Happy Holidays from Customers 1st!

We're taking some time off from our coverage of customer service to celebrate the season with our loved ones. We want to sincerely thank you for your readership, your comments and your participation. We look forward to returning to the world of customer service management in 2011!

Here are our top Customers 1st posts from 2010:
New customer experience measurement system for USPS
NACCM 2010: Day 2 in Pictures
NACCM 2010: Rogers Communications’ Customer Retention & Satisfaction Approach

We wish you Happy Holidays!

Reminder: Complimentary Webinar, CCOs Reveal Their Secret Killer Customer Strategies for Long-Term Profitability

Space is filling quickly for our complimentary webinar with Curtis Bingham, who is the leading authority on CCOs, having worked with more than 70 CCOs over the last decade. Curtis shares some of the most profound strategies and tactics that these elite CCOs have used to attract, retain and grow profitable, long-term customer relationships also create a powerful competitive advantage for their organizations.

Thu, September 16, 2010
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST
Register today:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/593492816
Priority code: M2300W1Blog

Lessons shared include:

• Winning executive support for loyalty initiatives
• Creating an unstoppable customer culture—so you aren’t the only customer advocate
• Letting data tell you which customers to keep happy, and which ones to let go
• Giving more to customers counter intuitively generates MORE revenue

We hope that you join us!

New York City Government Customer Serivce Line Reaches Milestone

Earlier this week, the 311 Customer Service call line for the New York City government, received its 100 millionth call.

Mayor Bloomberg set up the line in 2003 looking to: provide easier access to non-emergency services in a cost-effective manner. The 311 service consolidated more than 40 separate call centers and hotlines, encompassing 11 pages of government listings in the City phone book, into one easy-to-remember number.

To further accommodate the New York City citizens, there was also a 311 Online in January of this year to futher aid members of the community.

Source: Market Watch

Customers 1st 2009 Podcasts: A Conversation with Ken Powaga, GfK Custom Research North America

As we get gear up for the 2009 NACCM: Customers 1st Event this year, we're going to be interviewing and getting to know the speakers and sponsors who will bring their perspectives on customer service to you. We recently sat down with KenPowaga, Senior Vice President at GfK Custom Research North America. He will be presenting his keynote speech, “Profiting from Customer Churn” at this year's conference. Download the NACCM:Customers 1st Brochure to find out more about the program this year.


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Ken Powaga is the Senior Vice President at GfK Custom Research North America. He joined GfK in 1982 and established a practice to meet the special needs of business-to-business clients. Ken currently is in charge of product development for GfK’s customer loyalty practice. He has broad sales and account management experience establishing long running customer satisfaction programs for clients in the high tech, retail and financial services industries.

At NACCM Customers 1st, you’re talking about customer churn, can you elaborate on what that is and how your topic will impact our attendees businesses if applied.
Ken: We look at customer churn as the opposite of customer loyalty. When you have loyal customers, you’re continuing to sell to the same customers over and over again and building strong relationships. Churn on the other hand, you’re getting new customers that are replacing a lot of old customers who leave. Today the common belief is that customer churn is a necessary fact of life in the tough business climate that we’re in today. And it seems that most businesses treat customer churn only as a numbers game and believe that if you have more new customers coming in than are leaving, all will be fine. However, it’s not the quantity of the churn you should be concerned with, but the quality. Loss of a single good customer that’s highly profitable may not be compensated by acquiring ten marginally profitable new customers. On the opposite side, not all churn is bad churn. If you lose a lot of marginally profitable customers, and replace them with some strong, high value customers, things will be better.

What are some of the most common reasons companies lose customers?
Ken: Well, customers come and go for a variety of reasons. Some are controllable and some are not. You may gain customers by luring away them from competition who are satisfied with your competitors. But you may also lose satisfied customers who are lured away by your competitors promises. You may also lose customers from dissatisfaction and your failure to provide them what they expect. But then again, you can gain customers who are dissatisfied with your competitors performance. Another reason that customers leave is because they may not need the products or services in your category. But then again, you may gain some customers because of technology who are totally new to your product and service category.

