‘Customer Service’ Archive
Good Customer Service Is More Than Good PR
At a time when every customer counts we must never forget how our customers see us. One single negative contact can ruin your reputation in the eyes of not only that one customer — but everyone he or she knows as well. After all, word of mouth works both for or against you.
You need to make sure everybody in your organization knows he or she is an important part of it. Each department depends and dovetails into the other to produce quality in service or product. Everyone makes a difference: the sales force, the service technicians, the clerical staff, the PR department all work together toward the same goal — keeping the customers satisfied.
A perfect example of how everyone makes a difference is when I was in a Nashville hotel attending a board of directors meeting for the National Speakers Association. After the meeting, several of us went to the coffee shop to continue our deliberations. Each of us asked for exceptions or additions to the menu items; we wanted separate checks; and to make things even more confusing, being speakers, we talked to each other the whole time the waitress patiently took our orders. Continue reading ‘Good Customer Service Is More Than Good PR’
Keeping up with the vigilante consumer: customer retention, customer service
- If you increase customer retention just 5% more, your profits will increase 100%.
- U.S. population growth is projected to be 1.1% in the next twenty years.
- Disposable income in the US is growing only 2% every year.
- US businesses will invest more than $1 billion this year on computer technology, just for customer service departments.
The interesting bits of information above basically mean that the number of customers are dwindling. Which is why customer service is today’s competitive advantage. If we don’t have masses of potential customers, we’d better keep the ones we do have happy. Ecstatic. Continue reading ‘Keeping up with the vigilante consumer: customer retention, customer service’
Taming the Vigilante Consumer – What Do They Really Want?
Today’s consumers can sometimes look like a threatening mob. They’re often unhappy, make vague or irrational demands, and can rush in unexpected directions that strongly affect our livelihoods. They may suddenly take their business elsewhere or bombard us with time-consuming, expensive complaints. Even both.
“These people are manipulating the marketplace through pressure, protest, and politics,” says futurist Faith Popcorn who coined the term “vigilante consumers.”
Why have our customers become so volatile and unpredictable? The answer is simple. In the old days, conventional marketing divided prospective consumers into two categories, the classes and the masses. If you’re selling $100,000 cars you appeal to the classes, and if you you’re selling Hyundais, you appeal to the masses. Continue reading ‘Taming the Vigilante Consumer – What Do They Really Want?’
Customer Retention and Loyalty
Find Out What Your Customers Want Before Your Competitors Do
Satisfy your customers… or someone else will. Your prospects and customers can give you important feedback, both directly and indirectly. After addressing a group of sales contest winners in Hawaii, I was on the shuttle bus headed for the airport. My usual custom is to ask questions, so I said to the driver, “I bet your passengers tell you what they really think about their stays at these fancy resorts because they know you don’t work for any of them.”
“Oh, yes,” he replied. “In fact, once a month, the general manager of the hotel where you stayed comes to the depot with a big box of donuts and has coffee with the drivers. While we eat his donuts, we tell him everything we’ve overheard about his hotel — and about his competitors’ hotels.”
That is what I call Box-of-Donuts consulting. The hotel manager could have paid large fees to a research firm that would phone 1,000 guests and ask what they liked and didn’t like. But that information couldn’t possibly be as up-to-date or as honest as these drivers’ feedback, nor would it give him valuable information about his competition. Continue reading ‘Customer Retention and Loyalty’
Everyone Represents Your Company
When I was a new business owner I attended a management seminar, the speaker said something that I have never forgotten. “Your business is as good as your worst employee.” What a sobering thought.
Paul Harvey said: “For a company’s advertising strategy to work, it has to be handled not only corporately but also individually.” Haven’t you every walked into a hotel and felt like saying to the desk clerk “Haven’t you seen your commercials, you’re supposed to be nice to me” then walked into the restaurant and felt like deducting 15% for putting up with the lousy service?
I was parked in the Union Square Garage in San Francisco, I asked the young man at the counter if I could have a token to use for the ladies room, he said “we are out”, I said “that’s not very good customer service”, and then staggered, cross legging to my car. A couple of months later, same garage, different young man, I was about to give them $16.00 of my hard earned cash, I said “could I have a token for he ladies room please?” He said “we are out, but follow me”, we walked a few yards to the ladies room, he turned a lever and all the tokens fell out, he gave one to me and took the rest back to the till for the next customers. Can you imagine the first young man would not give me good service because he would have had to walk just a few steps? Continue reading ‘Everyone Represents Your Company’
Don’t Take All the Money That’s on the Table
Do you have any “friends” who call only when they want something? Are they your favorite people? Do you contact customers only when you’re asking for their money? Or do you keep in touch for other reasons? Do salespeople call on you only when they want you to spend money? What if, instead, they called you with a lead, a referral, or an idea? Wouldn’t that make you think you were more than just a customer? That they cared about you and your business? Continue reading ‘Don’t Take All the Money That’s on the Table’
Customer Service Is Everybody’s Job
Everyone in your organization must know how vitally important customer service is in your business. Good customer service starts with good training of your employees. Here are a few suggestions to help your organization keep your customers beaming and eager to come back for more. Continue reading ‘Customer Service Is Everybody’s Job’
Your Two Customer Service Questions
You’re already aware, I hope, that each and every employee of your company is a “customer service representative,” no matter what the job description says. Read this terrific customer-service story, and then consider the two questions at the end.
“I ordered a child’s learning laptop computer for my daughter Mallory for Christmas through Amazon.com,” says Susan Barnes, a payroll manager at MarchFIRST in Chicago. “Shortly after Christmas, we discovered that the laptop had a defect. I contacted Amazon, and the customer service was amazing. The young man I dealt with, Brian, was incredible. They did not have any in stock, nor did anyone else because the laptop was a hot item. Continue reading ‘Your Two Customer Service Questions’
Customer Service Means Action
Every single contact your organization has with its customers either cultivates or corrodes your relationship. That includes every letter you send, every ad you run, and every phone call you make. This includes every employee contact, from the CEO to technicians, sales force, support staff, and maintenance crews.
In other words, your business is only as good as your worst employee! It’s a sobering thought, isn’t it? How well are you training your employees to cultivate your customers? Is anyone too high or too low to count? Continue reading ‘Customer Service Means Action’
Develop an “Unfair Advantage” Over Your Competition
All I’ve ever wanted in business is an unfair advantage. Before you raise your eyebrows, let me define the term. An unfair advantage is not lying, cheating, or stealing. It’s exactly the opposite. An unfair advantage is doing everything just a little bit better than your competition. And even if you’ve been in business for many years and you’re at the top of your profession, in today’s competitive world you also need to do everything just a little bit better today than you did it yesterday. That’s your unfair advantage.
It’s not always easy. Do you remember the movie Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever? (And can you still dance that way?) It’s about how the John Travolta character pursues a career as a professional dancer, all the highs and lows (with a little romance thrown in). The last scene is an incredible dance routine. As my friend Kookie and I danced out of the theater afterwards, I had a revelation: The trouble with life is that it’s just too short to be good at very many things! Continue reading ‘Develop an “Unfair Advantage” Over Your Competition’
