Several times a year I get a CD from a well-known PR consultant. She is a very aggressive and consistent promoter of her business. She has done a good job making herself well-known in her niche. But, when I listen to her CD I often resist her message. Not because of its quality. She has a lot of good ideas and advice. What drives me away is the amount of time it takes to introduce her on each CD program. Her intro seems to go on and on. It talks about every little thing she’s done. By the time I [...]
Customer Perspective
I have to admit, I don’t read a lot of blogs. There are less than 20 I read on a regular basis. But one blog I watch regularly is written by Guy Kawasaki. I like Guy’s blog partly because you never know what he’s going to write about. For example, earlier this year, Guy wrote about his trip to Minnesota (which he calls his new adopted state). Since I’m from Minnesota this caught my attention. What is memorable about his post though, is that he writes about a grocery store he visited while here in MN. The store was Byerly’s, [...]
Earlier this year I was talking with a business owner about his company’s business planning. He had spent a fair amount of time looking ahead and thinking about the revenue he wanted his company to produce this year. Planning like this is good when it helps us focus on the things that make our business better. But often, we focus on the wrong things, like revenue. Understand, I’m not suggesting revenue is unimportant. Of course it’s important. But I am suggesting it’s wrong to focus too much time, energy and planning on it. Revenue is only an outcome. It’s an [...]
Don’t insult your customers. I know this sounds pretty obvious. Why would any of us insult our customers on purpose? But it happens more than we realize. Here’s a recent example. I’m ordering a sandwich at my favorite sub shop. As I’m chatting with the sub-maker, the co-owner walks over. She notices that I’ve had the roast beef in my sandwich cooked so it’s brown, not pink (just how I like it). Her face gets a pained look and she says: “Oh, that hurts”. Then she went on to explain how she prefers her roast beef rare. I ignored her. [...]
Last night I had a fun (and lengthy) text conversation with one of my nieces. She’s in college and 5 hours away so we don’t see her as much as we’d like. And being a busy college kid, phone conversations with her are not very common. In fact, our “kids” (12 nieces and nephews) are the primary reason my wife and I both upgraded our cell phones and plans to make it easier (and affordable) to do a lot of texting. Other than live visits, text message conversations are the most common way we can stay in touch with them. [...]
Little things make all the difference in customer service. They can contribute to a positive and memorable experience. They can ruin an otherwise decent situation. An otherwise completely average encounter can turn into a source of endless referrals by adding a little thing or two. I’ve had a few recent examples: At my favorite sandwich shop I order a French Dip sub but I notice their roast beef is pink. I prefer mine cooked all the way through. As I start talking about an alternative, the young man taking my order makes a suggestion: “We could let it sit in [...]
Sometimes you can keep customers coming back by sending them away. After the holidays, one of our readers sent me a customer service story that explains why he will continue to be a loyal Best Buy customer. He and his wife were buying a product that needed an accessory to make it work. So they asked the Best Buy employee what they needed. He told them. Then he said they could get a better product at Radio Shack. While I’m not sure his management would approve of this, his customers sure did. They appreciated his honesty. They understood he was [...]
In the movie, License to Wed, there’s a funny scene that offers a useful customer service lesson. A reluctant groom stops in a jewelry store to pickup the rings for his wedding. As he looks at his ring he notices something wrong with the inscription. It was supposed to say: “Never to Part” Instead it said something else. The person doing the inscription thought the “P” was an “F”. (I’ll let you figure out what the ring said.) The groom brings this to the store clerk’s attention. Rather than apologizing and working on a solution, the clerk avoids eye contact [...]
As customers, we understand prices on most things we buy tend to go up over time. It’s part of the cost of doing business so we accept it without much fuss. But if we feel we’re not getting treated fairly, then there could be problems. Are we paying more because we’re getting more in return? Is it because everything is going up in price? Or is it because a company (or industry) sees an opportunity to generate more revenue without increasing value to their customers? An example many of us deal with directly is airlines’ baggage handling fees. We all [...]
In 2008, the president of Brazil signed a decree (number 6.523) that defines customer service standards for companies operating in that country. According to Michael Maoz, of Gartner.com this is not necessarily is a good thing. He does not believe it will improve how Brazilian customers are treated. Whether it works or not, I like what the Brazilian president has done. Not because I’m a big fan of regulation. (I’m not.) I like this because it puts the issue of customer service out in the open. It makes it a priority. It says, the way people are treated is important. [...]
