Marketing Articles About Customer Service Search Results

Results for: 'customer service'

22 items found:

3 Simple Ways to Keep Customers Happy. I posted a while back about the amazing customer service I received at a local furniture store. You may recall how impressed I was with their personal service and attention to the finer details, such as having a plate of warm cookies and a vacuous TV show available to bribe my children into temporary [...] (08/20/08 09:00 AM)

Three Uncustomary Customer Service Mindsets That Deliver. You've wolfed down lunch in record time and have seven minutes before your next meeting?time enough to Google "customer service tips," which brings up terabytes of platitudes on friendliness, knowledge, going the extra mile, blah, blah, blah. You know these cookie-cutter best-practices probably work, but they're too obvious and stale to motivate your people toward new plateaus. Instead, try on these three unusual mindsets that your team may actually find useful. (08/05/08 09:01 AM)

Purchase the Marketech '08 Marketing Technology Guide!.

$19.99

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - eBook - $19.99

Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

Purchase Now to Discover:

2008 Emerging Media Vehicles

How to Use New Media Vehicles to Your Advantage

The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans

Your copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF will show you how to put these technologies to work for you.

This guide includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:

Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already examples and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

This eBook is available as an Instant Download in Adobe PDF *** Full disclosure: I wrote the e-book as part of a project for the AMA in late 2007 and retained the rights to publish. The response to the guide in my TechnoMarketing sessions and other speaking engagements has been so positive that I've decided to offer the item for sale.
(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Shill Sites.

I'm not sure if there is another name for the type of websites that I describe here, but my name for them is shill sites.

If you are looking for a grantwriter, then you may have come across these sites. There are at least two of them that I know of, and they purport to rate and rank "the top 10 grant writers." Lucky me -- I'm "fortunate" to have my name listed on both of these sites. Most likely, there are similar sites for other professions.

These sites are fakes. They exist only to promote and get business for the top-ranked site, which is of course their own site and which is given 5 stars. The other 9 sites that are listed have lower rankings and are often described in negative terms, many of which are half-truths or outright lies.

The shill sites claim to back up their listings by describing their methodology for rating and ranking the 10 sites on their lists. They claim to collect and verify information on the success rate of the proposals written by each grant writer or grant writing firm, as well as on customer service/satisfaction, and the value of the grant writer's services in terms of fees. This, too, is hogwash, at least with respect to me and with respect to some of the other grantwriters on the "top 10 list." I know this is the case because I've talked with some of them.

One of the ways that you can identify shill sites like these is to go to the website of the top-ranked #1 grant writer. If you do, you will see that they are selling packages of grantwriting services that are "guaranteed to win." That's a tipoff right there. No legitimate grant writer or grantwriting firm can guarantee that the proposal they prepare for you will result in a win.

So take these sites with a grain of salt. Anyone can set up a website and make outrageous claims. Just because it's on the Internet doesn't mean that it's true. As always, do your homework.

(03/01/08 09:01 AM)

Shill Sites.

I'm not sure if there is another name for the type of websites that I describe here, but my name for them is shill sites.

So take these sites with a grain of salt. Anyone can set up a website and make outrageous claims. Just because it's on the Internet doesn't mean that it's true. As always, do your homework.

(02/29/08 09:01 AM)

VP of Marketing Responsible for Shipping & Logistics?. Harry Joiner, a marketing recruiter and good friend, asked me to comment on his blog regarding what a VP of eCommerce or VP Marketing candidate should be asked or should answer regarding shipping & delivery logistics. Here's what I said... As you know, I believe word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing and sustainable growth. So, a VP of marketing candidate needs to have an appreciation for the overall customer experience. Shipping logistics are a huge part of that experience. You can weight the satisfaction and loyalty impact of each part of the customer experience – researching products, buying, receiving and using a product (support). The weight of impact is correlated to the the emotional residual for that part of the experience. Shopping and research is a relatively forgettable experience, unless there is severe frustration. The buying experience is overshadowed with the emotional weight of the receiving and the out of box experience, as well as resolving customer service and support issues (downstream activities). Amazon is consistent with shipping and logistics. Apple and Chumby have great out of the box experiences. So, word of mouth and branding (and thus, top line revenue over the long term) are driven from upstream decisions (great products, packaging) and downstream logistics (shipping, service, support). A great VP of marketing should realize they have to balance between immediate, short term tactics to drive revenue and the sustainable long-term activities that may even be out of his direct control. In this case, marketing... (01/31/08 09:00 PM)

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing.

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - AMA Members-Only Webcast
Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology; however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

Register now to discover:

2008 Emerging Media Vehicles
How to Use New Media Vehicles to Your Advantage
The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans

You'll also receive a complimentary copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF that shows how to put these technologies to work for you.

This program includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:

Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already (examples) and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

Date: December 6, 2007

Times: Session 1 - 10am PST/ 11am MST/ 12pm CST/1pm EST or Session 2 - 12pm PST/1pm MST/2pm CST/3pm EST

Host: The American Marketing Association and Dana VanDen Heuvel, a highly recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS and other interactive marketing trends and a frequent guest speaker at many AMA live training programs, including the recent premier Training Series: Technomarketing event.

