When Jackie Huba and I decided eight years ago to start a company, we envisioned it as a consulting firm that would help clients create customer evangelists. It was March 2001. We'd both just left the web development company we had worked at for three years. Online advertising was king then, but we wanted to explore why some brands experienced strong word of mouth while others didn't. We wanted to understand what fueled the evangelism, how it happened, and how could we help others do the same. We started with a website and an email newsletter in an era that could only be described as Before…
Customer Service
-
Church of the Customer Blog
-
New company, new history
18 Nov 2009 | 1:14 am -
Advertising without advertising
12 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pmSometimes a movie quote is the best way to capture what you're all about. -
Kicking out unwanted customers
30 Oct 2009 | 10:35 am"Don't talk during the movie or we will take your ass out." If you've been to an Alamo Drafthouse, the movie theater chain in Austin, Texas, then you've seen that semi-serious warning couched in a fun "public service announcement" before a movie showing. Theater founder Tim League knows that talkers mar the movie-watching experience for everyone else, and he does not tolerate them -- even if they punch the windshield of his car.See, Tim was a customer recently at one of his theaters. A nearby loud-talker was asked by a theater waiter to keep it down. The customer protested, loudly, demanding… -
Twitter: the killer app for customer service
22 Oct 2009 | 10:31 am"Hello, this is Sam Kaufman from the AT&T Internet Executive Office, and I am calling about your tweets."That's what I heard yesterday after posting a few tweets about my less-than-stellar customer service experience with an AT&T DSL technical support rep. The rep was trying to diagnose my DSL problems and after telling me to stay on the line for 10 minutes, he never returned after 30 minutes. I hung up. He never called back.With a few hours of my AT&T tweet, @ATTJohnathon, a customer care rep on Twitter contacted me, asking if he could help. I DM'ed him my account number as he… -
Fees are penalties. Always.
19 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pmIt's a wonder why some businesses can't grasp this. Consider the U.S. airlines last month: Southwest reported an 8.8% increase in revenue passenger miles. Its load factor, the percentage of seats that were filled, increased 11% from a year ago, to 74.7% — a big increase for a month in which schools reopen and summer vacation travels stop. JetBlue saw a 9.8% jump in passenger miles. Its load factor rose about 1% from the prior year, to 77.6%. Compare those numbers to other airlines. Delta: Down 5% on its mainline operation. It also cut capacity by 5%. American: Down 2.6% domestically. It cut…
-
Kevin's Blog
-
The 4 Fundamentals of Leadership Gratitude
20 Nov 2009 | 6:23 amGratitude is a positive emotion and studies have shown it creates a more positive attitude, reduces stress and provides many other benefits. But, c'mon, we don't really need studies to tell us this, do we? You know how it feels when you are grateful.This article won't restate the obvious (more than I already have). Instead, it explores the fundamentals of how leaders can transform genuine gratitude into a positive force for change and success for those you lead and in your organization in general.Before I go on I must highlight a critical word in the previous sentence - genuine. Please know… -
Knockout Entrepreneur by George Foreman with Ken Abraham
20 Nov 2009 | 6:14 amI'm a sports fan, and I own a George Foreman grill. And, like many Americans, I've always liked George Foreman. He seems like a nice guy, and he has clearly succeeded in multiple arenas.Given all that, I'm still not sure George's book ever would have made it to the top of my reading stack. However, after hearing George speak, my thinking changed. I wanted to read this book!Knockout Entrepreneur is a book about George Foreman's experiences and advice for anyone wanting to be an Entrepreneur. It's an easy read, filled with stories and anecdotes - not just about George's life but about many… -
Inspiration is a Process
19 Nov 2009 | 7:29 amI was reading a newsletter from Dan Kennedy the other day where we was talking about inspiration, one of my favorite leadership topics. He wrote, "The New American Dictionary defines inspiration as a process; the process of being stimulated to think, feel or do something creative. . . and as an event; a sudden brilliant or creative idea."After reading that I went to Dictionary.com to look up the word for myself. I found another interesting definition on their list - "The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs." If this isn't a process, I don't… -
Leadership Lessons from Champion George Foreman
17 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pmI had the chance to hear George Foreman speak, and then had a chance to meet him afterwards (this is somewhat obvious given the picture). I was looking forward to his talk, but I came away much more impressed than I thought I would be. To say that he exceeded my expectations would be an understatement.I guess that shouldn't be too suprising, considering that he is a Champion.In case you are younger than me and don't know, George Foreman isn't just a guy who sells grills on TV (he's sold 120 million of them), he is also the two-time Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the… -
The Superpower of Persuasion
13 Nov 2009 | 6:43 amEvery good superhero has a superpower. You know, the thing that always helps them get out of a jam and save the day.Leaders may not be superheroes, but we do sometimes find ourselves in a tough or challenging situation. However, unlike like our superhero friends, we don't always remember to use our superpowers.This article is about one of those powers - one that is too often overlooked or underappreciated.This is a power that has many uses, but for now let's think about how it can be used when you need to persuade.Clearly, as a leader, you have a need to persuade others - in a change…
-
AllBusiness.com - Customer Service Experience
-
Creating A Customer Service Course, Part 6: Remember Your ABCs
8 Nov 2009 | 2:55 amNow, in part six we continue this theme by taking it down to specific attitudes and behaviors as well as the importance of communicating with the customer. -
Fleshing Out Your Social Media Strategy
5 Nov 2009 | 8:45 pmJohn promises to expand on these 11 goals in future posts, but let me jump in here and either contribute to the discussion or muddy the waters, depending on your perspective. -
Every Thing You Do Comes Back To You
26 Oct 2009 | 2:50 amI had some 'splainin' to do, as Ricky Ricardo would say. -
Creating A Customer Service Course: Part 5: Identifying The Abilities Your Organization Values
22 Oct 2009 | 11:05 pmWe found in building our customer service course that we needed to discuss the abilities we expect staff to demonstrate. -
Building The Business Case For Customer Service, Part 2
20 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm...your employees should have a clear understanding of why it’s important to deliver superior customer service...
-
vancouver | restaurant, retail, entertainment service review information
-
house of clogs
8 Nov 2009 | 10:35 amThe following post was submitted by Alex, one of timinganddelivery Vancouver’s readers. If you have a Vancouver service experience that you’d like to share with our readers, just click here! House of Clogs 1280 Robson St. 604 685 8710 Very friendly staff…until you need to return something. I wasn’t told about their “no returns” policy until after I tried to return shoes (unworn, with receipt, a week after purchase). I explained nothing would fit me as their stock is wide, and my feet are very narrow. The manager/owner gave me a limited-time credit note… -
indian oven vancouver
7 Nov 2009 | 12:40 amIf you’ve ever talked to anyone from Winnipeg, you may have heard of a strange and ritualistic event that elicits great emotion - “socials”. If you happen to be from Winnipeg, that’s awesome…keep reading anyway. Regardless of whether you’ve heard of or been to a social, you’ll probably know exactly what I mean when I reference these typical traits: simplistic - just enough decoration and dressing up to get things done un-assuming - in looking at the venue, nothing jumps out as being over-the-top (e.g., roller rinks, church basements, and legion… -
beauty bar
30 Oct 2009 | 7:15 amAs you may or may not know, timinganddelivery.com welcomes your stories relating to service! And…from-time-to-time we publish some of them - like the one you are about to read. If you think you have a service experience worth sharing (good or not-so-good), send it in! It had been three years since I had been in to Beauty Bar at 2142 West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano. So…having just moved back into the neighbourhood with my boyfriend, I decided to pop in. My reason for stopping by, aside from it being a cool store that is fun, bright, organized and great for gift ideas (my two cents), was… -
welcome savoury chef!
22 Oct 2009 | 10:23 pmWe at timinganddelivery.com would like to take this opportunity to welcome its newest partner, Savoury Chef! Savoury Chef is located at 826 Renfrew Street and is focused on two things we are very big fans of: 1) food; and 2) service According to their Web site, Savoury Chef Foods happily offers a number of different catering services in and around Vancouver and their menus feature seasonal and local products wherever possible. The back-story: What began as a small catering business has grown exponentially since Chef Taryn Wa moved into their commercial kitchen space in 2006. As business… -
jonker street
8 Oct 2009 | 12:03 pmTommy Ng and Jonker Street epitomize Malaysian Hospitality. Friendly and welcoming, always ready with a joke and a smile, Tommy Ng is the face of Jonker Street. At this Malaysian restaurant (on Pacific Boulevard in Yaletown), the food will transport you to the streets of Malacca, Penang and Kuching, while Tommy’s warmth and hospitality will welcome you in and bring you back, time and again. Unlike the Kopitiam’s (coffee shops) or Hawker Stalls (open-air food courts) native to the region, where the clamorous sounds, colorful sights and pungent smells grab a hold and surround you,…
-
toronto | restaurant, retail, entertainment service review information
-
top 10 posts (October)
28 Oct 2009 | 8:29 amThe results are in! Ranked by number of page views, the following is a list of the top 10 Toronto service reviews for the month ended October 27. Some recurring trends in this month’s top 10: meat, leather, and coats… 1) Lorne’s Coats - Vanessa Green 2) Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouse - Vanessa Green 3) Northbound Leather - Frances Avalon 4) Ronnie’s Local 069 - Frances Avalon 5) Black’s Photography (on Bay) - Connie Tsang 6) Chez Cora - Connie Tsang 7) The Brant House - Frances Avalon 8) Hoops Sports Bar and Grill (Yonge) - Connie Tsang 9) … -
dance cave
30 Sep 2009 | 9:40 amThe Dance Cave 529 Bloor St. West 416.532.1598 I’m pretty sure The Dance Cave has been around since before dirt. It’s situated above famed live-music venue, Lee’s Palace, and it’s about the same footage and layout-a big square, but without a stage for bands. It’s got that late-80s boho Queen St. vibe that the Bamboo had and the Horseshoe has in spades. The walls are even decorated in a Keith Herring rip-off paint job of black squiggles that go nowhere. Pros: Fridays and Saturdays have had a line up four deep and a block long for over a decade. It’s only $5… -
midtown
28 Sep 2009 | 10:04 amLittle Italy is absolutely bursting with bars and clubs and somewhere in the middle, you’ll find Midtown (522 College). This is a crowd favourite for the university crowd and late twenty somethings and the place is always bumping. You’ll have a rough time getting to the bar and dance floor area of Midtown as this place is constantly ram-packed with drunken revelers. Once you do get through the crowd of people, you will most definitely be waiting again at the bar. There aren’t nearly as many bartenders required to serve the mass of people, but what else is new in Toronto? Midtown is not… -
studio gallery
24 Sep 2009 | 9:27 am294 College Street 2nd Floor 416.832.3933 In the 90s there was an illegal after hours above the paint store on the corner of College and Spadina. I only mention it because every time I go to Studio Gallery (also on the second floor on College, but a few door down) I think of that space. It’s an alternative gallery that caters to the hipster Cive-Guide-to-cool set. The layout is basic: up a flight of stairs and down a long hallways there are two square 500 sq. ft or so rooms that are used as gallery spaces. On occasion they use the back fire escape as the entrance for smaller, one-room… -
flo’s diner
21 Sep 2009 | 8:46 amThe skins on Flo’s Diner are these: it was a gorgeous 50s diner in the heart of Yorkville on a corner lot. It WAS where that stupid condo that’s also the Roots is now and the corner was on a parking lot which is now that park fail. Flo’s had to move to the second floor of what I can only describe as a micro-mall on Yorkville Ave. I used to go with my mom every weekend for brunch and old-style 50s fare like root beer floats and red vinyl covered swivel chairs. It was the real deal alright. But alas, those days are long gone. I boycotted the new down-sized location for at…
-
CustomerThink - Blog Posts
-
Props for Demos
20 Nov 2009 | 4:46 pm -
Summing Up the Dreamforce Keynote
20 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am -
Getting the Most Out of Your Customer References
20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am -
Is Your Multidomain MDM Really Multidomain?
20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am -
Product Launches in the Age of Social Media
20 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am
-
Conversation Agent
-
Twitter and Google Reader Aren't at War
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amThere have been conversations recently about abandoning RSS readers, and specifically Google Reader in favor of using Twitter as a human filter for information. The idea is that if you follow smart people, they read good material and will pass that along to their network - you. Part of me says, maybe. Somehow I think that if you come across a really good post filled with juicy information that will make you look good when you implement it, you'll probably keep that more to yourself. Maybe use it to build on when you write on your own blog. How far off am I? Others, are in favor of continuing… -
What is Your Purpose for Blogging?
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amPersonal Branding In A Wired WorldView more presentations from Valeria Maltoni. That is the first thing you need to think about if you're planning to be strategic about your blog. Then, instead of focusing on success, focus on the path that will keep you on purpose. Why? Because success changes and stays in the future - be honest, you keep upping the ante. While the path, part of which is a process that will help you stay productive, is the here and now - the decisions you need to make tonight, every day and every week. Dan Pink quotes the recently departed Russell Ackoff (emphasis… -
Architects, Meet Collier Ward, Content Creator
18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amAs an architect, he writes, I believe that, even in the current economy, there are institutions, firms and individuals which could benefit from professional architectural consulting and design services; even if only to be poised for the next construction cycle.Collier Ward is a member of the architecture and author community - and of this community. He shared his thoughts on the About You page and returns with us for a more in depth conversation__________ Why are you online? Collier: Being online maximizes the number of meaningful connections a person can make. I took the opportunity of being… -
Is Social Media a Marketing Thing?