What is the best way to measure customer churn?
Ken: With churn, you need to measure both lost and new customers. And it needs to be both objective and quantifiable measures that can be both managed and controlled profitably. The easy way to do it is not necessarily the best. And that is just simply asking some open ended questions of customers who left, and to ask them the reasons why they left. We found that this doesn’t get to the detail required to manage the churn because you receive expected, politically correct answers instead of a clear understanding of the things that cause change. So what you need to do is you need to have clear, objective measurements of customers who are coming and customers who are leaving. You need to measure their profitability and value to you. You need to measure their experiences and attitudes.

Then what you need to do is to segment both the new and lost customers into complimentary groups based on the reasons for switching, leaving or adopting your products. These segments would include lost customers who are driven away due to dissatisfaction versus new customers who are gained because competitors drove them away by not meeting their needs. It would also include lost customer lured away by competitors due to price cutting or other perceived product services or advantages. The third category would be those who churn based on industry dynamics. Either customer new to the category or those who left the category for a variety of reasons would be in this category.

After you quantify this how can companies use this info to make their business better?
Ken: They need to prioritize and fund customer retention and acquisition strategies based on the results. The first strategy is to fix any product or service problems that are driving the most valuable customers away. This will put a finger in the dyke to stop losing valuable customers. The second thing will be to develop win back strategies for valuable customers who were lured away by competition. This may include coming up with new products or figuring out what are the service aspects that customers are leaving to competitors for. Then the third thing you can do is to promote the products and services advantages to the customers who were driven away by your competition. And finally, you need to strengthen and expand programs that you have been successful in luring profitable customers away from your competitors.

Customers 1st 2009 Podcasts: A Conversation with Kathleen Peterson: Part 5

I think it’s really important that we help the attendees understand that this conference covers so many areas that contributes to the human factors side, to the operations side, to the quality side, organizational side, there’s a huge opportunity for people to walk away with not only actions that they can take but also with new networking relationships that they can maintain.

As we get gear up for the 2009 NACCM: Customers 1st Event this year, we're going to be interviewing and getting to know the speakers and sponsors who will bring their perspectives on customer service to you. We recently sat down with chair Kathleen Peterson to talk about the event, both today and what has changed since she first chaired it back in 2003. This podcast is the final recording in the podcast, so check back next week to hear from another speaker from the Customers 1st Conference!



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What are some of the core messages you hope you can instill in attendees as the chair?

Kathleen Peterson: I think the core message of the conference, and as a chair, that’s my roll, is really to inspire. I hate to seem an evangelist about this. I really believe that if the attendee arrives at a conference such as this and is clear about their issues and what they care to learn about then they can design their own experience through the curriculum and through the networking opportunities to walk away with a specific set of action items that they can implement upon return. I think it’s really important that we help the attendees understand that this conference covers so many areas that contributes to the human factors side, to the operations side, to the quality side, organizational side, there’s a huge opportunity for people to walk away with not only actions that they can take but also with new networking relationships that they can maintain. I think a lot of folks that attend this conference are in senior positions and they can crate their own mini networks to challenge and brainstorm with one other. I think the message here is that you have to really understand what the potential for takeaways are. Think in terms of action, learn, participate and connect.

In addition to chairing the event, you’re presenting during a breakout session. What will that be about?

Kathleen Peterson: I am presenting with my colleague Deb Justice on the appropriate development of training curriculum. So not simply, I think the old approach as been “Ok, put your login ID in” people take systems and service and transactions separately within a training development. We are going to be talking about performance based learning. Performance based learning says that teaching needs to reflect the experience a learner is going to have on the job. We’re going to talk about the approach that one takes to that building a model for module development. A look at how to organize content, and then delivery channels around the content. What this does is create a formula, if you will, not only for developing new hire training, but developing ongoing training for the learning population within and enterprise. We’re very excited about it.

We’d like to thank Kathleen Peterson for speaking with us and a very special thank you to our listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/customerworld.

See you in November!

What Makes YOU Feel Good at Work?

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

According to my informal research people who feel good at work are more productive, like their jobs more, have better performance, are more likely to be creative, enjoy "going the extra mile," and have more energy at the end of the day when they go home to be with their families or pursue hobbies and outside activities.

