developing a process, focus on how you want the interaction with the customer to flow, not on how the connection is made. By driving interactions with repeatable, consistent processes, you are making the entire experience more pleasant for the customer and the agent. Once the connection between the parties is established, there is no fundamental difference between inbound and outbound interactions other than who initiated the contact.
Importance of Integrating Systems to Make Interactions More Efficient
24 Jan 2012 | 2:44 pm
Whether they know it or not, customers generally have four key attributes that they associate with outstanding service: Recognition: Recognize me and know my services and preferences Resolution: Address my issue during our first interaction Efficiency: Make the interaction as efficient and effective as possible, i.e., don’t waste my time and don’t make me provide information you should already have available Personalization: Gently offer suggestions that are consistent with my known preferences The issue of systems and process integration becomes critical in addressing each of the four…
How the Three Elements of Process Save You Time and Money
29 Nov 2011 | 2:25 pm
As discussed in this previous entry, at RiverStar, we believe that every customer interaction is fundamentally a process, having a beginning, middle and end that all aim to meet a specific objective. Incorporating three key elements into your processes will save your customers and agents time and, ultimately, your company money. The three key elements of a process are: Efficiency – Making the most of time and resources during the process Effectiveness – Ensuring the result of the process matches the objective Scalability – Developing a process that can handle anticipated volume…
Studio 11 Update: Panels in Depth
8 Nov 2011 | 12:07 pm
Users of RiverStar Studio will be familiar with its workflows and process flows as a series of pages. As mentioned in our previous entry about the Studio 11 update, we’ve enhanced the functionality of pages with a new object: panels. What Is a Panel? A panel is a sub-page – a building block – that can be used over and over again. You can add text, fields and actions, and it can be shown or hidden. It can be displayed as a pop-up dialog for data input, and it can include HTML containers, such as tabs and accordions. Why Do I Need Panels? Panels…
Making Customer Interactions Efficient, Consistent Through Process
25 Oct 2011 | 2:14 pm
At RiverStar, we believe that every customer interaction is fundamentally a process with a very specific objective. Objectives may stem from customer requests — such as billing inquiries or troubleshooting — or company outreach — such as customer satisfaction surveys or upselling. By creating processes around these tasks, you are ensuring consistency and efficiency in your customer service operations, thereby increasing customer satisfaction. A process is nothing more than a sequence of logical steps that help you achieve an objective. It can be very simple or very complex, but…
conversational.ly
If you meet a loner.. #tweegram
5 Feb 2012 | 3:48 pm
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If you meet a loner.. #tweegram
5 Feb 2012 | 3:48 pm
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Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2012 :-)
31 Dec 2011 | 8:35 am
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Reluctant Leaders
14 Oct 2011 | 12:05 pm
I've had the pleasure of working with some great people over the years, and there's none better than David Tomkinson, a Director with the andpartnership. David has over 25 years experience in the retail sector, working with blue-chip organisations including British Home Stores and Boots the Chemist. He has held senior roles in store management, training, development, HR and organisation development. Using his approach based on minimising resistance, he's introduced culture change programmes into large organisations, involving initiatives such as coaching, self-managed teams and…
The recession-performance vicious cycle
13 Oct 2011 | 1:21 pm
I've been thinking about this recession. Some organisations are stuck in a vicious cycle. Businesses in all sectors are struggling and many are being forced to restructure/downsize/whatever you want to call it. As a result, the employees left are concerned about their future. They aren't even certain they'll have a job in 6 months time. As Maslow eluded to, if you're not getting your most basic needs of job security met, the chances of achieving any higher level needs are slim. And what does that mean for how people behave? Well, it means people are understandably cautious; they…
THE PROPERIST
Sustainability for CEO's
14 Feb 2012 | 3:16 am
Accenture-The-Sustainable-Organization-CEOs-Perspective.pdf Download this file Permalink | Leave a comment »
Newness keeps you up to date and marketable.