17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amIn the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about leveraging content to start or continue a conversation with your customers or prospects. Offering something of value in exchange for attention towards a mutually accepted goal or direction goes to the heart of communications. There is still plenty of unrealized opportunity for B2B companies to unlock this value through social media. That's because the greatest value to the organization that gets involved in social media is not the cool promotional glitz. We talk about customer support regularly. What about customer acquisition and real… -
Customer Contributions Build Preference
16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amDuring our conversation at the Inbound Marketing Summit, we talked about writing engaging content for the next web and the socializing of information. One of the slides in my deck visualized the customer contribution part of content, which we said gives you permission to connect. I stack ranked the ideas in order of complexity - with the simplest being a "like" button.I think many companies are not implementing that on their Web sites because they're somewhat anxious that nobody will like their pages. So why, oh why, is the site still static and displaying the same stale content? What if you…
-
CRM Daily
-
Ballmer Says Windows 7 Sales Double Those of Vista
20 Nov 2009 | 11:19 amMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn't talking turkey when it comes to the software giant's newest operating system. At a shareholder meeting Thursday in Bellevue, Wash., Ballmer told investors that Windows 7 sold double the number of copies in one month as its previous Windows Vista operating system. During the meeting, which was broadcast over the Internet, Ballmer wouldn't say exactly how many licenses or copies were sold to consumers and businesses, but previous reports that put Vista's sales in the first month at 20 million makes it easy to calculate sales of Windows 7 at about 40 million. -
TreeHouse Enhances Marketing View Tool
20 Nov 2009 | 6:21 amSALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- TreeHouse Interactive™, the technology leader in on-demand partner relationship management (PRM), channel sales force automation (CSFA™) and demand generation solutions, announced today new functionality in its Marketing View product that will give marketing and sales teams better tools to target campaigns; qualify, capture and score leads; and create dynamic nurturing triggers. These tools include extensive bi-directional salesforce.com integration, download resource management, and the ability to publish remote forms. Salesforce.com Advanced Integration Enhances… -
Virtualization for Service Management Providers
20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 amNewport Beach, CA – November 19, 2009 -- LiveTime Software, a leading provider of Web based ITIL 3 Service Management and Help Desk software, today announced the release of the LiveTime Virtual Appliance 6.0. The new virtual appliance has been specifically designed for SaaS-based Service Management providers, offering full isolation and a simple menu driven interface. Each appliance can operate in as little as 512Mb of RAM and can scale the number of virtual processors and memory to meet the needs of any customer. As a standalone platform, the LiveTime Virtual appliance also includes an… -
Watchmakers Seize the Moment for iPhone
20 Nov 2009 | 4:11 amIt was not so long ago that the spread of the mobile phone sent waves of fear through the reserved world of fine watchmaking. The practicality of a portable phone that doubled as an accurate digital timekeeper made the necessity for a wristwatch vanish almost overnight. But now, with the popularity of the iPhone and its myriad applications, the watch industry finally has been able to embrace a product that once was considered the biggest threat to its survival. A wide range of brands, from the big names like Breitling, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels, Dior and Bell & Ross to independents like… -
Runa Unveils Conversion Marketing Service
19 Nov 2009 | 6:37 amMountain View, CA, Thursday, November 19, 2009 -- Runa announced its launch into the emerging e-commerce arena called "Conversion Marketing," – which takes over where SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) stops. Runa's service focuses on converting web traffic into sales while shoppers are still on the website. With its new service, Runa is addressing a real opportunity for e-businesses to increase sales from their existing traffic and marketing spend by dynamically presenting optimized sale prices and incentives. Over the past several years, online marketing has focused on driving traffic…
-
Customer Experience Crossroads
-
Legal agreements: how simple systems evolve into nightmares
12 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pmWhen I'm not blogging, I actually run a research + consulting enterprise. One time some years ago we bid on -- and landed -- a contract for a large municipality. They required us to have insurance. And so it began.Somewhere in the distant past, insurance had its origins as a way of pooling risk. Everyone pays a little, and then if your ship sinks or your house burns down, you have that major loss covered. Absolutely brilliant idea. I like to imagine that these early contracts were pretty straightforward. Then some fool or crook set fire to their own house, and the first exclusion clause was… -
Catching up: immersive experiences, bathroom blogfest and simplicity
3 Nov 2009 | 8:24 amI've been away from my office for a week, but it feels like a month, things are so backed up. This morning, trainer TK (aka the princess of pain) wanted to know why I didn't get any hotel workouts in... at the time, just getting enough sleep felt like a victory. Some experiences are very immersive, and don't leave much room for anything else. A good vacation is like that, but so are some conferences, and some of my work projects are like that. Immersive experiences and simplicityHere's the thing - many of your target customers are in some kind of immersive experience. Their day to day life is… -
New methods for a digital world: agile, iteration + prototyping, not top down plan
20 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amI'm no expert on the Agile development process, but I love the concept - - that every small piece of work that is done in the development stage should yield a usable function. I like this approach to customer experience too, but give me a sec to explain how I see the connection. I was trying to explain about Agile development to someone recently, who likened it to the auto assembly process. But it's not, really. With auto assembly, you know what the finished car is supposed to look like. You have a detailed plan. You divide that plan up into small pieces of efficient manufacturing, and…
-
Customer Relations
-
Tesla’s Personalized Service: Customer Service Experience of the Week
Our customer service experience this week is from Sean Devlin. Devlin's experience with Tesla is worth sharing. If you are lucky enough to be the proud owner of the Tesla Roadster but live far away from one of the four dealers in the country, do not fret, Tesla Motors ... -
A Customer Talks About his BestBuy.com Experience
The customer shares: The first thing that jumps out to me about BestBuy.com is that it hasn't kept up with the changing monitor resolution landscape. About 45 percent of my monitor real estate is whitespace when I view BestBuy.com and the website only occupies the left hand side of my monitor. ... -
Do You Know Your Customers?
I know you want to please and satisfy your customers. But do you know how them, their preferences, their wants and needs? Do you even know their buying habits? Customers go to your store, look around. Some buy, others just leave. If you observe customers leaving your store empty handed or ... -
Best Practices in the Call Center: A Customer Touch-Point Methodology
Many, if not all, big organizations today have outsourced their customer service department. Thus, when you have a concern and you make that call, the customer service rep only tries their best to help you. I think they are not really given the authority to decide on all cases, but ... -
Some Thoughts on Customer Service in e-Commerce
Last week, I attended the 2-day DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit at Hotel Intercontinental Manila. Many entrepreneurs are now looking at e-commerce as the new trend. Netpreneurs is the term used to call these individuals or groups that have established their business online. Like any other business in the real world, customer service ...
-
makeorbreakmoments.com
-
Black Friday – Too Busy to Build Relationships?
20 Nov 2009 | 9:15 amSo will you get up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for amazing savings on the first official day of Holiday shopping, or will you get up to wait on those in line? Arguably the busiest shopping day of the year, customers and sales associates are so busy completing the sale, they rarely have time [...] -
Take Care of Customers…They’ll Take Care of You
19 Nov 2009 | 7:17 amThe Plain Dealer in Cleveland is running a series of articles spotlighting local jewelry stores who have been in business more than 50 years. You figure if they’ve been in business that long, they must be doing something right. Not only are they building relationships, the relationships are continuing down through the generations. The spotlight in [...] -
Coke Connects with Customers
10 Nov 2009 | 7:19 amToday reporter Melissa Lee showcased a new coca-cola machine called the FreeStyle. Located in Manhattan, the machine allows you to mix and match Coke products to make a drink all your own. There are over 104 possible combinations. Why? Coke wants to know what consumers find interesting; when they drink, what they mix, how often. By bringing [...] -
Carpet Cleaning Challenge
3 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pmI have company coming for Thanksgiving and as I make a list of all that needs to be done before they arrive, I realize the carpets need to be cleaned. The cleaner I used to use is no longer in business so it was back to the Yellow Pages to make a few calls. I called [...] -
Do We Make it FUN for Our Customers?
2 Nov 2009 | 9:31 amI just saw a video from Stockholm that tested the theory of added fun to the mundane. People, when given a choice of the stairs or escalators – chose the escalators. The Fun Theory, by Volkswagen, wanted to see if they added FUN to walking up the stairs if there would be a difference in behavior. Check [...]
-
Customer Service and More: The Shep Hyken Blog
-
4 Nov 2009 | 7:07 am
4 Nov 2009 | 7:07 amBook Recommendations!On Marketing“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Target Marketing” by Susan Friedman is out this month. This new book is part of the well-known and respected “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series. It is packed with clever and practical strategies to help any type of business get their message to the right people. Go to http://bit.ly/JERZ9 (Amazon.com) to buy it today.On Sales and Relationships“The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients For Life” by Maribeth Kuzmeski is about… Just read the subtitle! Maribeth… -
29 Oct 2009 | 3:56 pm
29 Oct 2009 | 3:56 pmOld Milt LinderThe other night I had dinner with my mother and we were talking about some of my Grandfather’s friends. Somehow we started talking about Milt Linder, who would have probably been, if he was still living, about a hundred by now.About 30 years ago Milt was selling magazine subscriptions, working on commission. I remember that Milt could get me any magazine or newspaper; Golf Digest, Runners World, NY Times, etc. One day I asked him if he could get the St. Louis Business Journal. He hesitated and then told me that he could.Several years later, I somehow found out that he… -
4 Oct 2009 | 4:33 pm
4 Oct 2009 | 4:33 pmCelebrate Customer Service WeekThis week is Customer Service Week. It shouldn’t be a week. It should be all the time. None the less, it has become recognized as a week to celebrate and promote customer service. Take the time to do something special for your customers or employees. Here are some ideas:- Take the time to write or call your customers to show some (extra) appreciation.- Have a short customer service training session (or two) for your employees.- Each day have employees record an example of when they provide a great customer service experience.- And, my favorite idea: Buy a copy… -
15 Sep 2009 | 6:41 am
15 Sep 2009 | 6:41 amTwo Book Recommendations and New iPhone Apps“Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan,” by my friends Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest is fantastic. Constant feedback pays off with big results. If you ask them the right way, your customers will tell you what they want and need. Client comments can help you create a company that attracts customers like bears to honey. The book has been getting rave reviews. When you order “Who’s Your Gladys?” today, you get a special package of 40+ electronic bonus gifts in customer service, sales,… -
30 Aug 2009 | 4:01 pm
30 Aug 2009 | 4:01 pmCustomer Service Is a Team EffortThis is considered to be a joke… A guy walks into a diner and sits down at a table. After sitting for a half an hour and watching all of the guests who came in behind him get served, he asked a server if someone was ever going to come to take his order. She responded by saying, “You’re in Suzie’s station and she’s not here tonight.As ridiculous as the above scenario sounds, it is has truth to it. The opposite of the above happened at the Bristol restaurant in St. Louis. We were sitting for a few minutes when a server came over and explained that our…
-
Customers Rock!
-
Bathrooms and Customer Experience
30 Oct 2009 | 7:50 pmYes, it is that time of year when the Bathroom Blogfest comes around and our thoughts turn to those forgotten spaces where the customer experience, and customer perceptions, are still impacted. Yes, even the bathroom at your establishment (restaurant, retail store, hotel) reflects on your brand. As you know, here at Customers Rock! there is a strong focus on looking at your business from the customer’s perspective. Sometimes, that perspective takes place in the restroom, and this blogfest focuses on exactly that. The Bathroom Blogfest 2009 has been taking place all week this week, with a… -
San Diego Chargers Connect with Their Fans via Social Media
24 Sep 2009 | 9:14 pmAs many of you know, I teach a popular class at UC San Diego Extension on Marketing via New Media. I help my students understand how to look at social media as an opportunity to build relationships with customers rather than just as a campaign or tactic to “increase buzz”. This summer, I had Joel Price from the San Diego Chargers as a guest speaker. He shared with my class how the football team has been using social media to get closer to its fans and create a “virtual tailgate party”. Joel took us on a historical journey of fan interaction during his presentation. -
Guest Blogger: Avoid the Customer Tug of War
26 Aug 2009 | 11:06 pmAs you can probably surmise, I have had a very busy summer and haven’t been able to blog as much as I would like! (Note: You can find me fairly frequently updating on Twitter at twitter.com/bcarroll7). As the summer wraps up, I am scheduling some new posts for you, my loyal readers, which focus on customer service, marketing, customer experience, and social media. Today I have a guest blogger for you. Sean McDonald was formerly the director of Global Online Activities at Dell and is now a principal at Ant’s Eye View. I love these guys because they are cut from the same cloth as… -
Expert’s Corner: Lori Wizdo on Improving Customer Service From the Ground Up
17 Aug 2009 | 12:31 pmWelcome to another edition of Expert’s Corner here at Customers Rock! This time our guest blogger has a technology focus. We are happy to have Lori Wizdo, VP Marketing from Knoa Software, as our author today. Lori will share with us ways for organizations to get a handle on a major customer experience roadblock. Enjoy the post, and let us know what you think! Improving Customer Service From the Ground Up In need of a new laptop, you spend hours walking around your local Best Buy comparing prices and features of endless devices each claiming to be the thinnest, sharpest and fastest on… -
Expert’s Corner: Chip Bell on Service with a Grin
23 Jul 2009 | 9:23 pmI love to bring in outside experts for you to share other perspectives on the Customers Rock! attitude. Today I am pleased to introduce you to Chip Bell. Chip is the founder of The Chip Bell Group and works from the Dallas, Texas area. His consulting practice focuses on helping organizations build a culture that supports long-term customer loyalty. Chip R. Bell is the author, with John R. Patterson, of the newly-released book Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers. He can be reached through www.taketheirbreathaway.com. Service with a Grin by Chip Bell We…
-
Demand Satisfaction!