Help me with my research - every body has their own "Feel Good At Work Factor" and Amanda Levy and I are writing about it. Please help us understand more about yours.

Please go to our comments section after this blog entry and finish this sentence. "I feel good at work when....."

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, and comment on this post, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

All Fired Up

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

Over the last year I’ve done some things that have some of my friends wondering about me. Maybe it’s that I’m getting better with age. Maybe it’s being afraid to age. Maybe it’s all these happiness coaches I hang out with and study with.

One of the things we learn in happiness training is that positive psychologists have proven that the more time you spend using your strengths the happier you are. That makes sense. When you are doing something you are good at you feel good, and you usually get better at it. When you spend a lot of time doing something you are not good at you usually don’t feel as good.

I can relate.

So it turns out that the psychologists have found – and have evidence to support this – that if you identify your top strengths and spend time each week deliberately working to improve them, you will be happier over time. Certainly happier than if you identify your weaknesses and spend time each week trying to improve them. (Which is basically what I HAD been doing.)

All righty then. Let’s get going.

And so I went to www.viastrengths.com to identify my top strengths. (Warning: don’t go there without a food or at least a beverage – the instrument they use to determine your strengths is long and a tad redundant, you’ll need at least a cup of tea or equivalent to get through it.)

My first strength is creativity – that was fun. I knew that, so it’s always fun to find ways to be more creative. My second strength it turns out is bravery and courage.

What? Me? That was a bit of a shock. And so it was that I began challenging myself in ways I never thought I would. It all began with ziplining last year in Costa Rica.

http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/canopy/tour.htm It looked something like this.

Soaring some 120 feet above the ground scared the devil out of me, but in the end, I was thrilled and excited that I had done it – and done it with a good attitude. I chose excitement over fear. I told everyone that would listen about my “SuperCheeka” experience and reveled in the admiration. Me, a perennial scaredy cat, doing something brave and courageous - how cool was that?

So I figured I’d done my brave deed and that would be that.

Until I got that email from Connie and Karen. They are friends of mine from South Florida. They do workshops too. We met about five or six years ago and have a lot in common. Except that when you take one of their empowerment workshops you break things, bend things and end the evening walking on fire.

I swear, I never, never had the desire to walk on fire.

They’d been kind about inviting me to come and see their work, but I’d declined each time, until one day I got an email that said they were filming a corporate video and we asking friends to participate since there would be cameras starting and stopping and bright lights in the night. They invited friends that would be patient and would work with the awkward situation.

It’s tough enough to do the activities in that workshop – and with a cameraman in your face – well!

Well 53 friends showed up! From early afternoon until late in the night we broke boards, bricks and arrows. We bent rebar, walked on glass and then at the end of the night topped it all off with a little walk on fire. Everybody chose to walk (they say that never happens.) Even the cameramen walked (on walked while pointing the camera down on his feet.

Everyone did the firewalk – about 1250 degrees at its hottest – and no one burned their feet. When you walk on fire things change. You learn that your mind is powerful. You get to see your patterns. You think differently about beliefs. There was no hypnosis involved. All choice.

I’m the second one you’ll see on the video – busting through the brick. And now I’m all fired up, because I have this belief that when I put my mind to something (and keep it there) that I can make it happen.

By the way – want a firepower seminar? Call me, I’ll fix you up. We now proudly tell our clients that board breaking and even firewalking are optional add-ons to any of our workshops. Empowered? You bet! Whooooooooooowahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! http://firepowerseminars.com

Also, check out JoAnna's first customer service message for Customer Service Week here:
http://www.customercarecoach.com/csw2008/CSW_day1.asp

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

My Favorite Book

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

I had to call the bank the other day and ask the embarrassing question, “What’s my favorite book?”

The woman on the other end of the line didn’t understand, she said “Excuse me?”

“My favorite book, I need to know what it is… ah, was ” I said. “Apparently the favorite book I had when I used that clue as my security question is not the same book that I think is my favorite this week.”

