6 Reasons Your Customer Service Needs Twitter

Kevin Stirtz of AmazingServiceGuy, writes six reasons why you should implement Twitter use in your customer service.

1. It will bring you closer to your customers.
2. It will make you smarter.
3. It can put you ahead of your competitors.
4. It’s cool.
5. It’s free.
6. It’s new.

Stirtz expands on his reasoning at his original post, which we encourage you to read.

If you are or aren't using Twitter, how do you think the micro-blogging technology with enable businesses to better connect to their customers?

Take Your Customer to Work Day

If you haven't noticed, today is Take Your Customer to Work Day. This post does a great job of discussing why it is important to open up your doors and invite customers into the workplace to meet employees and better understand how your business works.

Bringing your customers to work builds trust, and it also demonstrates the respect your company has for your customers. Customers get to know the company better and the company gets to knows its customers better as well. It's a win-win!

So invite your customers to your shops and stores!

NACCM Customers 1st 2009 Full Conference Details Just Released

Hello:

I'm excited to announce that the 7th annual NACCM Customers 1st 2009 Conference full program details have just been published. It's taking place Nov. 2-5, 2009 at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona. NACCM Customers 1st is the most comprehensive customer-centric conference covering everything customer strategy under one roof. Speaking companies include Dell, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Marriott International, Mastercard Worldwide, Travelocity, Zappos.com, JetBlue Airways, CIGNA, The Hartford and many more. The event has over 40 sessions, 45 corporate practitioner speakers, 3 Chief Customer Officers, 2 Chief Marketing Officers, 2 Chief Experience Officers and 5 visionary authors...the program is more hands-on and results driven than any other customer event.

For more information and to download the conference brochure, visit www.iirusa.com/naccm. The earlier you register, the more you save. Register today to save $400.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback on the event. I may be reached at apowers@iirusa.com.

I hope to see you there!

All the best,
Amanda Powers
Senior Conference Producer
IIR, NACCM Customers 1st Team

Everyone Works in Customer Service

John Caddell of PennLive.com, has a theory. He thinks that in order to do a proper business, everyone involved in an organization should participate in customer service.

Caddell writes, "EVERYBODY works in customer service. Think of it. Rather than a group of ground-down reps fielding all the complaints and questions, everybody takes a turn. It could be perhaps 10-15% of everyone's job--4-6 hours a week. Computer-aided telephony systems & CRM systems easily support flexible staffs of work-from-home agents and could manage the shift of calls from agent to agent."

Would it "fly" in the American corporate business structure? If everyone is working for the same goal--wouldn't the business succeed?

Customer service is such an important job, perhaps we should spread it around

Customer service in the airport

At the Jaunted Blog, they recently posted about superior customer service from the airline industry. A rarity in today's day and age, Omri tells about how by circumstance, he missed his flight. After dealing with the front desk and receiving less than satisfactory results when it came to getting on another flight, they entered the terminal, and the United Customer Service professionals exceeded their expectations.

At this point we were desperate and - figuring that the already-mentioned vodka would wash away any latent distaste from begging - decided to try our luck. What happened next was surreal: the woman who helped us turned out to be cheerful, competent, and helpful. In an airport, of all places.

She managed to confirm us on a flight that left before 10am. She managed to charge us half of the ostensibly mandatory $150 fee. And she managed to do it all in under five minutes. And then as we were leaving, she even asked if we still wanted to wait standby on the next flight.

The end of the article points out that if a customer find the right people to help you with their customer service needs, they will receive the service they are looking for. Now the question is, are you providing enough of these people for your customers?

Nanette Byrnes of BusinessWeek reports that The University of Michigan's American Customer Service Index is out and Fast Food has scored high marks. According to Byrnes' article, "Fast food, which has been climbing steadily since the mid 1990s, tied last year’s record high customer satisfaction figures “Overall they’ve done quite well in matching what they have, including price, to what a growing percentage of the population want,” says Claes Fornell, head of the index."

With the recession sweeping across the United States, many individuals are turning to fast food as a dinner out instead of traditional quick-serve restaurants like Applebee's, Chili's and Friday's. The new influx of customers may make customer service even more important to gain and retain the new fast food customers.

Byrnes reports that, "McDonald’s, with simple innovations like better coffee, does well by that measure these days. The burger giant was rewarded with a 1.4% climb last year to a score of 70. That’s better than both Kentucky Fried Chicken, which dropped 1.4%, and Burger King, which fell 2.8%, the biggest drop in the group. Burger King was late to recognize the consumer’s value focus. "

Fast Food Customer Service Scores

Netflix: Getting Customer Service Right

PC World recently wrote a post about how NetFlix is doing an excellent job responding to its customers and giving them great service. According to Edward Albro, he recently had problems with his streaming services on Netflix. He assumed it was issues on his end, such as his internet connection. But when he opened his email one morning recently, he had received and email discount for 2% on his current NetFlix bill. The company took responsibility for it's technology error, and let their customers know if the issue. There was no mess when dealing with the company. Do you know any other compnies who have stepped up and taken responsibility when an error was caused by their systems?

Banks using Twitter to develop relationships?

According to the MinnPost, some banks have turned to Twitter to help customer service. It points to this article at the USA Today which states that WellsFargo (Ask_WellsFargo) and Bank of America are just two of the banks jumping on the social media bandwagon to have better relationships with their customers.

Banking and social media may be a touchy subject. Although the banks are looking to develop a closer relationship with the customers, are mediums like Twitter the way to do it? What do you think?

Dish Network Disses Own Service; Stock Soars

Ideally, companies should tout how much better their customer service is over the competition; however, that wasn't the case with The Dish Network. According to TheStreet.com, here's what Dish had to say in its self-evaluation: "We have not always met our own standards for performing high-quality installations, effectively resolving customer issues when they arise, answering customer calls in an acceptable timeframe, effectively communicating with our subscriber base, reducing calls driven by the complexity of our business, improving the reliability of certain systems and subscriber equipment and aligning the interests of certain third-party retailers and installers to provide high quality service."

With the news of The Dish Network's self depreciation, their stocks soared.

What theories do you have on how this may affect their customer service moving forward?

Customer service is about finding a way to say yes

In the Ann Arbor News, they recently profiled Golden Limousine, which was started with two limousines in 1992 by Sean and Donna Duval. Duval learned the value of customer service from working at McDonalds for eight years, mostly in management. Seventeen years later, through the knowledge that great customer service can make any business work, they've developed an international executive leisure transportation company.

Sean provided some valuable quotes while being interviewed by this newspaper:
"Customer service is about an attitude. It's not about being servile or menial or beneath you. It's about finding ways to say 'yes.'''

How do you find new customers?

At Daily News, they recently took at look at how a business can keep bringing new customers in your door. Even though the list is meant for small businesses, everyone can profit from a few of the suggestions.

1. Develop a plan
2. Realize there is no one path to success
3. Work your local media
4. Infiltrate events
5. Followup
6. Give a little to get a lot
7. Work your personal network
8. Check out the competition
9. Use multiple ads
10. Ask for feedback

What have you seen work the best for you from the list above?