-
Getsatisfaction.tv: New Look, New Content, New Feed
19 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pmWe recently updated our Getsatisfation.tv site. It’s our little corner of the Web devoted to how-to videos and presentations about customer service and community. Our Community Management Webcast series is on there, as are presentations from our 2008 Customer Service Is the New Marketing summit. We’ve also got some tutorials to help you dig into the details of Facebook Connect and our FastPass log-in system, as well as interviews and use cases for companies interested in applying community to customer service but who might need a quick primer on how to get started. What’s… -
Get Satisfaction Salesforce App Ready for Download
18 Nov 2009 | 9:17 amDo you use Salesforce? A lot of companies do. Now, you can use it in conjunction with Get Satisfaction. That’s right, it’s announcement time. We’ve been working with CustomWare, a company that integrates collaborative technologies, to develop a Salesforce app, and we’re happy to report that it’s now done. Ready for download, cap’n! We’ve received a lot of requests from companies who use Get Satisfaction for an app like this. The people who request it are typically pretty savvy when it comes to adopting a more “social” business strategy. -
Lane at Web 2.0 New York: How to Succeed at Customer Service and Fail Upward at Everything Else
10 Nov 2009 | 11:15 amI’m dubbing Lane “Sir-Speaks-a-Lot” next week. He’s going to be chatting it up at Web 2.0 in New York. His topics: customer service and failure. First, he’s going to talk about customer service in his presentation Let’s Get Engaged! The New Customer Relationship Landscape. Join him on Tuesday at 11:10 a.m. in room 1A08 to hear about emerging tools and techniques to help companies get a handle on the new ways of customer service. (Hint: It’s social!) Then, on Thursday, get ready for some serious FAIL talk. Lane joins a panel with Ben Huh (I Can Has… -
Tomorrow: Join Our Enterprise 2.0 Panel on Customer Support
3 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pmThe Enterprise 2.0 conference is under way here in San Francisco. If you’ll be attending, check out our very own Wendy Lea. She’ll be speaking on a panel. What’s it about? It’s about Facebook and Twitter and branding and all the trends that have been shaping customer service in the past few years — away from the “all-your-answers-are-to-be-found-in-these-10-FAQs” mentality and toward customer participation, company engagement, and ultimately transparency. Things are changing in customer service, and this is one place to be to hear how companies are —… -
Last Week’s Webcast Ready for Watching
3 Nov 2009 | 10:19 amDid you join us for the Webcast last week? It was a demo by our very own Scott and Kat, followed by a Q&A session. If you were there, thanks for asking all those great questions! If you weren’t there, we recorded it. The recording is a walkthrough of the Get Satisfaction system, and it’s a good introduction to how Get Satisfaction works, with some specific examples of how to use widgets and kick-start a community. For this demo, we used ReadyTalk, a service for Webcasts and such things. Worked great. Recommended. Give it a watch!
-
Dennis Snow Blog
-
Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service
17 Nov 2009 | 6:58 amI want to let you know that the second edition of my book, Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service, co-authored with Teri Yanovitch, has just been published. You can find it in bookstores or at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Teri and I are very excited about the book, as it offers additional tools and approaches developed since its original release in 2003. We’ve included best practices from many organizations who have successfully implemented the Unleashing Excellence approach. One of the book’s elements we’re most proud of is the ability… -
Solving a Customer Frustration
12 Nov 2009 | 6:27 amOne of the best ways to distance your organization from the competition is to solve a problem that frustrates your industry’s customers. I just read an Orlando Sentinel article that provides a great example of this approach: Disney by Cell Phone. The number one guest complaint at Walt Disney World is about long wait times for the rides. And over the years Disney World has implemented several tools to help minimize the problem. Tools include: Wait time signs Entertainment while waiting in line Making the line part of an attraction’s theme or “show” Tip boards around the… -
When You Receive Poor Customer Service
4 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pmAs we get closer to the holiday season, the news is full of reports that retailers plan to hire fewer temporary workers than usual because of lower sales expectations. While this might make short-term sense to a business’s bottom line, it’s a recipe for frustration for you and me as shoppers. Busy shopping seasons are often riddled with dismal customer service experiences, and this one will likely be no different, and perhaps worse. So, what should we do if we receive poor service? A clear option, of course, is to leave and never go back. Poor service sometimes occurs, however, in… -
Customer Service Thought for the Day
27 Oct 2009 | 2:21 pmAre your company’s processes designed for the convenience of the customer or for the convenience of the company? How would customers respond to that question? Think about a process you can tweak (or overhaul) that will result in customers asking, “Why can’t other companies do it like yours?” -
Four Strategies for Dealing With Employee Burnout
22 Oct 2009 | 11:55 amAn article appeared in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal titled, “Firms Keep Brakes on Hiring: Unsure About Strength of Upturn, Employers Produce More With Fewer Workers.” The article notes that while hiring always lags behind economic recoveries, this time the lag is likely to be worse. Doubts about the strength of the recovery and concerns about the potential costs of health care reform are two of the reasons the WSJ says companies may be slower to replenish their employment ranks. One sentence in particular jumped out at me as I read the article: “Employers shed workers…
-
Steve Curtin
-
Don’t just be grateful—be great!
20 Nov 2009 | 7:34 amA few years ago, The Broker Restaurant in Denver, CO participated in a local radio promotion. As a part of this promotion, the radio station mailed out $25 unrestricted coupons to area residents who completed a survey about their radio listening preferences. Because there were no restrictions, these coupons were essentially treated like cash in the restaurant. Over the course of the eight-week promotion, tens of thousands of $25 coupons were mailed out to survey respondents and the promotion proved to be very successful at increasing the exposure of The Broker and attracting many new… -
Don’t blame your service woes on Gen Y
18 Nov 2009 | 9:50 pmI recently read the book Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y by Bruce Tulgan and was reminded of this generation’s reputation of entitlement. As the title suggests, children from this generation who played sports generally received medals or trophies for participation rather than merit. Although the exact parameters may differ, there is a general consensus that Generation Y encompasses people born between 1978 and 1990. This generation has also been referred to as Generation Me, a generation that has never known a world that put duty before self and believes that the… -
A server who refused to serve
10 Nov 2009 | 9:41 pmMy family and I decided to try Carino’s Italian restaurant for the first time tonight. When we entered the restaurant, we were “greeted” by the hostess with the predictable, “How many?” before being seated. Our server approached our table within a minute or two, delivering interactive menus and crayons to the kids and menus to me and my wife. Our server demonstrated the hospitality basics well. She smiled, made eye contact, and added a bit of enthusiasm to her voice. And she did not seem put off by my six-year-old’s tendency to vacillate during his beverage, entrée, and dessert… -
The best is the enemy of the good
8 Nov 2009 | 10:37 pmThe title of this post is a quote from the French philosopher, Voltaire. It expresses the notion that we must not accept that “good” performance is equivalent to “the best” performance—in fact, they’re enemies. I’m convinced that most service providers are content to deliver “good” customer service. Their rationale may be based on the assumption that by meeting customers’ expectations, they will create satisfied customers. Bain and Company, a consumer research firm, has a name for satisfied customers: passives. Passives, as the name implies, are satisfied… -
What’s more memorable, T-Rex pancakes or a bowl of Cornflakes?
2 Nov 2009 | 5:13 amSeveral years ago, after the birth of our first child, I began pouring pancake batter in unique shapes that our son would recognize from his world. When he was very young, I poured shapes ranging from puppies to pacifiers. As he grew older, I adapted the shapes to his interests—whether dinosaurs or chess pieces. And holidays always provide fodder for themed shapes. I pour shamrocks in March, firecrackers in July, Jack-O-Lanterns in October, and candy canes in December. The kids love them and enjoy making requests for made-to-order shapes. Breakfast transforms from a predictable meal, a base…
-
Experienceology
-
Bathroom Blogfest 2009: Bathrooms Around the World
28 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pmOnce again, it's time for the Bathroom Blogfest, where bloggers from around the globe write about the importance of forgotten spaces in the brand experience. Visit the website, follow us on Twitter, become a Fan on Facebook, and check out the special cleaning deal offered by this year's sponsor, Kaboom.List of participating Bathroom Blogfest bloggers:· Susan Abbott Customer Experience Crossroads· Reshma Anand Qualitative Research Blog· Shannon Bilby From the Floors Up· Shannon Bilby & Brad Millner My Big Bob’s Blog· Laurence Borel Blog Till You Drop· Jeanne Byington The Importance… -
Bathroom Blogfest: 2009
26 Oct 2009 | 12:03 pmOnce again, it's time for the Bathroom Blogfest, where bloggers from around the globe write about the importance of forgotten spaces in the brand experience. Visit the website, follow us on Twitter, become a Fan on Facebook, and check out the special cleaning deal offered by this year's sponsor, Kaboom.List of participating Bathroom Blogfest bloggers:· Susan Abbott Customer Experience Crossroads· Reshma Anand Qualitative Research Blog· Shannon Bilby From the Floors Up· Shannon Bilby & Brad Millner My Big Bob’s Blog· Laurence Borel Blog Till You Drop· Jeanne Byington The Importance… -
Sunday's Signpost
25 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pmGreat example of Southwest Airline's humorous tone, which is very consistent across all their branded communication. -
Why I work with museums and their visitor experience
6 Oct 2009 | 4:46 pm -
WMA's Balboa Park Day
3 Oct 2009 | 1:03 pmOn Wednesday, October 28 the attendees to the Western Museums Association will be heading to San Diego's Balboa Park for the afternoon. This will be an amazing opportunity to tour the "Smithsonian of the West," with all the cultural institutions opening their doors for free. The day is sponsored by the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, with the transportation underwritten by the Barona Band of Mission Indians.The San Diego Host Committee has put together a map and schedule of events for the day, which you can download here. The map design was donated by Tanya Bredehoft of Artefact Design.Many…
-
Free Articles in Customer Relationship Mgt
-
Enhance Customer Service with Call Center Outsourcing
19 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pmOutsourced customer service centers can be a great way to save money. If you need a service for inbound and outbound calls, outsourcing is a great solution that can save businesses considerable costs. -
4 Top Tips In Improving Customer Relationship for Your Business
17 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pmIn tough times like the one we are facing now, improving customer relationship can make a big difference between staying afloat in business and getting foreclosed. -
Improving Customer Experiences - Is It Still Important or Is Price the Only Thing that Matters?
17 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pmMany have questioned the importance of the overarching customer experience... Has the economic downturn minimized its importance? -
Top Secrets About Pampering Loyal Customers for Improving Customer Relationship
16 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pmIf you lose your existing customers due to lack of a proper planning about servicing them and supporting their needs after they buy products and services from you, you would be failing in the primary rules of CRM or customer relations management. -
Dealing with Difficult People
7 Nov 2009 | 4:12 amThese notes are primarily designed to help deal with difficult people when we have made a mistake. We often have to deal with other people where we have not made a mistake however the people we're dealing with often prove to be difficult and unwilling to accept what we say.
-
Maximum Customer Experience Blog
-
Octopus Obedience Training—Better Than Ricky Gervais
20 Nov 2009 | 12:12 amor, What You Don’t Know About Your Biggest Competition Picture the three companies that get all the jobs you wish you got. Get yourself green with envy, picturing your Ideal Customer waltzing into someone else’s store, falling in love with their service, their cushy interiors, their cool product line. You know none of it’s as good as yours and it steams you up. That’s your customer, giving your money to someone else. They don’t see! They don’t know! You could cry with the pain of watching your customer make such a mistake! As the pundits were fond of saying… -
Inspiration Points: Is the Label Helping or Hurting Your Business?