“Oh!” she laughed. “I get it. The answer to your security question doesn’t match.”

“Right,” I said, “but I really need to know what I thought my favorite book was because I tried all three I think are my favorites and none of them work, and now I’m really confused.”

“Oh!” she replied, using a tone of voice that made me think she really understood why this was a problem for me.

One thing I routinely find about the people in the call center of Commerce Bank is they seem to “get” me. No easy task.

I resisted the urge to share with her what my top three favorites were and hope that she could find a match because she told me that as much as she’d like to help me solve the dilemma, the answer was controlled electronically and was pretty much lost forever. Would I like to choose a different question?

Okay.

And so it was I chose a different question and said “Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.”

“Would you like me stay on the line with you until you have your security questions changed?”

“No” my ego said, I’m a grownup and can do this myself. But she was quick to say kindly, “Why don’t you just keep me on the line until you are sure you have it, and know it so the next time you need to use it it will work for you.” Ahh, I thought “proactive” okay, let her just do her job. I’m sure I can get this right.

Well low and behold I forgot to put a period after an abbreviation in the answer and (just as she thought would happen) the new security question didn’t get me in.

Ahh, I thought now – she really knows her job, and her customers well. We had a good laugh together and after she was sure I had picked an answer I couldn’t forget or misspell she let me off the line.

Now you know and I know that it is probably cheaper for the company to do it that way, because it takes less time to make sure I do it right than to initiate another call when I do it wrong again – but that’s not what it felt like. It felt like someone who knew the ropes was getting me used to them, and doing it with TLC (tender loving care) and not TVC (thinly veiled contempt) which tends to be so rampant in some of the “helping” professions. Bravo Commerce – I hope your merger doesn’t interfere with your customer care, because so far, I like it.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

Speaker Profile: Robert Stephens

With the North American Conference On Customer Service approaching, we would like to introduce you to the speakers we will have at our event. This year, NACCM will take place from November 16 – 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Robert Stephens. Robert Stephens is the Founder and Chief Inspector of The Geek Squad.

Stephens started this business when he was a “starving college student” at the University of Minnesota. While he was going around fixing things for people with his mountain bike and cell phone, he found when he went to help people, mainly with computers, service was lacking. So formed The Geek Squad, which is now a part of Best Buy.

With respect to his views on Customer Service, Robert Stephens was quoted in this interview stating: “So my emphasis in service, which the biggest expense in pretty much any service business I can think of is human capital/labor. In service, the people are the brand. They are the factories that manufacturer it. I focus really on attracting and maintaining talent as a means of accomplishing that goal.”

To learn more about Robert Stephens read his book, The Geek Squad Guide to Solving Any Computer Glitch, and check out this interview from Service Untitled which delves more into specifics of his philosophy. Also, for more on Stephens watch the YouTube clip provided below:



We invite you to come see Robert Stephens at NACCM as he presents on Wednesday, November 19th, “Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable”.

Doing More With Less

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

I’m an “expert” columnist for Customer Advantage Newsletter and ever few weeks or months they send me questions which I answer. I almost always forget to publish those Q & A’s and so today with my new eyes on potential blog posts I answered one of their questions and then before filing it away said “Yippee! A blog post!” So here we go.

The question: Customer demand is rising, but we can’t add more people to Service. So we have to do more with less. What’s a good way to approach this situation?

The way you frame the situation is important. You must come at it believing that every one on your team is smart, creative, talented and has something to contribute.

In order to bring out the brilliance in everyone in your organization, you must believe this (or ‘act as if’ you do until you realize it’s true). In holding open the possibility that people will shine they usually do. People live up (or down) to our expectations of them. If we expect and empower them to be competent, creative, innovative problem solvers who create exquisite experiences for customers, they’re more likely to do so.

Once you hold this as true it’s time you give people the chance to help. In a meeting, start with the truth.

“I know we would all like it if we had more resources, but we don’t and in the short term, won’t. We can’t do anything about that but what we CAN do is start getting really creative around here and find ways to work around the reality we’re faced with. I believe this team has the talent and ingenuity it takes to come up with solutions to even our toughest challenges. Let’s brainstorm some ideas together and get started.”