7 Feb 2012 | 11:17 am
When many organizations have a job opening, they will look for someone who is preferably a clone of the person who is being replaced. The only exception is when you are laid off because there was a total misfit. So, they look for the same education, age, gender, and experience. They really want someone who did almost exactly the same job in a similar organization. Their thinking is that they will limit the risk of failure in this way. This practice is completely outdated now. What you need as an organization is newness, someone who looks at the issues with a new and fresh perspective. Only…
Wisdom
3 Feb 2012 | 8:47 am
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Why complicate life? - KISS!
3 Feb 2012 | 8:46 am
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Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch | Fast Company
31 Jan 2012 | 4:21 am
Long-term success is dependent on a culture that is nurtured and alive. Culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand thrives or dies a slow death. -------- http://bit.ly/xcIBhf Permalink | Leave a comment »
Mojo Helpdesk
Tip of the Week: Bypass the Google/Yahoo Sign-On By Adding a Login to Your Portal Homepage
17 Feb 2012 | 10:44 am
We made it easy for users to login to Mojo Helpdesk by providing single sign-on through Google and Yahoo. For many companies this is a welcomed feature. However, some companies prefer avoiding this as it requires users to login with their Gmail or Yahoo account. We have a solution for anyone wanting to avoid the Google/Yahoo sign-on. By placing a login form on the homepage of the customer portal, you can encourage your staff to avoid using the single sign-on when logging into the helpdesk.To add this feature to your customer portal, you will need owner/admin access to your helpdesk.
A Valentine's Gift from Mojo Helpdesk
14 Feb 2012 | 11:41 am
We love our customers and as a thanks for your support, we'd like to present you with a special gift. Use the promo code below when you upgrade your account to the Enterprise Plan or higher and receive half off the first month.This offer is also good for new customers signing up for the Enterprise Plan or higher.Act now as the code expires Feb 22, 2012.Promo code: VAL2012 You account will be credited the discount after upgrade or signup.Happy Valentine's Day! The Mojo Helpdesk Team
Find the Perfect Fit: How to Hire a First-Rate Customer Service Team
13 Feb 2012 | 11:48 am
A business that tries all the tools and tricks available for improving customer service, will inevitably learn that the success of those tools depends on the quality of the staff implementing them. Finding the right customer service staff can be the hardest step in developing a business that customers rave about, but when it's done right the payoff will be huge. The customer service staff is the primary face and voice of the business to the group of people most important to its continued success: its customers. When staffing your customer service department don’t just look for the…
Tip of the Week: Don't Forget Daily Backups
9 Feb 2012 | 10:58 am
Accidents can happen to your data. The key is to be prepared so that if they do occur, it’s easy to undo the damage. Although Mojo Helpdesk provides caution messages where and when mass deletion is about to occur, it is still likely that someone in a hurry might not heed the warning. We wouldn’t want to see Mojo customers accidentally delete a mass of users and all the tickets associated with those users. Recovering from a mistake of this magnitude could be expensive and time consuming, so it’s best to be pro-active and take advantage of the easy export function Mojo Helpdesk offers.We…
How to Make Sure Employees Use a New Helpdesk
7 Feb 2012 | 1:25 pm
To get the best possible return on investment with a new helpdesk, it’s important to be proactive in encouraging employees to use it. A little effort in the early days of implementation can make all the difference in whether employees reap the benefits of the helpdesk or fail to embrace it. It’s human nature to resist change. People develop their own methods of doing things and often prefer sticking with what’s comfortable. If a new helpdesk goes unused, it can result in wasted money, squandered good intentions, and most importantly, a lack of progress. To encourage use and avoid wasted…
The Squawk Point: Service Improvement
Simple versus Simplistic
18 Feb 2012 | 2:58 am
There is a very big difference between simple and simplistic Google have a single box on their home screen.  Type something in it and you can access the world. Simple to use, but far from simplistic The iPhone has one button on the bottom and a screen that you navigate by touch. Simple to use, but far from simplistic Log onto Amazon and they will sell you almost everything there is to be sold. Simple to use, but far from simplistic They have all applied the pareto principle, worked out what their customer really wants, and given them just that, nothing more and nothing less Unfortunately…