17 Nov 2009 | 11:19 pmWednesday Words To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. I believe [bad Customer Experience] happens more often than most business owners realize, because it’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle. —Tom Wanek, Marketing Beyond Advertising, commenting at Men With Pens’ blog I’d continue quoting him but it might seem as though I’d paid him to write it, so have a look at the excellent post How You Might Be Losing Clients Without Even Knowing It, and don’t miss the comment section if you’d… -
Why *You* Should Work for FREE
16 Nov 2009 | 11:12 pmAre You Terrible at Keeping a Secret? Yes, that was The Kid back on her 2nd birthday. She chose these photos, to help out with today’s post—and of course even she can’t believe that’s her. Wow, time flies. It’s MCE’s 2nd birthday today, and I admit it, I’m hoping you’re terrible at keeping a secret, because this is NOT going to be your typical blog-birthday roundup post. First and foremost, I’d like to stop for a minute and thank you for being a part of the last two years. It’s no secret that I love talking about ways we can all… -
Who Else Plans Well at the Start?
12 Nov 2009 | 11:19 pmAnd what’s a business plan good for? When you started in business, how did you go about it? Did you take out every book from the library on entrepreneurship, on starting your own business and on business planning (because you thought you couldn’t afford to buy them), read every online article even remotely related to your field, interview every potential buyer who’d stand still long enough for you to pin them down, and then sit down and write a massive business plan of the kind all the books told you you’d need, with chapters and an index and gorgeous charts and… -
Inspiration Points: The Curse of the Telescope
11 Nov 2009 | 11:11 pmWednesday Words To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it. —Will Rogers In other words, Begin With the End in Mind. And have thick enough skin that you don’t mind being called a nut. Whew, I know that can happen—and seeing what’s coming before others can imagine it, can definitely feel like a curse. If you’ve…
-
QAQNA
-
QAQnA Mug Club Welcomes Jonty Pearce!
11 Nov 2009 | 6:11 amThis month, the Mug Club offers a hearty welcome to Jonty Pearce, editor of Call Centre Helper magazine. We wanted to honor Jonty for his faithful support, insightful comments, and kind encouragement over the past year. I had the opportunity to briefly meet Jonty and his family this past March and have enjoyed our correspondence.Call Centre Helper is an excellent resource for people at every level of the industry. The content is first-rate and Jonty does a masterful job of addressing issues across the spectrum from training and QA to technology and management.A QAQnA travel mug is on its' way… -
The Call Center as Social Media Outpost
4 Nov 2009 | 5:07 amAt ICMI's ACCE 09 conference last month, the buzz was around expanding the call center to become a social media outpost. It is rapidly becoming clear that interacting with customers is no longer just through phone calls. Interacting with customers must happen through the emerging communication channels like Facebook and Twitter.I recently had an article come across my desk from Keith Fiveson of ITESA. He agrees:Agents can outreach and act as a “social media outpost” casting their net to capture conversations, hear, and deal with hearts, minds, problems and people that impact your business… -
Reminder: Quality Programs Need Someone in the Bull Pen
29 Oct 2009 | 4:39 amYou get what you measure. That's one of the fundamental truths of Quality Assessment. If people know they are being held accountable to a standard, they generally perform to that standard. By the same token, if they know they are not being measured, their behavior will often ease back into old habits (I've been able to quantify this effect with data). It's important for a quality program to keep momentum.I was recently reminded how critical it is for smaller contact centers to be prepared for turnover in their quality team. It is quite common for call centers with less than fifty seats to… -
Allocating Time and Resources in Call Coaching
27 Oct 2009 | 6:45 amA client called me yesterday to discuss some of the internal call coaching they are starting in their call center. The supervisor has limited time for coaching and has chosen to focus the coaching on just the Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) who are below goal.Given the circumstances, I understand the focus on those who need a little extra motivation to improve their service delivery. If you're not careful, however, you'll end up with some of your best performers alienated and feeling left out. Everyone needs feedback. Everyone needs encouragement. Whenever you focus all of your time… -
Iowa Telecom's Healthy Mix of Service & Sales
23 Oct 2009 | 8:38 amI had a great time Wednesday at the Association of Contact Center Professionals (ACCP) get together at Iowa Telecom's (ITC) Newton, Iowa contact centers. ITC was a fantastic host and gave those of us in attendance a terrific overview of their contact center operations along with a tour of their facilities.Our group has worked with ITC for many years providing Customer Satisfaction surveys. We also helped them start their QA process and get it off the ground. I have to admit that I felt some pride as I toured the facilities and saw what a great job their team was doing.One of the things that…
-
Ragsdale’s Eye on Service
-
The Economics of Customer Service Excellence
18 Nov 2009 | 9:57 amI’m preparing for tomorrow’s Webcast, “The Economics of Customer Service Excellence: Critical Improvements for Tier 1 and First Contact Resolution,” and wanted to share some of the data I’ve come across in my research. Obviously in a down economy (and for all the talk about recovery I’ve yet to hear any service execs getting budget [...] -
Five WORST Practices of Customer Service
10 Nov 2009 | 8:51 amA few years ago I was speaking at a conference and committed a cardinal sin: I used a company as an example of poor customer service, and that company, an electric utility, was in the audience. I tried to mea culpa my way out of it, and apologized profusely to the company’s support manager at [...] -
Meeting the needs of remote and mobile workers
4 Nov 2009 | 7:28 amI am preparing for tomorrow’s webcast, “Developing a Support Strategy that Embraces Change in Today’s Increasingly Remote Workforce,” and though we don’t have a tremendous amount of data on the topic–YET–in the TSIA benchmark, I have found lots of interesting data from the US Department of Labor and various research groups who graciously shared their [...] -
SAP CRM: Momentum followed by innovation
27 Oct 2009 | 10:57 amToday I attended the SAP CRM Virtual Influencer Summit to get an update on SAP’s CRM practice. I love the virtual approach for analyst summits as I have access to all the content without having to lose a day flying somewhere. Here are some updates: Twitter integration. SAP unveiled a CRM Twitter Solution that pulls in [...] -
Final Day of TSW: Top Attended Sessions
22 Oct 2009 | 7:54 amI am back home after our 3 day Technology Services World Conference in Las Vegas, and starting to process all that I heard into some trend ‘buckets.’ For now, I wanted to highlight the top attended sessions from yesterday. Very interesting. The first day of breakout sessions showed that the basic challenges of [...]
-
Return Customer
-
5 Ways to Win New Customers and 10 Ways to Keep Them
18 Nov 2009 | 7:01 amThis is a guest post from Joseph Eitan, founder of Photo Paper Direct. The next sentence might raise a few eyebrows, but I am going to say it anyway. Winning new customers is much easier than keeping them as returning customers. After winning new business, so many things could go wrong during the retention process that customer retention becomes daunting for the business owner. However, retaining customers is extremely crucial to the health of your business, even though it’s not as easy as winning them. 5 Ways to Win New Business 1. Increase Your Customer Base – If the business… -
Customer Expectations are Set In Writing–and Appearances
11 Nov 2009 | 7:02 amCustomers’ expectations are set in more than just the fine print. I had a failed attempt at returning a product to IKEA recently that highlighted how customer expectations are set in multiple places and venues. We purchased a laptop workstation at IKEA, put it together, and realized that it wasn’t going to work for us. When I tried to return the product, I was told that I couldn’t return it since it was built. So I offered to take it apart. Would they accept it then? No. I offered to put it back in its original packaging. Would they accept it? No. Every thing I tried to do… -
Forced Selling Doesn’t Work
4 Nov 2009 | 7:02 amWhen you force your employees to say something or try and sell something to customers at the point of sale, it will come across as unnatural. On my last trip to Fry’s electronics, as I was paying for my purchase, the cashier asked if I wanted to apply for a Fry’s credit card. You’ve probably heard that request before at numerous retail locations and it rarely sounds compelling enough to take action. I asked the cashier how often people take him up on the offer for the credit card. He replied, “Not many.” “Do you get in trouble if you don’t ask?”… -
Make Sure Your Company Isn’t Acting Like These Halloween Characters
28 Oct 2009 | 8:02 amAs a business, you may unknowingly be putting on a costume or facade that tarnishes how you interact with customers. Frankenstein Frankenstein is the classic monster built from a bunch of different parts. The result was a hideous creation that didn’t really work so well. Your business is a Frankenstein if, to the customer, you appear as a hodge-podge collection of independent departments and divisions. Your customers expect a unified experience with your company, regardless of your internal org chart and departments. Don’t be Frankenstein. Witch Think of the wicked witch from… -
Notify Customers of Your Mistakes
21 Oct 2009 | 8:03 amI’ve got some bad news for you: you’re not perfect. You, your employees, and your business will make mistakes that directly impact your customers. When you make a mistake, you may be tempted to hide it, ignore it, or even deny it. Don’t run from your mistake. You need to be proactive in addressing the issue and resolving the problem with the customer. How you handle mistakes speaks volumes about you as a business. The last time we had to get a battery for our van, we went to the nearest Sears auto center. They installed a new battery and about 30 minutes after we had gotten…
-
Secrets of Effective Customer Service
-
New articles uploaded
8 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pmWe have a newly updated words of wisdom section hosted on our Alberta Speakers site.We feature articles from our experts who speak from our various speaker joint adventure sites.Please visit them for more information:Alberta Speakers - www.albertaspeakers.com Calgary Speakers - www.calgaryspeakers.com Edmonton Speakers - www.edmontonspeakers.com Kelowna Speakers - www.kelownaspeakers.comToronto Speakers - www.torontospeakers.comSask. Speakers - www.saskspeakers.com We'll keep adding to them as our speakers share their wisdom with us, so check back on a regular basis.Bob 'Idea Man' Hooey,… -
Check out this new reality TV Show from Canada
10 Oct 2009 | 6:34 pmhttp://www.citytv.com//toronto/show/micro/44002--my-rona-homeCheck out this new reality TV show based in Calgary Alberta. Two couples are finishing their respective homes... the winner gets their $400,000 home as a prize... the runner up gets their's for the cost of the $160,000 mortgage... a win win...I'm rooting for TEAM YELLOW as I know their mom....check it out and vote... help these kids get a new home -
Foundational Success is now available online
9 Jun 2009 | 8:18 amFoundational Success - Building Blocks for Personal and Professional Success is now available online at: www.foundationalsuccess.comThis amazing collection of wisdom from 30 top experts from North America and around the world was created by Bob 'Idea Man' Hooey to support the CAPS Foundation.Visit: www.foundationalsuccess.com today and safely purchase your own copy for only $20.$19 of each purchase goes directly to the CAPS Foundation. $1 is used by our CAPS National Office to cover credit cards and processing.Tell your friends and family to visit as well. Share this with your colleagues and… -
Foundational Success to launch in May
27 Apr 2009 | 12:38 pmA new joint venture with 30 top experts and authors from around the globe is set to launch in May 2009.Foundational Success - Building Blocks for Personal and Professional SuccessThis value added e-publication is led by Canada's Ideaman, Bob Hooey and is a fund raising project for the CAPS Foundation. Canadian Association of Professional Speakers.Pre-order price is only $20 and proceeds go directly to the CAPS Foundation.Visit: www.foundationalsuccess.com to see who contributed their wisdom to this new tool in your personal and professional success. -
Service sells
14 Apr 2009 | 4:03 pmService is the secret to long term business and sales success.Canadian Ideaman travelled to Iran in November to speak on this and other topics.He also spoke in Mumbai, India to keynote at the 2nd annual Innovation Summit. He talked about the human side of innovation as a tool in building long term relationship with our clients.Click here to view a clip from that keynote
-
Service Untitled
-
You’re Closer to Reward Travel Than You Think?
17 Nov 2009 | 11:28 amI have two frequent flier accounts with Continental Airlines. One is an account that my parents opened for me when I was maybe five or six years old and another is one that I opened myself a few years ago when I started traveling pretty regularly. About two years ago, I found the account my parents had opened for me and transferred all of my frequent flier miles to that account. However, the newer account (which now has no miles) is still open and active. As such, Continental emails me about it. The screenshot to the left is from an email they sent me yesterday. I haven’t use this… -
Customer Escalations and You
6 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pmMany customer service managers (especially in small to mid-size businesses) spend quite a bit of time handling something I always refer to as “escalations”. Escalations are usually from angry/vocal/important customers who are having a problem and are going “up the chain”. The escalations might come down from the CEO or the President, across from PR or the Internet, or up from floor supervisors and regular agents. Where exactly escalations originate from depends a lot on the particular company and how its customer service organization is setup. The question is: is it… -
Exam Room Flags for Customer Service
28 Oct 2009 | 10:53 amIf you’ve been to a doctor’s office in the past, you’ve probably noticed those colorful things outside of each exam room. I recently learned these are called exam room signal flags. I have no idea what each color means (and I imagine they vary from office to office), but the idea of them is interesting and appliciable to other industries as well. The flags do just what their names imply – provide signals to doctors and other personnel about what needs to be done or what’s going on. If a patient is in the room waiting for a doctor, I imagine they have a flag color… -
Call Abandonment Basics
21 Oct 2009 | 10:57 amPhone systems (also called IVRs or PBXes) usually measure something referred to as a call abandonment rate. How exactly the call abandonment rate is defined varies from company to company and from phone system to phone system, but in general, the inbound call abandonment rate tracks the number of people who hang up before they start talking to an employee. (There are call abandonment rates for outbound calls that telemarketing companies track, but that’s a different thing entirely.) Some companies actually strive for high call abandonment rates (a higher proportion of people who hang… -
Customer Service: Better or Worse?