Set aside real time for brainstorming (no judgments, no idea-killer phrases, set amount of time where anything goes.) Get people limbered up with some silly challenges “52 ways you can use a teabag” and when they are loose and laughing introduce your real challenges.

Try using analogy “If this were a zoo (a garden, a circus etc.) how would we look at it?”

Convince yourself and your team that you have the creative potential to discover solutions for any problems and you will. A hint – little rewards, like mini candy bars, stress toys and kazoos always make creative sessions more fun. Once people are in the habit of being more solutions focused you reinforce it when ever you see it. “Jill, I am always so amazed by the way you come up with out of the box solutions that make our customers happy. Great work.”

You might even want to have a once a month celebration for the most workable solutions. Even in the most severe of situations there’s always enough for movie tickets and popcorn rewards.

My answer: The first thing you need to know is that you are not alone. Companies everywhere are asking people to do more with less. The second thing you need to know is that times like this give us the opportunity to show how good we really are. I believe that most of us have the ability to do a little better every day.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

Use What You Have

Today we have a guest post from NACCM Speaker Trace Belcher. Trace Belcher is Talent Manager and Technology Training Administrator at Jewelry Television® in Knoxville, TN. He manages the eLearning function for over 2000 employees as well as implements advanced Customer Care (Sales and Service) training for in-house employees and 3rd party vendors. Trace will be speaking on “Climb That Sandwich! Capturing the Passion and Productivity of Your Team.” on November 18th at the NACCM conference in Anaheim, CA.

Hello all, Trace Belcher here. I am looking forward to speaking at the NACCM in November. My topic will be "Climb that Sandwich" (strange title I know, but you will have to check out my session for the complete explanation).

I wanted to introduce myself to the group and tell an old story (well, not THAT old, I'm only 40) about the main reason I went into consulting in the first place.

My dad, up until he retired this year, has been a brick (and block and stone) mason for years. When I was about 12, I saw him one day loading up his truck to go to a job site. I saw among his equipment an instrument called a "transome" (basically a "sighting" scope used to measure the grade of land). To me, though, it was just a really cool telescope.

I asked my dad if I could play with this really neat telescope (please, dad, please, please, please?). His response stays with me to this day. He replied, "No, you don't know how to use it; and having a tool you don't know how to use is the same as not having that tool."

Disappointed that day, yes, but I've taken that wisdom across America: Use the tools you have! Why spend the money, time and effort to build or buy extra utilities when you haven't discovered all of the scope and power of what you have? What pay 3rd-party vendors to do what the talent in your own organization can do?

Use what you have, after all, it's better than "not having that tool."

See you in November,

Trace

Speaker Profile: Stephen Brown

With the North American Conference On Customer Service approaching, we would like to introduce you to the speakers we will have at our event. This year, NACCM will take place from November 16 – 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Brown. Stephen Brown is currently the Edward M. Carson Chair in Services Marketing Professor and Executive Director at the Center for Services Leadership.

Stephen Brown has been an integral part of the Center for Services Leadership. Through his leadership and vision, with the help of Edward M. Carson, the Center was created in 1986. This enormous accomplishment has earned the praise of several institutions including Intangibles magazine which refers to it as a “Mecca”. The Center has distinguished members such as Cisco, IBM, and McKinsey & Company.

In addition, Stephen Brown has been given several honors, including being recognized American Marketing Association’s for prestigious Career Contributions to Services Marketing. Another accolade has received include being given an honorary doctorate from the Swedish School of Economics. Other accomplishments include being co-author and editor for over 20 books, and 150 articles.

We invite you to come see Stephen Brown at NACCM as he presents on Wednesday, November 19th, “The science of service: the proof is in the numbers”.

Speaker Profile: Bill Price

With the North American Conference On Customer Service approaching, we would like to introduce you to the speakers we will have at our event. This year, NACCM will take place from November 16 – 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Bill Price. Bill Price is the founder of Driva Solutions, LLC, and the author of The Best Service is No Service.