Q&A with Fred and Jack
14 Feb 2012 | 12:40 am
Fred “the Shred†Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland fame held regular management Q&A sessions. Before the meetings RBS managers had their questions vetted so that nobody asked anything foolish. Allegedly, even after that, Fred would point out that it was “a stupid question†then tear the questioner apart “Neutron†Jack Welch of General Electric fame also held regular management Q&A sessions. He conducted them standing in “The Pitâ€, a lecture theatre where he would stare up at his audience. Allegedly, when he was asked questions, Jack would accuse his…
Service Guarantees
11 Feb 2012 | 8:49 am
Do you just talk about delivering good service, or do you guarantee it? The Maryland National Bank offers a Service Guarantee: “If you ever find an account error, we’ll make it right, right away … refund any fees incurred, and send letters of apology to anyone inconvenienced …. And even pay you $10†In the 4 months after the introduction of the guarantee, nearly ¼ million customers signed up. Rumour has it that fewer than 150 customers claimed their $10. The First Hampton Inn offers a Service Guarantee: “Friendly service, clean rooms and comfortable surroundings every time.
How to Build a Better Mouse Trap
7 Feb 2012 | 3:36 pm
Imagine the situation. You run a pizza store and you are losing money. Your raw material costs are far more than they should be. You jump to the most obvious conclusion: Somebody must be stealing the cheese. (Either that or you have king sized mice wondering about). After spending a lot of money on an expensive cheese alarm and CCTV system it becomes abundantly clear that nobody is smuggling cheese out of the back door. And you didn’t spot any big mice either. There is an analytical solution to the problem. It is called M.E.C.E. (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive).
Circles of Influence: Do You Want Your Team Flexing Their’s?
4 Feb 2012 | 5:01 am
Three very important circles: The smallest is our circle of control, the things we can directly influence, the time we get out of bed in the morning, how we spend our money. All of it within our gift. The largest is our circle of concern, world poverty, global warming, the economy. All the things we hear about on the news. Not much we can do there. The middle is our circle of influence. These are things we could influence, maybe one way or another, if we put our mind to it, what our bosses ask us to do next, how our local politicians behave. This is the interesting circle. We have a choice:…
Customer Service Buzz
WAR: the latest in an alphabet soup of loyalty metrics
16 Feb 2012 | 5:38 pm
Recently, the Harvard Business Review published an article introducing the “Wallet Allocation Rule.†As the name suggests, this new metric measures the share of wallet that is allocated to companies – or simply, how a customer divides their spending among a company and its competitors. The theory behind this metric is simple: think about how much your customer prefers your company, and then consider the number of competitors your customer is choosing between. Knowing these two things will let you understand how your customers spend money, and how your company is doing relative to…
Making Your Customers Work Too Hard To Get Support May Be Driving Them Away From Your Products
16 Feb 2012 | 3:11 pm
This is a special guest post from Dan Rourke, Vice President at Cadence Design Systems and a former CCC member. Dan has over 24 years of leadership experience in the software industry, and as a CCC member became interested in the concept of customer effort and the Customer Effort Score. He recently wrote this post for his blog High Integrity Support. Typically customer support teams spend large amounts of concentrated time and effort to improve customer satisfaction. There are many avenues to accomplishing this goal and many of them are quite effective. But, in terms of…
It’s Time To Flush Call Center Micromanagement Down The Toilet
15 Feb 2012 | 7:03 am
Did you hear the recent controversy in the news about a contact centre monitoring and managing how much time their staff spends away from their desks? For those of us in customer service, it’s called Workforce Management (WFM) and we use this each and every day to help manage our operations. It’s not even a controversy—it’s out in the open within the customer service industry and quite a common practice. But when a Norwegian contact centre was recently discovered to be tracking their staffs’ time away from the phone on bathroom breaks or on personal breaks, the mainstream press and…
