Legendary basketball player and coach John Wooden said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” When it comes to customer service, those little details can make or break a company. That little extra bit of encouragement or support (or lack thereof) can make all the difference between a positive […]
Companies getting 9 out of 10 customer service enhancement efforts right often learn that it’s the one that goes wrong that gets most remembered and reported. A Forbes.com article by Micah Solomon entitled, “5 Customer Service Mistakes Even The Experts Make,” notes, “Blind spots can sabotage the thinking of even the most well-versed and experienced […]
What happens when a company wants to change its dubious customer service experience? Smaller companies can effect sweeping changes relatively quickly, given scale of the operation and general ability to be nimble. Large companies face much more complex and costly challenges because, generally speaking, they are unable to change on a dime. Let’s look at […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