15 Oct 2009 | 6:45 pmThe ‘50’s version of Dilbert was a very popular comic strip called Mutt and Jeff. The clever “tongue in cheek” style made many a reader chuckle over their eggs and bacon before rushing off to the office. One strip had Mutt and Jeff enjoying a bit of verbal sparring. “If everyone saw like I did,” boasted Jeff, “Everyone would want my wife.” “If everyone saw like I did,” quipped Mutt, “No one would want your wife.” It provided a humorous lesson on the “eye of the beholder” side of understanding relationships and experiences. When someone asks us, “Why has…
-
The Chief Happiness Officer
-
Friday Spoing
20 Nov 2009 | 3:01 amThis is a real video of real cops on the streets of Copenhagen (close to where I live, actually) stopping people on bikes to… well, watch it for yourself: -
Friday Spoing
13 Nov 2009 | 6:34 amHere’s some happiness for ya: A dog welcomes his owner back from Afghanistan :o) -
Friday Spoing!
6 Nov 2009 | 6:40 amWhere can I go and try this? Looks like fun! Have a happy weekend :o) -
The Happiness Hat will hurt you until you smile
2 Nov 2009 | 1:37 amSmile, dammit: This is not meant to be taken seriously – this is art. Or social commentary. Or both. The Happiness Hat was created by Lauren MacCarthy, who calls it: A wearable conditioning device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not. Frowning creates intense pain but a full smile leaves you pain free! The first in a series of Tools for Improved Social Inter-Acting. To me, this is a great commentary to the pressure to be happy that exists in society today. There seems to be a sense that “if you’re not happy, there’s… -
Friday Spoing
30 Oct 2009 | 4:53 amThis Friday it’s really more of a Spoooooooooooooooooing :o) Have a happy weekend!
-
The Engaging Brand
-
The Web of Intrigue
20 Nov 2009 | 4:44 pmThe web intrigues me. It intrigues me because although people see it as a way of providing solutions...I think it is best when it provides the framework of a web - for you to fill in the gaps. I tend to think that....Engagement on the web is not about finding a solution but providing a web of discoverIf you take Facebook for example...it is not an answer per se, it is an intriguing question which asks you to solve for yourself. What happened to, who do I know, who have I lost touch with....The web for me is not about a solution because...rarely is there a generic solution which fits all. It… -
Heart to heart - why its good to feel in business
19 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pmCommunication has always been the lifeblood of society and the need for communication never changes. Look at me tonight sat by Nana's bedside in hospital and every now and again despite her massive stroke, her eyes tell me she needs love, she needs comfort, she needs me to hold her. Her tool is not social media, it is her eyes than convey that emotion in a way which creates engagement.Communication is vital and social media has in many ways made communication easier. My worry though is two-fold Because there are tools to make it easier, that does not make communication better. In fact I would… -
When You Truly Understand Engagement
18 Nov 2009 | 3:31 pmWhat is engagement? ...a question which I get asked often and this week I have truly understood the meaning of the word. For those who don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I have not being posting or editing podcasts as my nana had a massive stroke and I have been at her bedside since last Friday - not sure at the moment who looks worse me or her!But during this time I have realised that engagement is just about two words....time and caring. The nurses have been wonderful here at Scarborough hospital, not because they have loads of money to spend on making us comfortable, not because of… -
The True Meaning of Life
12 Nov 2009 | 9:04 amLearning happens, not only through reading and in classrooms, but in everyday life. This week I have had boiler problems (insert your own joke here!) and today a wonderful British Gas engineer came out, as always I got into conversation with him and found he had traced his family tree. At this point he said something which made me take stock of leadership, of marketing, of branding...well of life. He said"When you look back at your family tree, it is not what they did, it is how they lived which teaches you the most"There were three lessons for me You can learn from reading, from teaching but… -
Show 270 - How to cope with change
10 Nov 2009 | 11:15 amShow 270 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcastis ready just for you. To subscribe or listen on your PC now - both for free, you don't need to download anything - all explained at the end of the post and don't forget GotoMeeting hold your meetings online for just $49/mo. Try GoToMeeting FREE for 30 days Today I have a fascinating interview with the wonderful Jim Clemmer who "for nearly 30 years have been inspiring action and achieving results in the area of practical leadership". For more learnings from the book you can sign up for a free webcast on December 3 hereWe talk…
-
The Social Customer Manifesto
-
Fly The Evil Skies
20 Nov 2009 | 8:33 amOn the subject of frequent flier miles, Gary says:"Miles are evil. They create apathy on the end of the service provider." The he asks the real question:"Have decades of frequent flyer programs instilled institutional apathy on the part of customer facing employees? Perhaps we are talking about apathetic DNA across entire corporations or even within the entire airline industry. If one believes customers won't leave even when treated poorly, where is the incentive to 'step it up?'" Back in the late 1990's, I was flying weekly between Chicago and Palo Alto. 1,846 miles out on Monday, 1,846… -
Kudos to Seth
11 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pmKudos to Seth Godin on fixing the most very broken thing about his 2005 book "All Marketers are Liars." He convinced the publisher to change the cover on future editions, and the book is now called "All Marketers Tell Stories."Seth says:"So, go tell a story. If it doesn’t resonate, tell a different one. When you find a story that works, live that story, make it true, authentic and subject to scrutiny. All marketers are storytellers, only the losers are liars."I was fairly harsh when I read the book in 2005, and while some of those criticisms still stand,… -
Twitter's "Trending Topics" Bridge Neighborhoods in Social Networks
11 Nov 2009 | 11:12 amHad a blast chatting with danah boyd this morning on this week's SupernovaHub Network Age Briefing (disclosure: Supernova is a client). The link above is to a rebroadcast of the call, which ran about an hour and covered "Class and Connection in the Network Age." We also had some great conversation with @nwjerseyliz and @evanwolf the others who joined live in the conversation. One of the big "a ha" moments in talking to danah was the fact that, as has been noted in many other places, we typically hang out (more-or-less) with "people like us"… -
The Laws of VRM
5 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pmIn conjunction with this week's Internet Identity Workshop, a number of folks including @dsearls @deanland @joeandrieu @judico @juliangay @dariusdunlap and others have been thinking a lot about ProjectVRM. As part of the conversations, an activity this group was doing was trying to distill down to its essence what "makes" something "VRM" (or VRM-like, at least). We came up with a couple of core concepts, the first of which is that in a system that is VRM-ish, the following holds true: "VRM Law #1: The individual is the point of integration." In other words, instead of myriad… -
Thought of the Day: Single-Sign Off
5 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pmLots of folks have looked at integrating online identities, and there are various types of "single sign-on" (cite) systems around. Thought experiment for today: what would single sign-off look like? In other words, what would happen if an individual had the ability to conceptually "unplug" from the Network?
-
Think customers: The 1to1 Blog
-
Guest Blogger John K. Thompson: Think of Twitter as a Real-Time Search Engine to Discover Its True Value
19 Nov 2009 | 9:23 amOkay...let's all take a deep breath. Now exhale. And for just a moment, let's get this Twitter-mania out of our system. Don't get me wrong...I appreciate Twitter. I use Twitter. Yes, I've even tweeted and re-tweeted several times about stuff that really isn't all that important. Yet, there's a growing realization that the true value of Twitter -- the value that will make it a valuable business tool, and what it means to us as marketing professionals -- has nothing to do about Twitter's ubiquitous question: "What are you doing?" -
Chattering about Salesforce.com
18 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pmI'm in San Francisco this week at the annual Dreamforce conference run by Salesforce.com (my third visit, and it's much bigger this year than the last two). During today's keynote, CEO Marc Benioff announced Salesforce Chatter, a product that supplements the company's service, sales, platform, and customization tools. -
Forrester's Bruce Temkin: 16 Voice of the Customer Recommendations
18 Nov 2009 | 10:44 amI recently published a report called "Sixteen Voice of the Customer Recommendations." To uncover this advice, I analyzed the 40 nominations submitted for Forrester's Voice of the Customer (VoC) Award from earlier this year. I examined responses to the question: "What lessons have you learned that would be most valuable to other firms?" The analysis uncovered these 16 recommendations across 5 categories: -
Turn Up the Volume on Customer Listening
18 Nov 2009 | 7:49 amOn Monday my colleague Elizabeth Glagowski blogged about a reader's negative experience with Subway. A reader shared with her how she recently emailed Subway to suggest that the company put the tuna sandwich back on the $5 menu. Instead of accepting the customer's feedback, passing it along to the product development team, and possibly learning from the customer who eats at Subway a few times every week, the customer service rep. instead sent her a surprising reply. -
Guest Blogger Denis Pombriant: Invert Your Thinking About Social CRM
17 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amI've been having fun quoting Stephen Covey's Habit 5 from The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People in relation to Social CRM. If it's been a while since you read this classic, Habit 5 says, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood". It's a good piece of advice that many of us learned before we could read; for me, it's something that I have to relearn almost daily. Habit 5 is real gold for Social CRM, but it is also rather counterintuitive. One of the first things we think about when we think of social-anything is how cheap and easy it is to communicate with friends and almost…
-
The Intervals Blog by Pelago
-
Compare Browser Type CSS Options
13 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pmI admit it. I’m a typophile. Addicted to descenders and x-heights, I could stare at the lower-case ‘g’ (the one with the closed descender) forever trying to inherit the genius of the early typographers who gave us Garamond and it’s brethren. Exploring type on the web isn’t as limitless as it’s analog counterpart, but there are still a lot of variations that can be accomplished with browser type. Here to help reign in the number of options we have when designing and developing web sites using browser text and CSS is www.typetester.org. Definitely check it… -
Three Reasons Why Not To Sign Non Disclosure Agreements
10 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pmIn the nine-plus years that Pelago has been designing and developing web sites and web-based applications, we’ve been asked more than once to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before putting together an estimate. Whether they are trying to protect a business process or an idea, the client usually has a genuine concern for keeping information private. Given the client’s good intentions, why don’t we sign NDAs? We have a few good reasons… The client’s idea is rarely unique There is a big difference between having a unique idea and being first to market. The… -
Why Evolution is Better than Revolution
3 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am“In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.” — Béla Bartók The landscape of web-based time tracking, task management, and project management tools has become a little noisy. It seems that each month another company is throwing their app into the fray and hoping for the best. While those of us behind Intervals believe this to be a good thing, because it offers the small business more options in finding a solution that will fit them best, it has become interesting to watch how various web-based offerings… -
A New Collaborative Web Site for Project Management Questions
2 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pmA new web site for helping people find answers to project management quesitons has recently launched over at AskAboutProjects. The site does a great job of allowing the community to participate without being overwhelmed by the big words and acronyms that usually go hand-in-hand with project management discussions. Go on over and participate. It would be nice to see this web site take off like its counterpart StackOverflow. Related posts Three Reasons Why Not To Sign Non Disclosure Agreements (16) Why Evolution is Better than Revolution (3) Project Landscape Report (0) Periscope Report (0)… -
Project Landscape Report
28 Oct 2009 | 10:52 amWe’ve added a new report to Intervals, the Project Landscape Report. This report is useful for comparing data across several projects at once. Whether taking a glance at how your projects are doing, or digging in deeper to view tracked time, task totals and financial balances and budgets, this report is ideal for gauging project health. The report filters enable project managers to break down the project landscape into a countless number of perspectives — view all billable projects across your company or run a history of all active and inactive projects for a specific client. The…
-
evergance.wordpress.com
-
Thoughts on Choosing Customer Service Software
17 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pmThoughts on Choosing Customer Service Software The most important thing to remember when selecting Customer Service software is to choose an offering that supports your company’s brand perception. It is not the goal for all companies to offer the most ideal customer experience that vendors try to sell you. For example, the expectations of users of a discount airline is not “over-the-top” service, but service that is streamlined, and heavily reliant on web self-service and email. On the other hand, a luxury retailer’s service offering is very different – It should be white-gloved… -
KANA: Change Redux
13 Nov 2009 | 2:22 amKANA: Change Redux Earlier this year, in a previous post, I noted that change is the one constant in business and in life. Change is good as long as it ultimately carries a person and a business forward with new insight, knowledge and skills. Without change, a person can stagnate and an organization can lose its edge. Look at the Yankees. Over the past 15 years, the team has changed managers, stadiums, and nearly every position player on the field. These changes might have been too much for another team. But the DNA of champions is deeply embedded within the Yankees organization. Ultimately,… -
Hype or Hyper-Measurement?
10 Nov 2009 | 1:51 amHype or Hyper-Measurement? Recently, Seth Godin posted on how we are moving into an era of “hyper-measurement.” As he explains, a journalist being fired because his or her web content isn’t drawing a lot of traffic is not going to be a newsroom novelty for much longer. In a world where, more and more, success can be measured in quantifiable metrics, why wouldn’t a publisher base business decisions on newly available evidence? It just makes sense. The customer service industry is no different. As my fellow blogger, Kate Leggett, points out, to truly maximize the value of their contact… -
Cast YOUR Vote Today: Search!