How Customer Context Boosts Issue Resolution
14 Feb 2012 | 4:08 pm
Every consumer has experienced buyer’s remorse. At some point, everyone has spent their hard-earned money on something that just doesn’t look as good at home as it did in the store. Frequently, taking it back for a return is no big deal. But what about when it’s a big ticket purchase – a refrigerator that doesn’t quite fit or an oven that doesn’t quite match? Kitchen and home appliance maker Jenn-Air has a way to help. Jenn-Air recently released an app that allows consumers to overlay an image of their potential new appliances onto a photo of their kitchen – helping…
When Your Customers Say One Thing…But Do Another
14 Feb 2012 | 2:28 pm
Back in December, I blogged for the first time about our major 2012 research initiative: keeping pace with increasing customer expectations. Over the past few months, we’ve talked with many of you and done some initial quantitative analysis on customer data to understand two things: what actually are customer expectations of service today – and – how can service organizations consistently meet these expectations in a low-cost way? And our initial hypotheses and findings are surprising. Are Your Customers Being Honest With You? Now, if you directly ask your customers what they expect…
Adrian Swinscoe
What’s the RoI of your customer retention programme?
16 Feb 2012 | 12:25 pm
Business growth generally boils down to two things: How many new customers you can acquire (customer acquisition); and How long you can keep your existing customers for (customer retention). The balance of your focus will depend largely on the stage of development of your business but the aim should be to make sure that you [...]
Connect with your customers – Research provides clues
11 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am
photo credit: …-Wink-… I was browsing the other day when I came across this article on Mashable: Want People to Return Your Emails? Avoid These Words [INFOGRAPHIC] In it there is an interesting infographic that looks at research that Baydin, the makers of email plugin Boomerang, undertook looking at their database of around five million [...]
Is social customer care a good form of the ‘tail wagging the dog’?
4 Feb 2012 | 10:37 am
photo credit: lotje Below is a twitter exchange that I had in the last couple of days with the folks across at Frog Solutions. I really like their way of describing customer service on social media or social customer care as ‘ a new type of customer service that can actually lead to change within [...]
The No Complaining Rule
1 Feb 2012 | 3:34 am
photo credit: colinwhite Just under a couple of weeks ago, I posted a guest piece from Jon Gordon: The Greatest Customer Service Strategy The following post is the second of a series of two guest posts that I agreed with Jon. What I really like about his style and thinking is that it is very [...]
Executives are customers too. So, why the perception gap on what influences brand, reputation and trust?
28 Jan 2012 | 9:50 am
photo credit: hunter.gatherer A few days ago across at Marketing Pilgrim, Cynthia Boris wrote 70 Percent of Consumers Won’t Buy from a Company They Don’t Like. The source of the statement was from a new report from Weber Shandwick, a global PR agency, called “The Company behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust.†According to [...]
Help Scout Customer Service Blog
Email Customer Service: What’s an Acceptable Reply Time?
15 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am
Many businesses struggle with a support inbox that is overflowing with customer inquiries. The good news: customers want to talk to you. The bad news: every single one of them thinks their issue is the most important one. Customer expectations vary as to how quickly they should receive a response. Forrester Research found that 41 percent of consumers expect an email response within six hours. Only 36 percent of retailers actually respond that quickly…and 14 percent never respond at all. Now that is shocking. That last statistic brings to mind an article by communications expert and…
Help Scout Partners with STELLAService
9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
We love teamwork. You know, the “two heads are better than one” English proverb that’s so deeply ingrained in most of us. But the art is in finding that second complementary noggin, or in our case, business. We’ve found the ideal complementary business in STELLAService. The Partnership Help Scout is double-fist-pump-excited to announce our new partnership with STELLAService. The two of us are a great match because our primary goal is the same: we want to ensure customers experience stupendous online customer service. STELLAService achieves this by rating the customer…
Customer Service, Reinvented!
