While politicians use the state of the economy to serve their ends in a US election year, most of us just want things to get better. And, according to some people, things are improving. Steve Higgins, writing for advisors4advisors.com reveals numbers he believes indicate an improving economy. A quick search on Google News shows quite a few positive articles on how and why the economy is doing better. Also, Google Insight for Search shows a sharp increase since December 2011 of people in the US doing searches on the phrase: ‘improving economy’. While reading articles and posts about this trend, [...]
Technology
Over the past few decades we have seen technology replace more and more people as we buy and use the things that keep us going. From the ubiquitous self-service gas station to self-service check-in at airports, we have more opportunities than ever to deal with machines rather than people. Is this good for customer service? Or maybe a better way to put it is: Does this help customers get what they want better, faster or cheaper? At Smarter Travel, Carl Unger writes about this trend in the travel business. He cites a survey that suggests 70% of airline customers want [...]
Parature announced their 2010 webinar series on customer service: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence (PAST) Date: January 20, 2010 – 2:00pm EST Presenter: Robert Spector – Bestselling Author of The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence Getting Your Worst Customers to Love You: True Tales from the Front Lines of Customer Support Date: February 24, 2010 – 2:00pm EST Presenter: Rich Gallagher – Bestselling Author and Communications Skills Expert Metrics that Wow! How Coremetrics Became the Customer Service Model of Success Date: March 30, 2010 – 2:00pm EDT Presenters: John Ragsdale – Vice President of Technology Research, TSIA [...]
One of the principles of Amazing Customer Service is to talk with your customers. So I do this. Since my customers and readers are all over I often do this via email. I always find this one of the most enjoyable aspect of my work. But as I have connected with more of my readers recently I have been amazed at just how global they are. So I did some analysis. At last count my newsletter subscribers are from 48 countries that include every continent except Antarctica. Here are the top 10 countries my newsletter readers come from along with [...]
The Internet has given us an ability to connect with others like we couldn’t have imagined 20 years ago. It’s taken Word of Mouth to new levels. It’s made it possible for anyone to create an effective promotional campaign using free technology and their own creativity and knowledge. So, the question gets asked (this time, by MIMA) where does content start and where does marketing begin?
Once again, the ‘Net is abuzz with chatter about a hot new mobile phone product from a well-respected industry giant. But this time the product has already been launched and is in use by millions of Apple fans. Trouble is some of those fans are thinking less well of their good old friend Apple these days. You’d think Apple had begun ransacking small, defenseless villages from the uproar. All they did was lower their prices for crying out loud. In fact their price drop was really no more traumatic than you see in the rest of the mobile phone world. [...]
