My plane was hours late. I arrived at the hotel tired and cranky. A major head cold (and possibly fever) was brewing and worst of all I hadn’t eaten any dinner, and was hungry. As I approached the hotel coffee shop I saw a woman at the cash register. She was counting money. I…
It’s mango season in Florida. It’s been going on a few weeks and even every little corner convenience store has a bin with fresh, local and juicy mangos. Yum. That’s probably why I was inspired to order the snapper with mango salsa a week ago when I went out to dinner with my friend…
Years ago I was on assignment in NY, training a large number of people in a financial services firm. While the training programs themselves were about customer care, in reality there was a lot of work I did to help people manage stress. I was called in at a time when a fair number…
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…
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…
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.
I thought I was going into the gift shop, apparently I was entering the twilight zone…
JoAnna Brandi hates to generalize, but I am beginning to think the service givers, especially here in Florida are suffering from a disease I call E.D.S. – Empathy Deficiency Syndrome. Some of the symptoms include apathy and an amazing ability to look right at a customer and not see a thing. The other peculiar indication of this syndrome is the inability to use the words “I’m sorry” or calming phrases such as “I can understand how that might be upsetting.”
I know there are popular books out there telling you not to sweat the small stuff – but I’m telling you that when it comes to your customers – you should sweat.
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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