Amazon gets high customer service marks. But, its employee treatment is controversial and, by most accounts, lacking. In contrast, Costco gets consistently high marks across both categories. As employees also are vital “customers,” mixed reviews can present a dilemma when deciding to court customer service stars as prospects. It’s not necessarily an all-or-nothing scenario. It […]
Category: Empowerment Techniques
In addition to courting customer service stars, client prospects that emulate your personal preferences also can be good way to pursue new opportunities. Companies scoring high on both fronts will be more likely to sync up with you in a business relationship. There are many ways to assess preference and style compatibility. One obvious and […]
Engaging and exercising your Customer Force of 1 abilities isn’t always a one-time opportunity. Once relationships with key higher-ups are established, there may be reasons to reach out subsequently. My favorite example, of course, is Costco. (Why would you expect anyone else? 😊) Years ago, I had an issue with a third-party company partnered with […]
Airlines called on the carpet for perceived passenger mis-treatment. Companies seeing stock plummet after a negative quality report spreads like wildfire. Celebrities dethroned after a slur. It’s all part of our viral world. It can bring down captains of industry and raise up a single individual to immediate fame. The omnipresent potential for going viral […]
There is an etiquette of sorts that will help ensure achieving the best possible Customer Force of 1 results from higher-ups in the organization you’re targeting for help and resolution. Here are four tips to help you get there: Leverage your initial contact with the regular customer service department. Sometimes, when you’ve experienced poor customer […]
While customer service departments and representatives generally are doing a better job of addressing consumer satisfaction in a timely and complete manner, it’s not always sufficient to rely on others to move the process forward. In some cases, the impacted customer needs to go further and farther to pierce the normal routes and get needed […]
Promises and performance are chief spotlights of customer service. Companies that over-promise and under-deliver increasingly are finding their reputations, and consequently their revenues, jeopardized. Conversely, companies that go the extra mile to meet or even exceed their promises are retaining existing customers while attracting new ones—often in droves. As the spotlight on enlightened customer service […]
Truly, 2020 was the personification of philosopher Plato’s declaration, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Dictionary.com explains the statement: “A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. This saying appears in the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.” Wow. What a year it was. And, by […]
Customer entitlement didn’t happen in a vacuum. Technology and marketing both have fueled it into a white hot blaze. An article by Claudia Conlon in MKTGinsight (voice of the Direct Marketing Club of New York) looks at today’s landscape. Conlon writes: “We’ve entered into a ‘give an inch, expect [a] mile’ era of marketing, where nearly […]
Last week, we cited a customer entitlement article written by Jade Wu, PhD on quickanddirtytips.com. She notes, “Entitled people expect special treatment and lots of admiration. They don’t like to play fair, even though all of this makes their relationships with others worse.” She then details five ways to best address the entitlement mentality, tips […]