6 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pmCast Your VOTE Today: Search! This week’s elections got me thinking about a voting process most of us do many times a day but hardly think of that way: searching on the web. If you really break it down, a search isn’t some deep, technical thing we do – it’s more of a guess, an approximation, a forecast, a VOTE about what words we think exist in content we think we want to view. This process works quickly, magically and consistently most of the time so we rarely give it much thought. We enter a few words, as unique and meaningful as we can make them upon 2 seconds reflection,… -
10 Reasons KM Doesn’t Work
2 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pmIt’s no fun to state things in negatives, but sometimes it’s important to identify common patterns and issues, so we don’t keep doing the wrong things over and over. It’s also quite easy to enter into a comfortable state of denial, where things are because “that’s always they way they’ve been”. In an effort to help identify areas that might actually be hurting you that you’re not aware of, or not aware you can CHANGE, I present to you my KM ‘Letterman List’ for November. KM DOESN’T WORK BECAUSE: 10. The knowledge…
-
Customer Service That Astonishes
-
Do You Stand Behind Your Employees?
10 Nov 2009 | 4:20 amA friend shared the following email that she sent to the individual responsible for Customer Service at Danier Leather in Toronto. I am taking a few moments to email you about the poor customer service I received today at approximately 12.30 pm in your Eaton Centre store. I had gone in on my lunch hour to purchase a pair of gloves. Once I found the pair that I wanted to purchase I stood in line for a cashier. I was pleased to find out that if I surrendered my email today I would be able to take advantage of the 20% discount being offered. For a while there was only one cashier, so the line… -
Valued Based Pricing
3 Nov 2009 | 4:11 amRecently I deposited a cheque from a US client into my US funds account. I then immediately transferred a portion of that deposit into my current account which is in Canadian dollars. Two interesting things happen. First, the bank was unable to guarantee an exchange rate from US to Canadian funds. It seems that there is variation over the course of the day based on when “they” transfer the funds. I have learned that this is also the case when transferring funds online. Of interest, if I had withdrawn the funds and then deposited them into the Canadian account, I could have gotten… -
Don’t Be A Jack of all Trades
20 Oct 2009 | 5:31 amI read a post by Dumb Little Man that encourages people to focus on their strengths versus their weaknesses. This advice seems counter-intuitive, since we all should be striving for improvement in our lives — and our businesses. Their point is “you’ve got the potential to go further with your natural strengths than you do with your weaknesses.” When we build on our strengths, we continue to set ourselves apart from others who do not share the same strengths. It contributes to our uniqueness that makes us memorable — either as a person or a business. If we spend… -
Thank You
13 Oct 2009 | 5:36 amThese are 2 of the most powerful words in the English language — they are equally powerful in any language. They express our gratefulness for the benefits we have received, either in personal or business relationships. This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada so I wanted to share a thanksgiving story about one of my clients — PRO-TAX, headquartered in Charlottesville Virginia. I have had the privilege to work with this organization since 2008 and they have consistently demonstrated their values and commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience. And they are… -
When a Volume Discount isn’t a Volume Discount
6 Oct 2009 | 5:23 amDo you put barriers in the way of your customers that prevent them from giving you their money? My wife and I recently dropped by our local Blockbuster video to rent a movie. There was a special on previously viewed movies that offered 4 movies for $20.00 vs. $6.99 each. They had a large selection and we noticed there were a number of movies that either we hadn’t seen or thought they would be good to add to our home library — so we decided to purchase some. After sorting through the selection, we chose 10 movies - assuming that anything over the 4 movies would be available at…
-
X-Squared On Demand LLC Blog
-
Computer Associates Plans To Release Agile Development Tool On Force.com Platform
19 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amToday, at Dreamforce 2009, Computer Associates plans to release CA Agile Planner(http://www.ca.com/agile), a tool to manage agile development teams. CA Agile Planner will be integrated with CA Clarity PPM (http://www.ca.com/ppm). Although it was not clear how much of the demonstrated app will run on Force.com and how much will run on the CA servers (though it appeared to be 100% on Force.com), it was clear that the application was accessed via a force.com URL. For more information, see http://www.ca.com/agile. A release date for the product was not mentioned, but the earliest planned release… -
New Developer Library Released
19 Nov 2009 | 9:43 amToday, Developer Force (http://developer.force.com) released its new library. Here are a few of them. All can be found at http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Documentation. Workbook http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/workbook/index.htm Fundamentals http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/fundamentals/index.htm Cookbook http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/cookbook/index.htm Apex Advanced Code Example http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_shopping_cart_example.htm… -
Dreamforce Keynote – Chatter and the Platform
18 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pmThere is no way to write one post to cover everything, so I want to address one thing that some people may not have noticed: Salesforce Chatter is being pushed as a platform layer. Looking at the “chiclet” slide that Marc Benioff unveiled, let’s start with the “old” slide: Yes, this is not the exact slide, but getting a copy of the initial slide is proving difficult. We'll have to use this one from Dreamforce 2008 as a reference, and will need to imagine the rest. Notice that the bottom level is Infrastructure. This is the hardware that salesforce.com provides along with the promise… -
Salesforce.com Releases “Chatter” – a first look
18 Nov 2009 | 9:28 amThe keynote hasn’t even started and already there is a lot of chatter on twitter and the web about salesforce.com’s new offering: Salesforce Chatter. In the Blog Pound, we were given books of Service Cloud success stories and chattering-teeth. The press packets were handed out, full of descriptions of Salesforce CRM’s new releases, all focused on the Service Cloud. The biggest release is Salesforce Chatter, an enterprise collaboration – social computing mashup (http://www.salesforce.com/chatter – link inactive at posting time). It combines Content, Apps, and People in a secure… -
Dreamforce 2009 Day 1: Prep
18 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amGood morning, all! As Dreamforce is this week, I’ll be sharing more frequently, updating after every major session and sharing code and config tips picked up during the conference. Salesforce.com was kind enough to give me a Blogger pass, so I may have access to some interesting news; I’ll be sure to share it here. Last night was the Dreamforce 2009 Tweetup, organized by yours-truly and sponsored by Jon Mountjoy, Community Manager at Force.com and by Appirio, who has a booth in the Expo. A good time was had by all, as people who have only known each other via 140-character text…
-
Constructive Grumpiness
-
Don't Eliminate Vacation Policies
20 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am-Focus on Performance not Process -Reflects Reality -Defines culture of company -Empowers Employees -
Gen Y? Millennial? Great... what else can you do?
11 Nov 2009 | 4:46 amHere’s a fact. One day you will be 30 years old. Here’s an opinion. There are a lot of people over 30 who don’t care about what you have to say about being under 30. Here’s another opinion. There are a lot of people under 30 who care about your thoughts but aren’t in a place in life where they can help you. “You're Wrong! I know tons of….” So what am I getting at by spouting off these polarizing statements? I’m trying to offer a warning. I dabbled for a short amount of time in the “under 30” topic soon to realize it was an… -
Squarespace is the Apple of Blogging
9 Nov 2009 | 6:13 pmSquarespace isn't for "Bloggers" The same way Garage Band, iMovie, or iPhoto gives novice creators the ability to edit and build various projects, Squarespace gives experienced and new bloggers the chance to create blogs that are visually appealing with minimal knowledge of blogging. With something like Wordpress, there is no way around knowing some CSS. Something as simple as changing the width of your columns or moving a header requires tweaks that few new bloggers will understand how to make. Squarespace makes structural customization as WYSIWYG as it can be while also allowing for… -
EVERYTHING you Love is Dead
6 Nov 2009 | 7:45 amImage Credit Taking a note from Seth Godin, I’m going to admit, my title is bogus and a small shot at the all too common blog posts declaring “X” dead. The things above aren’t dead, their status quo is dead. People crave seeing that which is unique. They need to hear stories. They want help discovering what’s new. They can’t help share their life through melody. They seek to be part of a community. This hasn’t changed. The means in which those needs are satisfied has. The following is a short but hopefully positive and helpful list of examples of how… -
So Proud of my Alma Mater
3 Nov 2009 | 5:50 pmPurdue University has developed a system that will soon integrate social tools such as Twitter and Facebook into the classroom. Taking a cue from many tech conferences, students will be able to post questions to a public forum visible to the professor and rest of the class. In addition, the system employs a Digg-style system which lets students vote up and down questions that they think is most important. I'm incredibly proud of my former school for not just using this kind of technology, but for BUILDING it. Go Boilers!
-
The Amazing Service Guy
-
Don’t leave your customers wondering
20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pmby Kevin Stirtz Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: Don’t leave your customers wondering And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… When you leave your customers with unanswered questions, you are not doing your job. You are not helping them get what they came for. When you leave customers wondering, you substantially increase the chances they will go to your competition. And they’ll probably tell stories about you (not good stories either). The good news is, it’s easy to prevent this. All it takes is that you try to see things from your customer’s Point of… -
Remember and use your customer’s name
19 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pmby Kevin Stirtz Here is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: Remember and use your customer’s name And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… Remember the quote (I think Dale Carnegie said it): “Nothing is sweeter than the sound of a person’s own name.” When you use a customer’s name, you break down a lot of barriers that can block communication. You position yourself for a better relationship with your customer. Plus it helps you remember and recognize your customers. It’s easier (and more fun) to acknowledge them when you can use their name. This is an… -
See things from your customer’s view
18 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pmHere is your Daily Dose of Amazing Service: See things from your customer’s view And here are some additional thoughts on this topic… Every Saturday a bunch of us have breakfast at a local restaurant. We always ask for separate checks. This makes it easier when we pay. And, unless we have our regular server, we always get the same response. They total the checks separately but they’re still printed on the same piece of paper. Maybe the server considers them separate because they’re each totaled on their own. But from the customer’s view, they are still combined. If… -
Customer Service Quote for November 18, 2009
18 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm“A sale is not something you pursue, it is something that happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.” -UnknownSimilar articles: Customer Service Quote for November 4, 2009 Let your customer lead Serve your customers Customer Service Quote for May 21, 2009 Customer Service Quote for June 3, 2009 -
Welcome to better customer service!
18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amI’m Kevin Stirtz, the Amazing Service Guy. And my job is to help you increase customer loyalty by improving customer service. There are four ways I can help you. Click below for more information or contact me and we can talk directly. Customer Service Help for Employees Customer Service Help for Managers Customer Service Assessment Resources
-
Can I have that with!
-
There are finance options
18 Nov 2009 | 8:07 amSeth had a great post about how to secure funding,Need to raise money for a restaurant? It's hard for an investor to figure out how to win by owning equity (because it's so easy for the owner of the restaurant to manipulate profit). But if the investor gets 4% of every check paid, that's money back starting on the first day.This type of financing will become the preferential method for investor to undertake risk.Now, Warren and Goldman want to help too.Goldman Sachs apologised for its role in the financial crisis on Tuesday and pledged $500m over five years – or about 2.3 per cent of its… -
Why are they not listening?
15 Nov 2009 | 4:50 pmAre you communicating to the right Ear? ChangingMinds Blog explainswhere loud music makes listening tricky, and tried a series of experiments. When they tried asking for a cigarette in the left ear or the right ear of their subjects, they found that almost twice as many requests to the right ear were successful. This confirms a tip I've heard before that when doing a presentation you will be more successful if you stand to the left (as you face the audience). Of course then more of what you say will reach the right ear than the left ear. The explanation is that sound in the right ear goes to… -
Nudging the low calorie options
14 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pmHow do you get customers to eat healthy selections and still turn a profit. The Nudgeblog has this post;Incentivizing convenience of ordering low calorie food, by clustering these options together at the top of the menu, seems to have a significant impact. -
Wine wheel
7 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amChart porn points us to a wine wheel, -
Dipstick to measure toxins
7 Nov 2009 | 5:54 amBetter check those vendors before you sell it to your guests TR's post explains,Now a team of chemists at McMaster University in Ontario have published a paper in Analytical Chemistry that describes a new biomonitoring technique using treated paper on a stick that can quickly identify trace amounts of pesticides in your chicken soup, or your first early morning cup of joe. As reported in R&D: The scientists describe the development of a new paper-based test strip that changes color shades depending on the amount of pesticide present. In laboratory studies using food and beverage samples…
-
The Sun Rises Today
-
Will there come a time we'll all be on the same page digitally?
20 Nov 2009 | 6:52 amRight now, the difference between 12 year olds being wired to the Internet and 62 year olds being not wired so much is huge. There's a very large gap there, mostly due to the fact that the Internet is very young and these 12 year olds have literally grown up with it. The 62 year olds had a lot goin' on before that. But what about 30 years from now? Will the digital gap between generations be that large? The Internet will be well past its teen years by then and the number of people that aren't familiar with the digital world will be much smaller. Or will it? Will this generational… -
Are you creating an experience or a chore?