Prior to Driva Solutions Bill Price was the Vice President of Amazon.com’s Global Customer Service. Price helped them to reduce contacts-per-order­­ by over 70% which helped win Amazon.com the second highest-ever customer satisfaction rating for a company based in the United States.

Some of his other accomplishments include: the publication of more than 20 articles and whitepapers, videotapes of past presentations from 2002 and 2004 are still broadcast on television as relevant, in 1997 he was awarded “Call Center Pioneer” from Call Center Magazine, and in 2004 was asked to be one of ten “CRM Gurus”.

As previously mentioned Bill Price is the author of The Best Service is No Service: How to Liberate Your Customers from Customer Service, Keep Them Happy, and Control Costs. Check out the Driva Solutions blog titled “Best Services” here. Also, we’re excited to have Bill Price present a web seminar on October 15 called Outsourcing and offshoring, insourcing and onshoring – so many choices, so little frank information. Stay tuned to the NACCM Customers 1^st blog for more information

We invite you to come see Bill Price at NACCM as he presents on Monday, November 17th, When the Best Service is No Service.

Speaker Profile: Frank Capek

With the North American Conference On Customer Service approaching, we would like to introduce you to the speakers we will have at our event. This year, NACCM will take place from November 16 – 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Frank Capek. Frank Capek is the Senior Vice President nGenera’s, nGen Customer Business division.

To fulfil his role at nGenera, Capek pulls insight from his 25 plus years of experience working with over 50 major corporations in a variety of industries. Some of the assets that he provides, as listed on his blog, are helping organizations: understand how their customers think, feel, and act; designing products, services, processes, and technology that enable more effective customer experiences; and aligning leadership, employee experiences, and organizational behaviour to deliver.

To hear more of Frank Capek’s thoughts check out his blog here. We invite you to come see Frank Capek at NACCM November 16-19, 2008 in Anaheim California at the Disneyland Hotel. Be sure to look for another speaker’s profile next week.

Make connections faster

In a recent blog post by NACCM keynote speaker Keith Ferrazzi, he gives four tips on how to make connections with people faster. He’s collected them from a few of the books he has been reading lately.

- Talk in color. When speaking with them, engage their imagination. Find some way to involved their senses in your conversation.
- Look people in the eye. He points out this is an old trick, but start by noticing the colors of actors eyes on TV. Then start doing this in real life too.
- Put something interesting on your business card. Make yourself stand out, a good place to do this is on your business card.
- Host a weekly “know how” series. Hosting a weekly series will begin to foster creativity and innovation throughout your organization. This will also help you stand out, because you are the person organizing the events.

We’re excited to have Keith Ferrazzi on one of our upcoming NACCM Customers 1^st web seminars. Check out his speaker profile here. Look for news next week on this web seminar session where Keith will be answering questions on building relationships from the audience. Do you have anything you’d like to ask Keith?

Erosion

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

As soon as the rain from Tropical Storm Fay passed yesterday I rushed down to the beach. I had been away for over two weeks and I missed my favorite spot. Breathing in the sea air renews me, so even when windy or cloudy, I take my walks at the beach.

And windy it was. I tucked my ipod deep in my pocket and put my sunglasses on to keep the sand out of my eyes. It’s my habit to walk against the wind on the walk out, so the walk back is a little easier.

It didn’t take long to notice that a lot of beach was gone. The storm had done some damage, and perhaps eighty feet or more of beach washed out to sea.

I drank in the fresh air after two days of being stuck indoors during the storm, at first all I was feeling was gratitude for being able to have nature so close to home.

But shortly I started thinking about a client. Their customer base in one sector of their business is eroding, and has been for a while. I know my training and my message is powerful, but I wondered. Would it begin to turn the tide?

When over time you cut cost by cutting service it begins eroding the trust your clients had. Growing by acquisition builds the customer base up again (just like the beach did over the past few months following terrible storms a few months prior to that.) But when scrupulous attention is not paid to the culture and how to deal with customers of the “former” company, over time, we see erosion.

The world is changing. The customer is changing. They have the power. When they start talking out loud and on the internet, the jig’s up.

