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Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Opinion

Pride drives employee satisfaction more than pay

A whitepaper entitled, “2019 Fortune 100 Best Trends: Employee Experience at the Best Workplaces in America” references employee pride over pay or perks. Notes the report, “What is the strongest driver of overall satisfaction for employees? Most assume it’s the pay, perks or personal recognition, but our research tells a different story. The most important […]

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Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Kudos Leverage Opinion

Treat employees like gold because they’re customers, too

Which is more important—customers or employees? That’s a chicken-and-egg question, because both are integral to a successful business. However, too many companies view employees as chattel—disregarding the important contribution they make and the ways to motivate them to perform better. Happy, fulfilled employees directly link to stellar customer service. They should be viewed and treated […]

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Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Leverage Opinion Social Media

I’ve got great word-of-mouth. Why do anything else?

Companies accustomed to getting enough business from referrals, reviews and word-of-mouth supporting their solid customer service often forget to address the flip side of the coin. What am I leaving on the table by not marketing proactively? Larger companies such as Costco do just fine without a formal marketing department. The buzz about their legendary […]

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Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Leverage Opinion

Going back to the future with snail mail, word-of-mouth

Companies looking for ways to let the world know about their committed customer service are going back to the future to do it. Snail mail, once the junk repository for most, is now new and shiny again. Email has become the primary junk repository for most. And, while online advertising is now a powerful, influential […]

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36 and Counting Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Good Content Healthcare Kudon'ts Kudos Leverage New Media Branding Opinion Social Media

Customer Service Recap

Six must-read posts on customer service. Customer service weak links can doom otherwise exceptional efforts to serve customers and other stakeholders. Identifying and remediating the weakest customer service links in your company can pay substantial dividends now and down the road. Companies unwilling or unable to examine potential weak links likely will discover the hard […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques General Marketing Social Media

Marketing from the inside out

Let your customers drive your marketing efforts. In turn, make your marketing reinforce all the good and valuable stuff people say about your company. My concept for this is “Marketing from the inside out.” I coined the phrase back in nineties to address the importance of making performance match promises. That performance applies to customer […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Opinion

Inattention plagues customer service

Talk about weak links! How many times recently have you emailed a series of questions to a customer support address, and received incomplete answers? Even worse, it’s now commonplace for one or more of the questions not to be addressed at all. I’ve had it take three tries before getting simple feedback that should have […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Leverage Opinion

Designed disservice drives many customer service policies

Of the many weak links in customer service policies, deliberate disservice to make a buck is one of the weakest. A recent Harvard Business Review article asks, “Why Is Customer Service So Bad? Because It’s Profitable.” The article notes, “It’s a familiar scenario: A service provider fails to live up to your expectations and you […]

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Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Leverage Opinion

How do non-profits stack up in the ‘customer service’ realm?

Given my TV viewing habits, I get bombarded daily with appeals for contributions to everything from sick seniors to abused animals. Some time ago, with the exception of St. Jude’s Hospital to whom I donate without question, I started checking out these organizations before sending money. What I’ve found, by and large, is that organizations […]

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Business Development Cultivating Positive Relationships Customer Service Empowerment Techniques Opinion

Customer service is only as strong as the weakest link

Customer service weak links can doom otherwise exceptional efforts to serve customers and other stakeholders. Identifying and remediating the weakest customer service links in your company can pay substantial dividends now and down the road. Companies unwilling or unable to examine potential weak links likely will discover the hard way that competitors have identified them—and […]