19 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amI saw a woman a few days ago scanning several lottery tickets to see if she won. She simply placed the ticket under the scanner, checked the tiny screen to see if she won, and moved on to the next ticket. Within a minute and a half, she was done. That's it? That's the experience the lottery has been reduced to? It's almost more of a chore than a fun (and potentially life altering) game. Buy a bunch of tickets, scan, repeat. You could really do it all within a few minutes without leaving the store. Back in the day (which was a Wednesday), you watched the lady on TV pull out the numbered… -
What do traditions mean to you?
5 Nov 2009 | 6:58 amThe word traditional often leaves a funny taste in your mouth. These days, word on the street is traditional is bad. Traditional signifies the way things used to be, not the way things will (should) be. But are traditions really that bad? Or can they be the foundation of greatness? Think of the traditions in your life. Christmas. Weekly staff meetings. Getting up at 2am on Black Friday to get all the deals with your girlfriends. Monday night football with the guys. American Idol nights. Choosing and cutting down the family Christmas tree. Board games on New Year's Eve. December ski… -
Are you aware of the (extra)ordinary?
4 Nov 2009 | 10:53 amThe beaten up old shoes you've worn for a year and are ready to throw out might be a saving grace for a kid somewhere without shoes. The annoying rain you've gotten all week could be a slice of heaven for a village that has been dry for three months. The thirty-five minute drive from your house to your parents is a godsend compared to the two hour trip somebody else experiences via public transportation. What is ordinary to you could be extraordinary to someone else. Are you aware of the (extra)ordinary? -
Are you the one that opens the other door?
3 Nov 2009 | 7:48 amSometimes, when you're leaving the train station, everybody's coming into the train station. And they're all coming in through the left door. Because the first person went through that door, so everybody else follows. Twice the amount of people could get in if somebody simply opened the other door too. But nobody does. Are you the one that opens the other door?
-
Customer Service Voodoo
-
Stop Calling Me! Customer Service for Telemarketers
16 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pmI think that everyone knows about the National Do Not Call Registry. However, what do you do when you keep getting calls from a company that you have bought things from in the past? Over the years, I have bought quite a few family DVDs and workbooks for my kids from a specific company. In fact, I have purchased just about every item that they own. Unfortunately, I continue to get robo-calls from them at home to try and get me to purchase the few remaining items that they sell that I don’t have. Quite annoyingly, these calls come in once a month or so and I have gotten very tired… -
What is the best Customer Service Quote? Tell us and win a FREE Book!
12 Nov 2009 | 8:32 pmI have been scanning quite a few Customer Service quotes online and would like to hear from you all as to which is your favorite. I’m giving away a FREE Customer Service Voodoo book to the best one (I am the judge!). To enter, just Tweet your quote and include ‘@brandon_caudle’ with the hashtag of ‘#freebook’. For example – ‘the Customer is always right @brandon_caudle #freebook’. The contest starts NOW and ends Sunday night. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your quotes! Brandon -
100 Customer Service Musts!
8 Nov 2009 | 7:08 pmLast week, Bruce Buschel over at the New York Times ran a column on ‘The 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do‘. It was very comprehensive, so much, in fact, that it had to be split into two columns. From the first commandment – “Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting”, to the last “Show your appreciation for good customers with a free glass of port, a plate of biscotti or something else management approves”, Bruce hits the nail on the head when dealing with Customers. While he may have written this for… -
It Would Be A Great Business, If It Weren’t For The Customers
27 Oct 2009 | 10:00 pmI saw this on Twitter today: What is with my customers today?! They’re all slow and stupid. I mean they’re like that everyday but today it’s worse. #customerservice I don’t even know where to start… I will spare the person the shame of having their name posted on here, but I will ask that we all take a good hard look at our business and our processes. Are we encouraging or instilling this type of behavior in our employees? As Charles Schulz would write – “Good Grief!” Let’s get with the program, thanks for reading! Brandon -
Twitter and Bringing Potatoes to Market
13 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pmThere is an old saying about farming that goes, “Every mile that you are closer to your market is a tangible advantage.” Actually, it comes from a book originally published in 1867, however, the maxim is still true. While Peter Henderson was originally talking about getting produce to market, this principle applies to virtually every facet of business. For example, we have to look no further than the off ramps on major highways to see that fast food restaurants and gas stations jostle for signage and physical location, all with the goal of attracting more Customers. After all,…
-
spark new thinking
-
Thank God It's Monday?
16 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pmHow do you feel about Mondays? I'm sure there is a fascinating research study somewhere that states something like 88.3% of Americans dread Mondays. Without the benefit of real research, I have to rely on my personal observations, which tell me that 88.3% might actually be a low number.Observation #1: What I see on Facebook & TwitterThere are a staggering number of posts on social media outlets that either complain about Monday or say "What a horrible week, thank GOD it's Friday." Oh, and a few more each week that are just thankful to be on the downward side of "hump day."Observation #2:… -
sparkspace video tour and interview!
15 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pmsparkspace was recently featured on ONN - The Ohio News Network. Here's the video that aired on Ohio & Company. Enjoy! -
Do What's Important
11 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pmYou're going to think I'm nuts. Or maybe you already do. Maybe you're nuts and that's why you like reading this post. Doesn't matter. Either way, I'm going to write the shortest article I've ever written. It's basically the question I've been asking myself lately. Here goes. Ready?What's important to you? What's important to your business? What are the things on your list of a thousand things-to-do that will really make a positive impact on this world? Do what's important. Do it first. Do it every day. The rest is just busy-ness. Don't let the busy-ness get in the way of what's important. In… -
Posts from Day 3 of NACCM Customer's 1st Conference
8 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pmHere are the sessions we covered during day 3 of the NACCM Customer's 1st Conference:NACCM 2009 LIVE: Living The Brand. How Marketing can Partner with HR to Create Better Brand and Customer ExperiencesTom NightingaleChief Marketing Officer, Con-Way, Inc.NACCM 2009 LIVE: How Travelocity uses customer information to create a Customer Service CultureGinny Mahl is VP, Customer Care at TravelocityNACCM 2009 LIVE: Preparing for Customer Centricity 2020: How to Evolve the People, the Process & Technology to Meet Future needsBo McBee, Vice President of Enterprise Total Customer Experience and… -
Posts from Day 2 of NACCM Customer's 1st Conference
5 Nov 2009 | 7:09 amOn day 2 of the NACCM Customer's 1st Conference, I followed the "Strategic Leadership and Customer-Centric Culture" learning track. Here are the sessions I covered for the Customer's 1st Blog:Designing and Developing Performance-Support Learning ProgramsKathleen Peterson, Chief Vision Officer, Powerhouse ConsultingFrugality is Reality! Management Imperatives for Leading on a Limited BudgetJohn McQuaig, Executive Director, St. Jude's Children's HospitalGlobal Culture Transformation: Changing the Behavior of Leaders at All LevelsGloria Roberts, Staff Vice President of Service Experience, FedEx
-
ClickSoftware
-
Coming Soon: Service Chain Optimization For Dummies, the minibook!
18 Nov 2009 | 11:19 amMany months ago at the beginning of 2009, I was invited to attend an industry analyst’s CRM event in London and in between attending various briefings and presentations I walked the floor in the exhibition hall to see what the numerous software vendors were promoting. Being mostly unfamiliar territory, many of the exhibitors were not known to me and, to be honest, it became somewhat tiresome repeating the same “So, tell me what you do” line.One particular vendor surprised me however by just handing me a small minibook, branded in the globally recognizable ‘For Dummies’ format that… -
Art of outsourcing
1 Nov 2009 | 11:40 amWhilst on holidays recently, I finished reading a book titled “War PLC – The rise of the new corporate mercenary” which looks into the evolution of corporate soldiers (mercenaries) and the privatisation of war. The United States and the UK have outsourced key military and security functions to private military companies to carry out; primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Functions that have been outsourced include: logistical support, training military personnel, operating and maintaining military weapons, interrogation and translating.This article is not about the morals and justification… -
Seriously, How Tough is Panasonic ToughBook?
20 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amSome of our ClickMobile customers are using Panasonic ToughBooks, but I doubt if any of them took the time (and courage) to check how tough those beasts can really get...We, in ClickSoftware decided to go al the way and check it ourselves!Luckily, someone already did it for us...So here's a short video by Forbes, showing the capabilities of the ToughBook, and if you think that surviving a tiger's teeth and carrying a real elephant's weight is considered to be tough - then it's tough! Author: Gil Bouhnick Wan't more mobile? Visit the Mobilefever blog for all mobile, all the time. -
How to select a mobile device - Part #1 (Keyboard)
5 Oct 2009 | 7:22 amWhen it comes to picking the best mobile device for your organization, there are many parameters that needs to be considered. Price, performance, operating system, ease of maintenance, security, stability, resistance, usability, memory, screen size, compatibility with the mobile software and more.The "How to select a mobile device" guide is based on our experience and includes some tips you will hopefully find useful.In this part of the guide: Keyboard. One of the questions I often get relates to the keyboard, especially when thinking about PDAs.There are many kinds of form factors, many of… -
Project Success = On Time + Within Budget … + Full User Acceptance?
23 Sep 2009 | 11:22 amAt the end of each project I ask clients for lessons learned. The most commonly cited takeaway is the importance of getting the employees who are affected by the project onboard with the new implementation. As one client told me recently about a ClickSchedule implementation, “If our dispatchers and technicians hadn’t accepted the new software, we would have failed. They meant everything to the success of this project.” In other words, it’s not enough to install some software and assume the implementation is a success. We only achieve success in a project if we also help our people…
-
Your Source for Providing a Better Customer Service and Customer Support Experience
-
Call for Speakers!