All organizations need to take a closer look at what they are doing to stem erosion. If you didn’t have a good relationship with the customer when they left (because like everyone else, they’re cutting back a bit) you certainly won’t be able to win them back when the financial weather changes again. Marketing and advertising dollars don’t buy trust, they buy interest. You can’t buy trust, you have to earn and build it. What builds trust is consistently doing the things that make the employees and customers feel valued, special and important.

It happens easily. Even to me. We all tend to take our customers for granted. Erosion. It’s a sign.

Time to build up the dunes.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

Speaker Profile: Mark Morgan

With the North American Conference On Customer Service approaching, we would like to introduce you to the speakers we will have at our event. This year, NACCM will take place from November 16 – 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Mark Morgan. Mark Morgan is the Chief Executive Advisor for StratEx Advisors.

As the founder of StratEx Advisors, he pulls his insight from over 30 years experience in “engineering, management, project management, facilitation, consulting and leadership”.

The latest organizations that have benefitted from his expertise include IPSolutions, IBM and Stanford University. Mark Morgan is also the author of Executing Your Strategy: How to Break It Down and Get It Done, and Get It Done!: A Blueprint for Business Execution. A book review posted on this blog regarding Executing Your Strategy: How to Break It Down and Get It Done, had this to say:

Morgan, Malek and Levitt put forth a systematic approach for companies to decide "who they are, where they want to go and how to get there" and illustrate the means to implement those ideas. They also cover the key elements linking vision, strategy and operations--and how to connect them together into a coherent operating model for a company.

We invite you to come see Mark Morgan at NACCM as he presents on Wednesday, November 19th, Turning great ideas into great results: Cracking the code on getting stuff done. Be sure to look for another speaker’s profile next week.

GREAT Recovery

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

I got a call today from Lori Pappasino at Lord & Taylors. Was she upset!

She read the blog entry about my experience there and I’ve got to say took it real personally. She apologized. She listened. She apologized again. She felt badly and I could feel it. She told me about her efforts at L&T to create positive customer experiences. She expressed regret that they had failed Mom and I.

I explained (how could I not) that perhaps if this had been another store, perhaps if this had been one of the discount chains, or even one of the other department stores, that I wouldn’t have felt nearly so bad. But after all this was Lord & Taylors – the “special” store of my youth. The Lord & Taylors of special dresses and first suits and ladies’ lunches – I had a higher expectation. And so the gap appeared to be so huge because this venerable old institution owed me (and Mom) more. It compounded my insult and made it feel even worse. After all, it’s all about the feelings.

She got it.

In fact – she got it all. She understood my point of view as a customer and as a professional in her field. She even went through (she didn’t know this) most all the steps I teach to deal with and upset or angry customer. She listened, she let me vent, she empathized ( so well, I think I want to take her to lunch) she restated the problem to make sure she really understood, she told me what she was going to do to make sure it would never happen to another customer, she offered a letter of apology to my mother with a small “atonement” (my word, not hers) she thanked me for my business and told me how valuable I was and that she wanted to earn our trust once again.

She really got it. Congratulations Lori – you “Wowed” me with your recovery skills.

She explained how the whole company is now going through retraining in customer service behaviors. I’ll bet I make it to the “Here’s how not to do it” section of that training. Good. Stories are memorable.

They are asking the question in their company, “What are we going to do differently?” I couldn’t help myself, I offered a few suggestions. It’s a great question and one that everyone should be asking!

One thing is for sure – if she teaches everyone in the company what she knows about “recovery” skills, they’ll be well trained.

In case you want a little poster for your wall to remind you of those steps – we’ve posted it here LINK for you or anyone you think might need it. Enjoy. Practice. Prosper.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!

Customer service winners

I recently came across BusinessWeek’s Customer Service Standouts slideshow. I took some time to look through the top ten to find out what made them so special when it came to their customer service. An overlying theme was treating your employees with respect. If employees love who they’re working for, love the products they’re selling, and are educated on them, odds are your customer service will be great. Here’s Business Week’s top 10 and why they made the list.

1. USAA – With their service team of 12,400 receiving 250,000 hours of reinforcement training a year to service military personnel with they know their product.

