Why Is This Information Hidden?

Don't expect customers to know or remember everything about your products and organization. Customers appreciate convenient references and reminders. Make it easy for customers to contact, query, try and buy.

What is 'Legendary Service'?

Using the words 'legendary service' is not enough to make it real. You must expand, imagine, innovate - and take real legendary action.

In the Spirit of Service

To offer the spirit of service, look beyond your customer's request to identify their true concerns. What you can offer may be different, and more effective, than what they have requested. Listen for unspoken needs, not just spoken words.

Find and Do Your Own Thing

What is 'your thing'? Is it the personal note you attach to outgoing documents? Is it the enthusiastic tone in your voice on the phone? Is it your pride in teaching customers or colleagues something new? Is it as simple as the colorful clothes you wear, the magazine and newspaper articles you share with others, or your passion for indoor plants that makes the whole office come alive?

Lack of Integration = Customer Frustration

This telephone company desperately needs one point of contact to educate and serve customers in a user-friendly way. This single point of contact should be connected and empowered (internally and externally) to make all necessary arrangements for sales, installation, commissioning, selection of new equipment, scheduling of appointments, questions about billing ... even customer training after installation, if required.

IT Consulting Services - Offer What Your Prospects Need

IT consulting services come in all shapes and sizes. Offer IT consulting services that cover both the basic fixes and the long term solutions, and make yourself an invaluable asset to the businesses for which you provide IT consulting services.

Negative Feedback

In the business world sometimes you would need to provide negative feedback. It is not very pleasant. In this article I will discuss negative feedbacks in more details.

Medical Encounters of the Third Kind

In medicine these third-kind discussions are usually seen as preventative in nature, and often aren’t easy to broach given the intense pressures of time most doctors face, and given the traditional view most patients have of their doctors. However, some chiropractors, naturopaths and holistic medical practitioners have built successful practices in the

Track Each Complaint Until Your Customer Comes Back

When you respond to a customer complaint, what do you hope will happen next? In many cases, the answer is ‘nothing’. But when you reply and the result is...

Turtles Deliver the Internal Mail

I haven’t received it yet, she wrote back. We have Turtle Mail inside this company. I should get your package by the end of the week...

Is Your Survey Worth My Time?

A manufacturer complains that his customers rarely return the satisfaction surveys he sends out. A leading resort gets back just 30% of the comment cards left for guests inside their fancy rooms. One government agency had a response rate of only 6% when they sent out an 11-page survey. What’s going on here? Why is the...

Put a CORC in Your Budget

How much money does your company spend attracting new customers? How much do you spend on retaining existing customers past the crucial tenth month?

Stretching Your Sense of Service

If you provide internal service, do you reach across functional lines, or stay stuck inside your departmental 'silo'? Is your communication with colleagues and partners positive, proactive and persistent?

Four Questions to Boost Collaboration

Tighten bonds now with your customers, suppliers, managers, employees, colleagues, friends and family. These four simple questions will get a dialog going, and keep your relationships growing...

Creating Partnership Agreements

You can partner with customers, suppliers, even your competitors. Instead of competition, use co-opetition. Don't fight over the small pieces. Work together and make a ...