Transforming a product-driven firm to a customer-driven enterprise is inevitable today in order to stay ahead in today’s extremely competitive market. The days of mass marketing, mass media communications, and little-to-none direct interface with customers are long gone. The emphasis now should be on maximizing customer relationships and becoming customer-driven organizations rather than merely selling […]
Tag Archives | customer service
You’re Building a Customer-centric Organization, So Where’s the Customer Department?
How Technology Helps You Deliver Better Customer Service
For many companies, improvements in technology over the past few decades haven’t improved their customer service. In 1976, a White House study found that only 23 percent of customers were completely satisfied with companies’ solutions to their problems, while 44 percent said that solutions companies provided were at least acceptable. Today, the percentage of customers […]
When You Care Enough to Give Your Best
Customer care or service quality or quality of service seems to be a fallacy nowadays. The truth that some of us tend to forget sometimes is that we are all customers and we are all consumers. We do care about many things, price, attributes, convenience, product quality, but, what about service quality? According to Zeithaml, […]
Three Smart Ideas for Handling Customer Service Exceptions
While it’s always preferable to solve a customer’s problem first with automation, which means less friction for the customer and less cost for the company, the fact is that most companies’ self-service offerings are nowhere near advanced enough yet to be able to deal with all the exceptions and unanticipated circumstances that might give rise […]
Follow the P.A.I.R. Method of Customer Service for More Success
Editor’s Note: Jim Cucinotta is a very senior executive, with over 20+ years of experience in leading sales, marketing, and operations teams. He is also an author on Flevy. You can view his firm’s business training guides here. * * * * We hear a lot about customer satisfaction, servicing the customers’ needs, and being customer centric. But […]
How Customer Satisfaction Drives Sales Growth
You’ve been told you should be measuring your customer satisfaction, but you’re wondering if it’s really worth it. Or, maybe you’re trying to drive sales growth and wondering whether improving your customer satisfaction will help. Well the short answer is “yes, customer satisfaction has been proven to drive sales growth.” Improving your customer satisfaction really […]
Customer Service in 2015
As 2014 wound down, I took the time to pause, and look ahead to what top customer service trends will surface in 2015 and beyond. Good service — whether it’s to answer a customer’s question prior to purchase, or help a customer resolve an issue post-purchase should be pain-free, proactive at a minimum and pre-emptive […]
Improve Your Website to Satisfy Customers
Company websites serve businesses in a variety of ways. To some, it’s the mecca that showcases all of your best work. To others, it’s a way to capture leads. However you categorize your company website, the fact is it projects your brand’s digital presence. It can also be a helpful tool in serving customer needs […]
Brand Not Product
One of my early roles was in a Call Centre environment, but I still see the same culture 15+ years later! We only received inbound calls, so invariably people always had questions or problems they needed solving. We were called ‘customer service’ but, we were actually just a sales team. I was a fantastic salesman, […]
Build a World-Class Customer Service Team Now
A product is a tangible thing. From the framework of relationship marketing theory, a product can never create or maintain a connection. This ability to develop long lasting relationships falls to the customer service team. Customer care is more than simply fixing problems. It is establishing a continual link between your customer and your business. […]
5 Social Media Mistakes You’re Probably Making Right Now
Savvy dreamers have been creating their own businesses for as long as there’s been a reason to trade with others. Those owners who rose above their peers did so because they better understood their communities and the needs of their customers. Today, learning how to turn your venture into a successful small business is still […]
How to Turn Your First Time Customers into Repeat Customers?
It always takes more to retain customers than to create new in a highly competitive marketplace. With the growing customer awareness and their increasing demands, it is highly important for the business owners to provide high levels of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is a simply a measure of a particular product or service’s ability to […]