Register Here for the Marketech 08 Webcast.
(12/05/07 09:01 PM)

10 Rules to Live By (Deborah Schultz). I was at the Forrrester Consumer Forum last week. The topic of the conference was social technologies. At a place like that you meet people that have blogs. I try to check out blogs of people I meet, I scan them, and see if something pops out. I met Deborah Schultz, a consultant in the Social Media / Interactive Design, and this post popped out to me where she outlined 10 things she tries to live by. In a busy, transparent world these rules are relevant for a consultant or corporation...they are salient for management and marketing...and some are useful to remember when living your life! Do not ignore your customers, it WILL come back to haunt you Constant iteration is NECESSARY - build in flexibility so you can respond quickly Don't LIE - you can't HIDE the truth anymore Build LISTENING into your DNA (Put it in customer service, marketing, product management - just PUT IT SOMEWHERE) Learn to BALANCE the listening with PERSPECTIVE so you are not constantly in REACTIVE mode. DESIGN matters - Make it EASY (iPhone anyone?) Be CLEAR & CONCISE - who has time for long winded-ness Be EMOTIONAL - tell a story [read this to learn the basics] Be HUMAN - talk like one, act like one. Sounds like a big DUH but it is amazing how easy it is to get lost in complexities when we forget this one. Take a BREAK - and step back to think BIG thoughts Great stuff Deborah! (10/13/07 09:00 PM)

New Social Media Presentation Released.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on a new Social Media/TechnoMarketing presentation that I'm pretty excited about. For those organizations that make the distinction between a 'client' (long term relationship) and 'customer' (transactional relationship), I've developed a program that illustrates how to put the latest tools & technologies in play for your service organization.

Want more info? Drop me a line!

Social Media for the Service Industry Enterprise

Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology; however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

This program will provide a focused, service-organization perspective on:

What are the relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks, and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.

How do these integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives?

What are the benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.

Who's doing this already (examples) and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

Want more info? Drop me a line!

Check out my marketing speaker page more info on my other marketing related speaking engagements & programs.

(10/11/07 09:00 AM)

Who Owns Word of Mouth in an Organization?. At this year’s Word of Mouth Marketing Association Summit (WOMMA) on November 14/15 in Las Vegas, one of the topics will be “who owns word of mouth?” Is it one person in PR or advertising? Product development? Someone on the web team? In some companies it’s someone in PR, who is responsible for blogger relations. But in my opinion, that’s a tiny fraction of word of mouth on a typical fortune 500 brand. In some companies, as it was at Dell, the word of mouth ‘owner’ was someone in advertising who created viral / buzz campaigns. Typically what happens is word of mouth tends to be about the advertising or marketing (not the product. Advertising can amplify word of mouth if the product is good (and they do it right), but if the product/service is no good, advertising effectiveness declines over time. Should word of mouth have an owner? I believe the lack of appreciating and impact for word of mouth is usually because the owner owner is not senior enough and the strategy not broad enough. I believe that word of mouth needs part of many functions' operational roles....product development, marketing, advertising, PR, and especially customer service. Perhaps having one owner, especially too low, means other people don’t feel the ownership. Perhaps the CEO and CMO needs to own word of mouth, and thread it throughout the entire company as a part of the culture. That’s my vote. What’s yours? Join the discussion on this and other Word of... (09/29/07 09:00 AM)

Satisfaction: People-Powered Customer Service. http://getsatisfaction.com/ (09/13/07 09:00 AM)

Do you want to be like Bob?. I get a lot of mail complaining about various companies and their customer service, and Home Depot accounts for a huge percentage of it. In fact, five times more people complain about Home Depot than any other organization. Today, Bob... (01/03/07 09:01 AM)

It's so easy. I think the reason we get so upset at astounding examples of bad customer service (at least that's what my email seems to demonstrate) is that most of us have given great customer service and realized that most of the... (12/25/06 09:00 AM)

[ktoddstorch] Customer Service: How Can it Improve? Terry Storch. http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/2005/01/customer_servic_4.html Today's writing is from my brother Terry at Fellowship Church. Customer Service Fellowship Church style!... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

[ktoddstorch] Customer Service: How Can it Improve? Rosa Say. http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/2005/01/customer_servic_6.html Day 3 of the "Customer Service: How Can it Improve" feature! Today's writing comes from Rosa at Talking Story. It is an adaptation from Chapter 6 in her book named Managing with Aloha. more... Please note:  Rosa is... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

[ktoddstorch] Customer Service: How Can it Improve? Rosa Say. http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/2005/01/customer_servic_6.html Ho‘okipa is the Hawaiian value of hospitality.... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

[ktoddstorch] Customer Service: How Can it Improve? Brendon Connelly. http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/2005/01/customer_servic_3.html... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

[ktoddstorch]Customer Service: How Can it Improve? Jon Strande. http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/2005/01/customer_servic_5.html Selling Diamonds From the book: How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life The famous New York diamond dealer Harry Winston heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a certain kind of diamond to add... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