19 Nov 2009 | 11:36 amParaFest '10 - Call for Speakers Speaking at ParaFest ‘10, being held at the hip, rock-n-roll Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, is a great way of sharing your passion and expertise with industry peers and colleagues. Parature is seeking customer service experts and industry thought leaders who want to share their Parature Customer Service™ software and industry knowledge with users attending the conference. All session speakers will be entitled to one (1) complimentary conference registration OR one (1) night complimentary guest room. Sessions ParaFest ‘10 will feature… -
Parature Announces ParaFest ‘10
19 Nov 2009 | 11:25 amParaFest '10 - May 4-6, 2010 - Las Vegas We announced today that our sixth annual users’ conference, ParaFest ’10 will be held May 4 - 6, 2010 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. This customer focused conference will allow Parature users from around the world to gain invaluable knowledge from industry experts and thought leaders, while networking with colleagues and peers. ParaFest ’10 will feature hands-on training sessions led by the Parature Professional Services team and a diverse mix of customer service and support best practices sessions led by Parature customers… -
The Cult of the Customer
19 Nov 2009 | 8:54 amWhite Paper - The Cult of the Customer The customer experience has never been more important than it is in today’s service environment. Customer service is driven by the customer experience and the people inside a company provide that experience – whatever employees experience on the ‘inside’ is similar to what customers will experience ‘on the outside.’ This thought provoking white paper will compel you to ask the following: Is my company in alignment? Does every employee understand the vision? Do our employees love their jobs? The Cult of the Customer… -
A Multi-Channel Service Environment – Essential to Customer Retention
12 Nov 2009 | 7:32 amWatch this Webinar In today’s environment, the customer has never been more important - customer satisfaction and retention are critical to any organization’s success, and customer service is essential to that end. The most efficient and successful customer support departments are versatile; providing their customers with a preferred method of support. Today’s customers are tech-savvy and require so much more than simple phone support. Integrated multi-channel service options, such as self-service via knowledgebases and downloads, live chat sessions, mobile applications, and easy issue… -
Support Makeover Earns Coremetrics Top Analyst Marks – Even as Company Reduces Support Costs
6 Nov 2009 | 6:26 amDownload the Coremetrics success story Every day, more than 2,000 online business sites globally – with transactions representing over $20 billion per year – rely on Coremetrics to optimize their online marketing. Most significantly, the company’s clients are happy. Yet not that long ago, Coremetrics recognized it was time to take support to the next level to drive client satisfaction. “We recognized the need to provide our clients the 24×7 help needed, but in a scalable way,” said Paige Newcombe, senior director, Global Client Services. “The metrics spoke to the need to…
-
Customers Are Talking
-
Technology is great… and so is avoiding the acorns
20 Nov 2009 | 8:16 amThis 10-minute TED presentation from Tom Wujec demonstrates the astrolabe (an instrument used hundreds of years ago to tell time at night) and in doing so discusses what’s lost amidst technological advances. Wujec points out that simply knowing how to tell the time at night required one to deeply understand the geography of the night sky. I’ve encountered something similar recently. For the last couple of months, I’ve been accompanying my son to school – both on rollerblades and on bike. That brief ride (about a mile) has acquainted me with the various elevation… -
When innovating, seek out more, and more varied, ideas
18 Nov 2009 | 9:42 amI’ve been reading the book “Innovation Tournaments” by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich of the Wharton School. The book sets out a methodology (the “tournament” of the title) for companies to generate and systematically winnow down innovation ideas to eliminate all but the most exceptional opportunities. Two brief observations: One, the authors suggest that almost any company’s innovation performance would be helped by increasing the number of ideas going into the top of the funnel. Early-stage evaluation (a la “Discovery-Driven Growth“) is… -
Customers are talking: here comes “Broadcast Shopping”
17 Nov 2009 | 11:06 amThis week Doc Searls posted on an idea called “Personal RFP.” In this model, people wishing to buy a product would be able to put together an open “request for proposal” – essentially, a specification for what they want to buy, including budget, and solicit bids from suppliers wanting to sell it to them. [Nothing even approximately like this exists today, except perhaps Priceline, the reverse-auction travel broker, which is full of compromises to the Personal RFP model.] Scott Adams of “Dilbert” fame made a similar proposal, and he created a catchy… -
Really need to learn? Conduct an interview
16 Nov 2009 | 10:56 amI was inspired by Ford Harding’s post today on cross-selling, most of all by his suggestion of how to educate others in the company about one’s own services, including this idea: Structure the session as an interview, rather than a presentation. Announce to the participants that they won’t learn anything about the featured practice, unless they ask about it. Then, don’t allow the person seeking to cross sell his service to say anything, except in response to his colleagues questions. If his colleagues aren’t interested or intelligent enough to ask good questions about the… -
My reading journal: Roger Martin’s “The Design of Business”
11 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm“The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage,” by Roger Martin. 2009: Harvard Business Press, 190pp. When did you read it? November 2009. Subject: Hot on the heels of Tim Brown’s “Change by Design,” Rotman School dean Roger Martin, author of “The Opposable Mind” discusses how design thinking can help businesses balance exploration (the search for new solutions) and exploitation (extracting value from existing solutions) to improve their innovative capability. Did you like it? How many stars would you give it (1-5)? 4…
-
The Think Zone
-
After the Conference
8 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pmIf you happen to follow me on Twitter or be connected with me on LinkedIn, you probably know that I attended the First Wednesday Group's excellent Voice of the Customer Conference in Massachusetts this past week. This was my second time, and I'm so glad I attended. The producers put together a great range of speakers, and there is always a lot to learn.But here's where the value of any conference is either made or broken: What's next? What did I take away from this event that helps my job, my career, my life? What did I hear—what topics were discussed that will make a difference for me over… -
A Seat at the Grownups' Table
1 Nov 2009 | 5:55 amMany of us can remember Thanksgiving dinner in an extended family setting where those of us who were very young were sent to eat at the kids' table—usually a folding table set up just for the purpose. When we were "old enough" we were able to move up to the grownups' table. It was and is a rite of passage. For those of us who are the youngest sibling, this rite was even more important.In business, a "seat at the table" means that your department or division or function gets to participate in decision-making processes. Your people get to be in the room when decisions are at least discussed… -
Finding Opportunities in Change
15 Oct 2009 | 6:08 pmThere were two significant changes in my workplace this week. They weren't new servers or databases. They were changes in staff.One person has left the Service Desk to take a new and exciting position closer to home (it will save him about 3 hours a day). Another will be leaving my Desktop Support group to head across the building to take up systems administration duties.Neither of these changes is easy. Work needs to be absorbed or modified. There will be the inevitable challenges to get up to speed on things these people know and things they did. Oh, sure, we have documentation. The… -
Customer Service Week: Celebrating Your Best
4 Oct 2009 | 8:18 amWho picks up the phone when someone calls your company with a question or a problem? After your customer has navigated what is sometimes a long Winding Path through a phone tree or waited on hold—or both—who handles a confused, sometimes angry customer? Your Customer Service people do. Customer Service Week is meant as a time to honor and celebrate the people who do this difficult and sometimes personally rewarding job. Like a lot of well-intended celebrations, however, it has become focused more on celebrations in Customer Service rather than celebrations of Customer Service both as a… -
Customer Service Week: What Makes Great Service?
27 Sep 2009 | 8:21 amFrom time to time, we are struck by the quality of service we experience at a particular store, restaurant, or from the support folks associated with a Web site or company. As we approach Customer Service Week, which starts on October 5 this year, let's examine the particular things that make us say, "That was great service."By great service, I mean the kind of service that makes us change our mind about a purchase or item; it's the kind that not only makes us feel good, but makes us want to tell people about the business, to spread the word, to become an advocate for that business. Anyone in…
-
AFFINA Blog
-
Are You Enjoying The Ride?
20 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pmBy Donna J. MalonePresident & CEO – AFFINAI recently attended a conference where speaker and author Steve Gilliland talked about how too often we focus on the destination rather than enjoying the ride. This is the time of year when that happens more than ever. It’s easy to get so focused on planning for the holidays that we forget to enjoy the simple pleasures in each day. How many times have you felt like you spent countless hours planning a holiday celebration that was gone in the blink of an eye – I know I have felt that way more times than I would like to admit.I am a list maker… -
What are People Saying Online about Your Brands, Products, and Promotions?
28 Oct 2009 | 9:46 amWhy Social Media Strategies Should Integrate with Customer Care.By Lori BoyceSenior Director – AFFINAImagine a never-ending, virtual focus group during which your customers openly share candid feedback and opinions on your products, promotions, and brands. Let’s say this virtual, never-ending focus group includes participants who have actually used your products, and the audience is thousands or even millions of individuals in your target market.Wouldn’t you want to listen-in? Facilitate conversations? Dispel myths? Thank those who praise your products? Make things right with those who… -
Use Customer Data to Make Strategy Decisions
23 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amBy Lori BoyceSenior Director - AFFINAThrough hundreds of thousands of contacts across multiple channels, your customers are saying, “I have this product,” or “I use this service,” and most importantly, “here’s what’s happening,” and “what can you tell me about it?”When analyzed carefully, data can uncover trends and customer feedback that can be used to help improve the service experience and reduce overall service cost. Using data to your advantage should start with an overall review of the information at hand. A few suggestions include:Fully understand call arrival… -
Social Media and Customer Service: Your Questions Answered
15 Oct 2009 | 2:29 pmBy Lori BoyceSenior Director - AFFINASocial media sites of all types have become powerful channels for companies to use for smart marketing strategies that reach targeted customer segments and further evangelize their brands.The influence of social media on customer loyalty is unmistakable. Social media channels – including blogs, message boards, networking sites, and many more – are full of comments from customers who are offering opinions, complaints, compliments, and advice on millions of brands and products.A customer service strategy for social media is understanding the online buzz,… -
Is Reducing AHT a Good Cost Savings Strategy for Your Operations?
25 Sep 2009 | 7:57 amBy Lori BoyceSenior Director - AFFINACompanies everywhere are seeking ways to cut costs at no risk to the customer experience. Is it possible to achieve both? Absolutely.When customers reach out to you, they are seeking resolution, and doing so quickly, accurately, and to their satisfaction is one way to keep them coming back for more of your product or service.There are a lot of ways to achieve cost savings; in this post, the focus is on one: reducing average handle time (AHT) in ways that will protect the customer experience and reduce your overall costs. Here are two quick ways to…
-
Scott McKain Viewpoint
-
On my honor….
17 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pmIt’s my pleasure to recommend to you to a new book with a timeless message about achieving enduring success as a leader. My good buddy, Randy Pennington, has just released a completely updated edition of his book, “On My Honor, I Will: The Journey to INTEGRITY-DRIVEN® Leadership.” This book shows anyone — front line leader, CEO, parent, and community leaders — how to influence others through a leadership style that models integrity, honor, and duty. Randy combines his extensive experience as a resource and advisor to executives with examples from the best of America’s… -
Is a smile really asking too much?
16 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pmWhen I lived in California, then Vegas, I loved that I was close to a Fry’s Electronics. Unlike the stores with which I was familiar — Best Buy, Circuit City, H.H. Gregg — it seemed as though Fry’s had EVERYTHING! It wasn’t just the most marketable products, they also stocked the hard-to-find stuff that I always seemed to need…like the power supply to a three-year-old laptop, or a crossover cable to update the files between a Windows and Mac. Yet, when I started becoming a customer, I realized that they stocked everything…but delivered little in the… -
Just curious…
15 Nov 2009 | 9:59 am“To go to the main menu, press 9.” So…I press 9…then hear, “I’m sorry. 9 is not a valid entry here.” And, the recording then repeats my options…which includes, “To go to the main menu, press 9.” So, again, I press 9…then hear, “I’m sorry. 9 is not a valid entry here.” Upon which, I hang up, vowing to never call again. I’m just curious…when do you suppose the last time was that someone from that company actually called their own order line and attempted to spend money with themselves…the way… -
Mama’s Table…
14 Nov 2009 | 9:28 amMy good friend, Joe Bonsall, sent me a note this morning about a new video from his group — the world-famous Oak Ridge Boys. If you happen to be a fan of country music, you’re aware of Jamey Johnson, winner of the Country Music Association award this week for writing the year’s best song, “In Color.” (He also performed on the show’s telecast on ABC-TV with Kid Rock.) Seems that Jamey is a HUGE fan of the Oak Ridge Boys — and wrote a song called “Mama’s Table” that only they could bring to life. On this blog, we share a lot of… -
I chose you because of Colin…
11 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pmSitting on a Delta flight from Vegas back home (finally!) to Indianapolis via Cincinnati… …and, it occurred to me that the hotel where we stayed may not know why we chose them from all of the myriad of available properties in this economy in Vegas. It was Colin. When I lived there, Colin always parked my car. He remembered my wife’s name and mine without fail. He always took great care of us — but, more importantly — he always seemed to care about us. When Sheri’s health was failing, he would always go out of his way to assist her — and when he…
-
crm intelligence & strategy
-
Chattering About Salesforce at Dreamforce
19 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amSalesforce has taken two separate paths in their progress towards becoming a established cloud vendor: separating the platform and the application. Although they are not two separate companies, that begins their path to becoming an enterprise-class provider, allows us to analyze both separately, and marks a milestone: they have finally grown up into a world-class [...] -
Building Communities as the Saying Goes…
16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amAs I wrote in the final part of the Roadmap to SCRM series, we are plunging into an era of community participation. Communities are so much more than the traditional forum-like model. It is necessary to build good communities to get value and a return on the investment you put into it. There are plenty of common [...] -
The Roadmap to SCRM – Part 5 of 5
15 Nov 2009 | 11:36 pmPart 1 – Introduction Part 2.1 – SCRM-E2.0 Pivot Point Part 2.2 – SCRM Business Functions Part 3 – SCRM Rules Layer Part 4 – SCRM Channels Layer Alas, the last part of this series (and my favorite) communities. I do believe that communities are going to become the most important part of any social business – even to [...] -
The Roadmap to SCRM – Part 4 of 5
9 Nov 2009 | 1:45 amPart 1 – Introduction Part 2.1 – SCRM-E2.0 Pivot Point Part 2.2 – SCRM Business Functions Part 3 – SCRM Rules Layer We find ourselves now having to decide which channels (remember? Social CRM is adding social channels to CRM) we are going to use to deliver the business functions we picked earlier, and to fulfill the rules [...] -
Lessons Learned at the SCRM E2.0 Conference
6 Nov 2009 | 9:19 amFunny thing happened to me this week. I attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco and an SCRM conference showed up. It all started with the keynotes on day one: Tammy Erickson from nGenera delivered the opening address (she did a great job) talking about the differences between traditional enterprise and Enterprise 2.0: changes in society, people [...]
-
crm intelligence & strategy
-
Chattering About Salesforce at Dreamforce
19 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amSalesforce has taken two separate paths in their progress towards becoming a established cloud vendor: separating the platform and the application. Although they are not two separate companies, that begins their path to becoming an enterprise-class provider, allows us to analyze both separately, and marks a milestone: they have finally grown up into a world-class [...] -
Building Communities as the Saying Goes…
16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amAs I wrote in the final part of the Roadmap to SCRM series, we are plunging into an era of community participation. Communities are so much more than the traditional forum-like model. It is necessary to build good communities to get value and a return on the investment you put into it. There are plenty of common [...] -
The Roadmap to SCRM – Part 5 of 5
15 Nov 2009 | 11:36 pmPart 1 – Introduction Part 2.1 – SCRM-E2.0 Pivot Point Part 2.2 – SCRM Business Functions Part 3 – SCRM Rules Layer Part 4 – SCRM Channels Layer Alas, the last part of this series (and my favorite) communities. I do believe that communities are going to become the most important part of any social business – even to [...] -
The Roadmap to SCRM – Part 4 of 5
9 Nov 2009 | 1:45 amPart 1 – Introduction Part 2.1 – SCRM-E2.0 Pivot Point Part 2.2 – SCRM Business Functions Part 3 – SCRM Rules Layer We find ourselves now having to decide which channels (remember? Social CRM is adding social channels to CRM) we are going to use to deliver the business functions we picked earlier, and to fulfill the rules [...] -
Lessons Learned at the SCRM E2.0 Conference
6 Nov 2009 | 9:19 amFunny thing happened to me this week. I attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco and an SCRM conference showed up. It all started with the keynotes on day one: Tammy Erickson from nGenera delivered the opening address (she did a great job) talking about the differences between traditional enterprise and Enterprise 2.0: changes in society, people [...]
