March 2009

Customer Surveys Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story

March 31, 2009

Last week I read that the Minneapolis – St. Paul (MSP) Airport had been named the best large airport in North America (and #3 in the world) for customer service quality. As a lifelong Minnesotan, I felt some pride that our hometown airport did so well in this survey. But I also saw something I [...]

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AOL Tops in Customer Service, aka the “Best of a Bad Bunch”

March 30, 2009

In a recent report published by Forrester, AOL earned the top score among the USA’s largest Internet Service Providers. This seems like something to crow about until you look at the details, as Larry Dignan (of ZDNet) did. What he found took most of the air out of AOL’s sails. AOL did in fact have [...]

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JPMorgan Chase Backtracks on Fees After Firestorm of Feedback

March 30, 2009

Mega-bank and credit card issuer JPMorgan Chase & Co. has decided to stop charging certain monthly fees. And they’ve agreed to refund $4.4 million in fees they have collected in the past several months. The impetus behind the move was a barrage of negative customer feedback that eventually led to the New York attorney general’s [...]

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Would You Waive Your Right to Rate Your Doctor?

March 25, 2009

Recently, on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation”, I heard an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Segal, founder of an organization called Medical Justice.  He was explaining why he and his organization want patients to waive some of their rights to offer feedback about their medical providers. Dr. Segal does not like the many websites [...]

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Twitter Gaining Street Cred as a Customer Service Tool

March 24, 2009

Many of us early adopters have experienced the power of Twitter as a customer service tool.  Whether you just want to rant or you’re looking for results, Twitter has proven a useful tool for customers and companies who want to communicate better. Now, Salesforce.com has added legitimacy to the concept of Twitter as a customer [...]

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How Would Your Phone Calls Look in Person?

March 24, 2009

We all know what the typical customer service call center experience is like. It’s so entrenched in our culture, it’s cliche.  The automated voice, the multiple options ans the joy of waiting on hold for what seems like forever, are all well known aspects of many call center customer service experiences. Customers get this. And [...]

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Acknowledge Your Customer’s Presence

March 20, 2009

Amazing Service Rule #2 Acknowledge your customer’s presence This seems too basic to even mention.  What breathing is to living, this rule is to working with customers.  So, why even have a rule that deals with it? Because, as basic and fundamental as this idea is, it still gets forgotten on a regular basis. Every [...]

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Keep Your Customers by Avoiding Toxic Revenue

March 20, 2009

A couple months ago I was managing an event for a nonprofit I work with. Prior to the event our speaker indicated he did not need a screen or projector for his presentation. Then, at the event, (an hour or so before his presentation) he changed his mind and asked for a projector and screen. [...]

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Dell’s Steve Schuckenbrock Discusses Customer Service (Sort of)

March 14, 2009

(Note: This interview was done by ComputerWorld. Schuckenbrock was CIO of Dell at the time of the interview). This interview of Steve Schuckenbrock is interesting for what it does NOT contain. Though Schuckenbrock talks about their past problems and likely causes, he fails on several counts as he addresses a huge customer service problem for [...]

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Trump Teaches Apprentices about Customer Service

March 13, 2009

Today’s lesson on customer service comes from an unexpected source: Donald Trump and his show, “The Apprentice”. This week’s episode saw the project leader (popular skater, Scott Hamilton) get fired because he ignored a cardinal rule of customer service: give them what they want. The project this week was to create a cartoon character (for [...]

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What’s Your Job?

March 12, 2009

Last night my wife and I watched some of the best hockey I’ve seen in years. At the urging of two of our nieces (“our team is in state – you HAVE to come watch!”) we spent the evening hooting and hollering for the Little Falls high school team at the Minnesota State High School [...]

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New Customers or Loyal Customers?

March 5, 2009

Today I was part of a panel discussion on BlogTalkRadio where we discussed which is more important: “Focus on new customer acquisition or increase customer loyalty?” The discussion took place on: Customer Creation with Blake Landau an Internet radio show sponsored by CustomermanagementIQ.com. The heart of the conversation covered both topics well and included a [...]

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Amazing Service Guy Named Top 25 Author by CustomerThink.com

March 2, 2009

The nice people at CustomerThink.com have listed me as one of their Top 25 Authors! This group of contributors makes up the top 10% of all the experts who write for CustomerThink.com. According to their website, the ranking is based on popularity of articles and is updated quarterly. So I can’t rest on my laurels! [...]

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This Tip Can Improve Your Customer Service Immediately

March 2, 2009

One of the challenges in improving customer service is putting new ideas to work.  Often they’re not even new ideas but reminders of what we already know.  Ideas are cheap. It’s using them effectively that brings us the results we want. Here’s a tip to help you improve the quality of your customer service immediately: [...]

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