2. LL Bean – In the 2007 holiday season, they took time to store up their inventory, leaving less customers calling the call center to complain about items being in stock, even with the extra goods they had left over.

3. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts – All employees get the luxury service when they start the job so they know what it’s suppose to be like for the customers.

4. Lexus – They set up an online chatroom to converse with customers online who are thinking about buying Lexus vehicles.

5. Trader Joe’s – They make an effort to pay their employees the average income in their community, and pride themselves on customer interaction in the store.

6. Starbucks – January started, and they made customer service their number one priority, making changes to their current rocky business.

7. Jet Blue – Their new terminal at JFK Airport in New York City will bring more security outlets, as well as more eticket kiosks. They’ve also added a Customer’s Bill of Rights.

8. Edward Jones – In 2007, they implemented a system to recognize branch managers who excelled at customer service.

9. Lands End – In Sears stores, their current owner, they’ve added in-store monogramming, and also computer kiosks so in store customers can browse online.

10. Ace Hardware – The employees focus on being knowledgeable about their tools. This year, they’re having every employee carry around a skill matrix card, so if they’re not the expert on certain tools, they can quickly connect customers with the right person.

Please Inform Your Face

This is posted on behalf of JoAnna Brandi. It is co-posted on the Customers 1^st Blog and JoAnna Brandi blogs.

I’ve just left the Estee Lauder counter in Lord & Taylor’s. I’m shaking my head.

Lauder is having one of their special offers – buy $39.50 worth of product and get a free gift. My Mom uses their products and like most people loves the free gift. This time (very clever) you get to customize the gift. You get to pick from two color palettes (warm or cool) and a choice of daytime or nighttime creams.

We walked over to the relatively small counter where there three (count them – three) sales people. Not one of them noticed us nosing around. I had to ask “Are you having a special offer today?”

“Yes.”

“Uh – can you tell us a little about it?”

She gave us a brief description, nothing exciting at all in her voice, and void of some important details. My Mom, recovering from a broken hip, and leaning on a cane said great – I need some powder. The young later brought out the powder and stated that the powder cost $29.50.

“Okay,”

A moment of silence and then I got it – it was probably not enough to qualify for the gift. So I needed to move the conversation along to the next level I guessed. “And what do we need to spend to get a gift?”

$39.50 More silence and one of those glances that suggested that perhaps we were interrupting something very important that she needed to do. It was momentary, but my body picked it up.

Now my Mom picked up the ball. She looked at me and said, “Need anything?”

“I really could use a lipstick.”

“Okay.” And then, nothing.

“Where ARE your lipsticks?” I asked, really wanting to bolt out of the store screaming.

“Over there.”

And so I climbed over a cart that was blocking the way, and then moved it out of the way so my Mom might make her way around the road block too.

I quickly picked a lipstick. Now it’s time for Mom to pick the components of her gift – the young lady asked my not-hearing-too-well Mom. “Do you want warm or cool colors?” Not knowing what she was getting into, or what the young lady meant she picked one. When I brought to her attention after seeing the colors that she wasn’t going to like the beige lipstick we asked the young lady to switch it. What resulted was a deep sigh and look of distain.

Had I been there alone, it would have been the moment of truth, where I either told the truth about what I was seeing or left the store, but I stayed for the rest of the transaction.

To my utter amazement, after we paid, the woman looks up and says in a somewhat convincing voice, “Thank you so very much. I really appreciate your business, thanks for coming in today.” The amazing part – she said it all while maintaining a scowl on her face. It made me feel quite ill, it was that strange.

Next time you express appreciation – please remember to inform your face.

If you want to learn more about inspiring the kind of culture that would NEVER (I repeat NEVER) produce this kind of behavior join the experts at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management where we’ll be teaching you how to make the customer really FEEL like #1.

If you’d like to see more of Joanna Brandi’s blogs, visit JoAnna Brandi’s Blogs. You can also find out more by visiting her Customer Care Coach website. Joanna Brandi will be a keynote speaker at this year’s North American Conference on Customer Management, and has already been profiled on our Customer 1^st blog. Stay tuned for her posts on the Customers 1^st blog!