referrals

Referrals increased by over 100%

May 25, 2010

The headline of this post comes from a blog post by my friend Brian Carroll. His post describes a conversation he had with a client where they discussed how lead generation often ignores current customers. As a result of the discussion, one CEO decided his company would begin focusing more on current customers. He even [...]

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Minnesota auto dealer makes a bad deal worse

January 21, 2010

When I was a kid, a local car dealer had long-running advertising campaign centered on the tagline: “A better car deal – we wrote the book!” Recently, another Minnesota car dealer made a good start writing a different kind of book. This one might be called: “How to drive customers away by the busload.” This [...]

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Customer Service Quote for October 12, 2009

October 12, 2009

The best kind of customer service happens when management enables employees to put the customer in control. -Guy Kawasaki Author of: Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

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Customer Service Quote for September 24, 2009

September 24, 2009

One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising. -Jim Rohn Author of: Lessons on Life: How to Live a Successful Life

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Seven steps to more customer referrals

September 22, 2009

One of the best ways to increase revenue and profits in a tough economy is to get more new customers who are already sold on your product, service or brand. These customers can be hugely profitable because they require very little marketing or sales costs. By the time they reach your door they have already [...]

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Customer Service Quote for September 10, 2009

September 10, 2009

If you make customers unhappy in the real world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends. -Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos: The Founder of Amazon.com

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Adobe does the right thing, apologizes for customer service problems

September 1, 2009

Too many companies brag about how customer-friendly they are. But that’s often all we experience. So it’s refreshing to see a big, well-known company being genuine with their customers. Adobe, the well-known maker of many popular software applications, has been delivering lousy service lately. But rather than ignore it or hide behind empty press releases, [...]

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Give Your Customers a Great Experience

June 25, 2009

One of the best ways to keep your customers coming back and get more referrals is to give your customers a great experience. And that’s true even when your customers aren’t human. When I watch this video, not only would I want our dog to be a “customer”, I want to go there too! If [...]

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Customer Service Quote for June 23, 2009

June 23, 2009

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” -W. Edwards Deming Author of: Out of the Crisis

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Customer Service Quote for May 18, 2009

May 18, 2009

“Loyal customers they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.” Chip Bell Author of: Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers

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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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Little Things Make the Difference

January 23, 2009

Last week I got a call from a hotel employee confirming the headcount for an event I was responsible for. In her voice mail, she asked me to call her back to confirm our final headcount, even though I had sent in the final number earlier that day. On the surface this seems like a [...]

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Don’t multi-task when helping your customer

August 27, 2008

Kevin Stirtz’s Amazing Customer Service Rule #47 Don’t multi-task when you’re helping a customer I know I’ll get some feedback on this. “I have to multi-task” people will say. “Otherwise I can’t get all my work done.” Another common response: “I can do other things while I listen and still provide good service.” Yeah right. [...]

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Amazing Service Starts with a Great First Impression

January 12, 2008

The fastest way to increase customer loyalty is by improving the quality of customer service you deliver. In fact, I dislike thinking of it as “customer service”. I prefer calling it “Amazing Service”. When you take care of your customers so well they tell others, then you’ve delivered amazing service. When you do that consistently, [...]

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Never Ask for Referrals

August 30, 2007

Referrals are a hot topic. And they should be. Many businesses rely more on referrals than any other source of new business. But many people get it wrong when they think about referrals. They see referrals as something they can “get” or produce. They try to build systems and plans to generate referrals. The reality [...]

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