71% Take a Friend’s Recommendation

The customer’s opinion is more important than it ever was before. 71% of people said they take a friend’s recommendation for a product or service. Customers today are involved and engaged in a way never before possible and it’s changing the game. For the better, I think.   The customer’s in charge and the customer…

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Are you a Blabbermouth?

During National Customer Service Week I did a webinar for Manpower HowtoCreateMoreWow. The technology was fun and I was able to do a few polls. As I was talking about Moments of Truth and Moments of Magic (a MOT turned into a WOW for a customer) I asked, In the last week, most of my…

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Complain, Complain

Human nature is funny, and the need to complain is a big part of it. Put a person in a room with a “specialist” and they tend to want a little bit of free advice. My friend Robin, a lawyer, says whenever she goes to a party someone usually asks for a little legal advice. My friend…

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Customer Care – Inside and Out

We are all beginning to realize the value of developing long term, loyal relationships with our customers. They buy more and refer more, help us develop the next generation of products and services, and they even help us keep our advertising costs in reason. But are our customers (people external to our company that buy things from us) the only people we should be building long term relationships with? No. The relationship strategy applies externally and internally as well.

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The Problem with “No Problem”

It was late morning and I was in my hotel room getting ready to speak and then to travel on to my next engagement. It was a long flight and wanted to be able to change into my travel clothes before getting on the plane. Knowing what a hassle that can be without having the convenience of a hotel room, I called down to the front desk to ask a favor.

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Customer Care and Employee Care Go Hand in Hand

I just returned from speaking at another Inc. Magazine Conference on Customer Service Strategies. I enjoyed three days of learning and networking with some of the best and the brightest minds in the field, and in the entrepreneurial community. There was one thing in particular that was so rewarding for me this year. The absolute recognition and affirmation in almost every session that I attended that without creating an environment where the workers feel valued and good about coming to work, you cannot even hope to deliver a level of service that will build true customer loyalty.

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