Zappos 10 Rules of Customer-Centricity. 1to1 Magazine published Zappos’ 10 rules for creating a customer-centric culture, via Jane Judd, senior manager of customer loyalty who spoke at the North American Conference on Customer Management (NACCM). (I only got it in email, so maybe they’ll link it from their site soon.). Make customer service a priority for the whole company. Make wow a part of your company' vocabulary. Don't measure call times, and don't force agents to upsell. Empower your customer service team. Don't hide your toll-free number. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Create a culture book. Find people who are passionate about customer service. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors. Make customer service part of everyone's performance reviews. Notice the theme? The Zappos.com mission statement is a simple one: We are a service company that happens to sell _____. How does this translate into revenue, ROI, margin? Best known for selling shoes, Zappos.com doesn't want to be restricted by filling in that blank; during its seven years in business the $600 million company has added apparel, handbags, and accessories to its offerings. Look at these Nielsen NetRatings comparison of traffic. It's fair that these companies are not exactly comparable, but I will assert that Zappos in comparative and absolute terms (almost $1B selling shoes!) is succeeding for the same reason Craigslist, JetBlue, USAA, Southwest Airlines, Costco, and others like them succeed. Focus on customer service drives repeat business and word of mouth (low cost aquisition). There’s not a long list... (12/05/06 09:00 PM)

Making Nevangelists. Think about a bad customer experience you’ve had. It could be a customer service issue, or defective product, or rude interaction with an in-store or phone representative. What was the conclusion? I’m guessing there are three possibilities:A. No response or recognition by the company. You left disappointed, if not irate, never to return.B. They dispatched a standard resolution to your dissatisfaction…in your mind, a compromise. C. They acted quickly, apologized and delighted you with a resolution that exceeded expectations. Their actions earned your loyalty.I’ll bet A gets the majority of votes. Followed by B. And you wish you knew which companies that have done C. I want to propose a unique strategy to find influencers and evangelist. Find customers who had a negative experience, told you about it, and then catapult them into delight. First, let me say this is not an excuse not to pursue excellent product and service experience. However, no company is perfect. Even Ritz Carlton occasionally has customer experience issues. The difference is they give even the janitor $2,000 budget limit to resolve them. These, once negative customers, can turn into positive evangelists. They are, or can be, your “Nevangelists”. Why is this a good strategy? Influencers, which could be 10-15% of your customers, are the vocal core of your customer base, positive or negative. It easy to identify influencers who have a negative experience…because they are typically vocal to the company as well as others. So when the negative influencer reports an issue, it’s an... (10/29/06 09:01 PM)

Marketing Bullseye 6: Piggybacking. Last week I was lunching at a barbecue restaurant when I saw a gumball machine with a coupon flyer on top of it. I wondered if the person managing the gumball machines was the same person distributing the coupons that sat on top. If they weren’t they missed out on a key bulls eye marketing principle: Piggybacking. In a world of limited resources, you should leverage and maximize existing marketing working capital to carry your messages. There’s a disproportionate amount of investment to start a new program, campaign or initiative than to add something onto an existing campaign. The idea of piggybacking is to look at any marketing program and piggyback on it with another marketing message. Or, alternatively, piggyback every marketing vehicle to reinforce your main message (example: logos on delivery vehicles, URLs on receipts, etc.). Think about all of your customer touch points and ask yourself, what else could be added that wouldn’t take away from the primary message. Can you add a cross-sell to a landing page that may entice a visitor to think of buying something else before they leave. Can you add something to what you ship the customer? Can you add a message onto your voicemail? Can you add a message from your customer service, sales or support representatives? Do you (moderately) leverage links from one page to another page in your site (The Resolving Door concept). The IDEA and PRINCIPLE of Piggyback is to look at any and all activities and consider how... (08/13/06 09:02 PM)

Guess what is the top B2B marketing tool?. Us poor B2B marketers...the top three things buyers look for in a product aren't under our direct control...price, service, quality. We can add sizzle to these, but ultimately, the buyer will discern the truth.

So what is our #1 marketing tool? Amazingly it is something we've only had for ten years...our websites. Results of a user survey by ThomasNet were summed this way:

"Of course, competitive pricing, good customer service and high quality are a given, but the next single most important thing buyers mentioned is a detailed, user-friendly Web site. "

The article has lots of other handy tidbits from the survey:

Comments by users like this:
"Provide enough information within their Web site for me to make an educated decision-? comparative product details, listed prices, and list of distributors that I can purchase from if they don't sell direct."

This factual gem:
36% of the time users will seek out new suppliers for a new purchase.

Look at the top two of '10 Things Buyers Look For In a New Supplier'
1. Easy-to-navigate Web sites with accurate, detailed product and pricing information
2. Companies that are easy to find and have a strong Web presence

This shouldn't really be news to us B2B marketers...but after ten years, we may have grown complacent about our websites. From the details of this survey, I say our target audience has become even more discerning and faster to pass on poor (to them) websites. We can't become complacent!

Read more: It's Not Who You Know. It's Who Knows You (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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