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am
Super Bowl commercials offer a rare form of infectious inspiration. The rational, the possible—tossed out the window in favor of the loftier “what ifs?” Nothing embodies these sentiments better than the 2012 Toyota Camry “It’s Reinvented” commercial. If Toyota can dream of pizza curtains—brilliant!—then customers can take the same giant leap. The creative mind dares to dream big, and asks: What would customer service reinvented look like? The reinvented help line: Every call to an 800-number is answered on the first ring—by Morgan Freeman.
Customers We Love: Meet Oceans HQ
3 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am
Scuba diving is big business, as Oceans HQ knows well. Over the last decade, almost a million people each year have taken courses to become certified scuba divers. This adventure is the highlight of many tourists’ vacations, with dives and trainings booked months in advance. The organization and customer management these bookings necessitate can be a pain point for the thousands of small, locally run dive shops. This is where Oceans HQ comes to the rescue. André Tanguy, dive instructor and co-founder of Oceans HQ, used his familiarity with these issues to create the SaaS…
Huzzah! Our First eBook!
30 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am
This is one of those exciting and celebratory moments that calls for using one of our favorite words—huzzah! We’ve just finished our first ebook, “75 Customer Service Facts, Quotes & Statistics,” and are bursting to share it with you.The ebook is chock full of data-driven customer service insights as well as nuggets of wisdom from industry thought leaders. We even included a section of quotes that continually inspire our team, such as General George S. Patton’s sage advice: “Always do more than is required of you.” And without further ado ...
TheMana.gr, LLC.
What Exactly Is Great Customer Service?
17 Feb 2012 | 4:18 pm
Most organizations working on starting and developing great customer service often will ask me: What exactly is great customer service? Ever wonder why there are some many books, articles, seminars, and so many questions surround the essence of great customer service, yet we still struggle with bad service? As customer service industry thought leaders, we’ve done a poor job at helping business managers and executives realize the external value of great customer service to customers, and the positive impact great service has on the internal culture of an organization and its employees.
7 Ways to Keep Customer Service Relationships Fresh
15 Feb 2012 | 9:02 pm
Keeping customer service relationships fresh and making on-going customer relationships unique and effective is a challenge. But Steve Cody with PepperCom recently outlined some great methods for keeping that customer relationship going strong, what Steve calls “romancing the customer”. I’ll outline his 7 ways to keep customer service relationships fresh. Here’s a list of strategies to ensure that long-standing customer service relationships never grow old: 1. Send personal notes to customers on special occasions. I send customers a “thank you for your…
3 Easy Tips to Develop Loyal Customers Through Service
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
Don’t make creating loyal customers complex. Stick to the basics. No matter what business you’Â’re trying your hand at, the simple fact of the matter is that you can’Â’t do it without customers. Getting customers is one thing, but being able to keep them and keep them working with you is another. Creating loyal customers shouldn’t be hard or expensive. You can do it with great customer service. These 3 keys to creating loyal customers will get you started. 1. Loyal customer want to know you care about them after the sale. Key: Reach out to existing customers. Market…
Are you hiring the right customer service people?
7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
I often am asked and see the question, “How do we begin offering great customer service“. You can have the greatest plan, all of the right materials, structure, and systems in place, but you can’t get great customer service if you don’t have the right people. How do you hire the right customer service people? What are the qualities, skills, background, and abilities should you look for? What type of resume are you looking for? Well, honestly, resumes will matter little when it comes to hiring great customer service people. People are not your most important…
The CRM Crystal Ball. What CRM Will Be Like in 5 Years
2 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
Recently I came across a great article by Lauren Carlson, at the CRM reviews site Software Advice, discussing 5 key technologies that will change traditional CRM in the next 5 years.. It’s truly looking into a crystal ball to see the future of CRM. A key to great success today is having the tools and ability to manage, unify, and organize customer data and properly implement that data into the customer experience, before your competitors do. (Photo credit: “How the world really is” by Drew Herron) CRM systems in organizations today are being used to help predict what…
