PlumBlog

Thanks Seth for reminding everybody of the 2nd curve, and more importantly, how critical it is to clean up your act! If you are trying to improve your customer retention, or increase wallet share, you better make sure you have your “hygiene” in order.

Nothing will cause your customers to defect faster than bad hygiene, yet every day we see companies putting an expensive suit, fancy Italian shoes, silk tie and all the fixin’s on an unshaven, bad hair cut, bad breath, BO stinkin’ product. Thanks Seth for providing us another great way to simply get folks the message- keep it clean people! Check out Seth’s post….

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Tags: Common Sense Customer Service, Food for thought by kellyroy
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Crap happens and businesses sometimes screw up. A customer may feel “wronged” due to human error, system error, erroneous expectations, or any number of reasons. The worst customer experience is when a service agent won’t acknowledge there is a problem, or they try to shift the blame to the customer. We’ve all talked to that sulky, irate, sarcastic, ignorant agent who makes a bad situation a hundred times worse with their “can’t do” attitude. But this post is not about that rep - this post is about the GOOD service agents out there - the ones that truly want to help but let diarrhea of the mouth get in the way! [Read more →]

Tags: Common Sense Customer Service by dawnedmunds
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This is a new group, check it out it is shaping up nicely.

Individual Members: ○ Personal branding — get known within your industry. Networking with your peers isn’t something you should do just once or twice a year at conferences. The most successful professionals learn, grow, and connect all year round. ○ Learn and grow — Forums on which to learn and teach — nationwide or regionally specific. Engage with professionals within your industry. ○ In the know — Ready access to relevant industry events from various professional and for-profit organizations.

Professional Association Leaders:
○ Common Challenges:
1. Database/list management is a challenge for two tier (National/Chapter) organizations.
2. Every event requires significant marketing effort to generate awareness and interest.

○ Solution: Invite your membership and prospect list to join The Customer Care Network. Sustainable Marketing Vehicle: Online networking is the ‘new viral marketing’. Give people a reason engage and contribute and they will invite others. With a reason to engage on the site regularly, your events are where industry professionals will see them. Because the network is open, your events will be exposed to people who were previously unfamiliar with your organization. [From Why Join and Participate in “The Customer Care Network”]

Tags: Food for thought, News by kellyroy
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Here is a recent post from Paul Roemer with Clinton Rubin, it is interesting stuff…..

Is it just me? “More than one-third of the executives evaluate their use of customer service practices as “poor/below average.”” Really? That said, who’s running the circus? The number doesn’t surprise me, their willingness to admit it does. I guess my confusion stems from admission versus ownership. Where is the clarion call to action; follow me, stand up and be counted, the buck stops here?

I wonder how those same executives rate their own performance. If one is not part of the solution are they part of the problem? Doesn’t their answer scream for any one of a handful of follow up questions? How long have you felt this way? How long has this been a problem? What is being done about it? What are you doing about it?

If I ran the circus and any of these executives came to me with that statement without being prepared to answer what they were doing to solve the problem, they would have to find a new circus. [From “Survey says”]

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Tags: Food for thought by kellyroy
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Valuing your customers is imperative - it is a no brainer. Segmenting clients and differentiating service that maps back to a customer’s value is good for the customer and good for the company. But some companies put the value-related actions (whatever they are doing to show me how much they appreciate my business) on the back burner and when they finally do employ them, it’s way too late.   [Read more →]

Tags: Food for thought, No Soup for You, Uncategorized by dawnedmunds
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Blogs. Twitter. Chats. Online networking groups. Communities. Forums. These mediums play an enormous role in how companies are perceived in the market place. Customers are savvier than ever in deciding what they’re going to buy and who they’re going to buy from. Personally, before I buy any electronics I go online and find out what people are saying about the product itself, but more importantly about the experiences they have had with the company. Hey, a television is a television, but how does the company treat its customers? That is the differentiator for me.

Like most consumers I am looking for companies that make good on their promises - what they say in the sales process better be consistent with my experience as a customer. If they promise me that service and support is accessible, reliable and effective and in the event of problems they will be there for me, then I expect that to happen. When companies don’t fulfill their promises, customers talk about it. And these companies can lose someone’s business, and not even know it, because of what people are saying about them. Take this example: [Read more →]

Tags: Food for thought, No Soup for You, Uncategorized by dawnedmunds
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