April 2009

KleinBank Knows How to Treat Customers Well

April 30, 2009

A friend shared his recent experience with his bank. A  few days ago, he had made a bunch of deposits.  He also had a plethora of checks coming out of his account. Because of the volume of checks, he was concerned that his account would go negative if the bank posted the checks first and [...]

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Here’s a Great Way to Communicate with a Difficult Customer

April 24, 2009

While traversing the Web recently I found a site I’ll be visiting again frequently.  It’s called Not Always Right.  It’s full of funny customer service examples as told by the employees.  Most of them involve challenging (and often unintentionally funny) customers. Here’s one I especially like:

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Should Entrepreneurs Twitter? Steve Strauss Says No!

April 22, 2009

Recently I read an article by Steve Strauss.  I’ve read a lot of Steve’s columns and I (mostly) like what he says.  But not always.  In this article Steve says several things with which I would quibble.

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Customer service is everyone’s job

April 9, 2009

In the course of my daily reading, I ran across this article. In it the author advises us to point our fingers squarely at management when an organization fails to deliver decent customer service. And I agree, to a point. But the job of delivering great customer service does not rest on management’s shoulder’s alone. [...]

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Gallery Furniture Succeeds with Customer Service

April 7, 2009

Here’s a new video featuring comments from Steve Salazar, of Gallery Furniture, a big furniture store in Houston, TX. I like two things about this. First, they talk to their customers so they know what their customers think about them.  Second, it sounds like they have created a culture based on service rather than individual [...]

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Now is The Time to Innovate

April 7, 2009

In a recent article on airline performance and  customer service, the author cites the 19th annual Airline Quality Rating which shows most airlines had improved their on time performance and their customer service in 2008.  This sounds like a welcome change for any of us who travel. But one of the study’s authors noted that [...]

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Here are Three Steps to Handling Stressful Situations

April 6, 2009

Yesterday morning I opened the door to our lower deck and let the dog out and I was shocked. Rather than seeing the signs of early spring in our back yard, I saw white stuff everywhere. Everything outside was covered with new fallen snow. And it was still coming down. It looked beautiful. But it [...]

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Here’s a Textbook Example of How to Chase Away Customers

April 3, 2009

Last week I was reminded of how expertly and efficiently a company could drive away a new customer. It was a classic example of a company doing almost everything wrong – and losing a customer in the process. The company offers teleconference (and other related) services. I found them through a web search and they [...]

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Six Ways to Get Million-Dollar Feedback from Your Customers

April 1, 2009

Customer feedback is vitally important to organizations of all kinds.  It gives you direct knowledge about what your customers want from you and what they think about your organization. It can tell you what you need to do to keep customers coming back. And, in challenging economic times, a steady flow of accurate customer feedback [...]

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