Call for Guest Bloggers for NACCM 2010

Earn a complimentary All-Access pass to NACCM 2010, the premiere event for peer-to-peer sharing, leadership building sessions, and legendary storytellers providing you with the inspiration and empowerment to make a difference. NACCM balances practical content you can take action on, unique experiences that reinvigorate, and big-name keynotes that inspire- all while stressing the importance of keeping the customer at the center of every business decision. As a guest blogger at NACCM 2010, you’ll have access to the amazing speaking faculty, authors, academics PLUS network with a diverse group of fellow attendees. With three track sessions, networking hours and The Walt Disney World Location – you’ll learn and have a great time and this premier event.

NACCM
October 25-27, 2010
Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort
Orlando, FL
Event: http://bit.ly/NACCM2010_Bloggers
Brochure: http://bit.ly/NACCM2010_Brochure

Responsibilities will include attending specifically assigned sessions and blogging live or same day. You must have industry experience within the customer service field. In exchange for guest blogging, you will receive an all-access pass to the event $3,000+ value. Guest bloggers are responsible for their travel and lodging.

Apply today by sending your name, company, biography and links to your blog directly to NACCM 2010 Online Producer, Melissa Sundaram. Deadline for submissions is Friday, October 15, 2010 at 12pm EST. Early submissions encouraged.

Angry customers can add value to your business

As we work to provide customers with the best possible experience with our product or store, it can be frustrating when a customer approaches us angrily with a complaint. The customer is frustrated, too and it's partly as a result for their interaction with your good or service. But angry customers can be a welcome change as they may bring up issues that you thought were fine. TheSocialCustomer.com has a great article today on this subject and we encourage you to check it out. Chuck Dennis writes, "you should want to be hassled by your dissatisfied customers! You need to know what irked them, so you can resolve it and not do it again. You need to know how upset they are, so you can make it up to them in a way that will help rebuild their trust. You think I am being dramatic here? I am not. Every customer is precious. Stay in front of them!"

How have customer complaint helped you improve your product or service?

Excellent customer service is marketing

Great article today from MediaPost's Engage: GenY blogger, Morgan Stewart. Stewart discusses a recent issue with a large cable company resulting in Stewart's decision to stop service through the company. Instead of providing excellent customer service at the beginning, the cable company only provided customer service when Stewart was ready to stop the service contract. Too little, too late. This company didn't follow the old adage that it's much better to keep a customer than to acquire a new one; the company assumed that another customer would soon follow Stewart. So what gives? Stewart writes, "On one hand, marketers' focus on acquisition makes perfect sense. Growth is the primary goal of any company -- and new customers are required in order to grow. However, there is a point of diminishing returns where acquisition efforts are simply replacing customers that have already left -- the classic leaking bucket."

Stewart goes on to discuss the larger companies with excellent customer service and by being excellent they let their loyal (and very happy) customers spread their love for the company to their friends and family. This customer service prowess leads to awesome viral marketing.

Does your company think this way? How are you using excellent customer service to market your company?


Learn more: Customer Service IS Marketing

Apple speeds customer service with Express Lane

Express lanes are no longer for those with less than 12 items in their shopping basket. Apple device users can now access the company's new Express Lane service if and when they have difficulties with an Apple product. The streamlined interface allows users to see their registered devices alongside any customer service complaints. Customers can stay on top of their requests and track requests that they've previously sent in to Apple.

What do you think of the new service offered by Apple? How can other companies use this functionality to streamline their customer support?

Learn more: Apple speeds up its device support site with Express Lane

U.S. companies Social Media spending tied to customer loyalty

Internetretailer.com reports that a new study finds U.S. companies that use social media to deepen customer loyalty spend nearly twice as much on the marketing tactic as those that use it for other reasons. Further, marketing budgets related to social media are growing, with loyalty initiatives growing the fastest in terms of dollars spent. The amount of marketers’ social media budget allocated to loyalty increased by 293% from 2009 to 2010, while brand awareness and customer acquisition budgets increased by 189% and 214%, respectively. Social media budgets for driving loyalty have experienced the most growth for the past three years, the report says.

As customer loyalty continues to be the major push within social media use; how can customer loyalty professionals leverage this toward actionable results?

Learn more: U.S. companies spend for social media tied to customer loyalty

Enhance your customer loyalty and engagement skills with Robyn Tippins, Community Lead at Yahoo! Developer Network as she presents, "From Ordinary Customer to Fervent Fans: Yahoo! Helps Customer Take the Leap" at NACCM 2010 - October 25-27, 2010 in Orlando. Visit the NACCM 2010 event page to download the brochure.

Has customer service become collective suffering?

The New Yorker's James Surowiecki writes about the mounting frustration of American consumers, who are “fed up with inept service, indifferent employees, and customer-service departments that are harder to negotiate than Kafka’s Castle.” He writes that tensions are mounting thanks to the American demand for cheap goods with luxury service and a lack of focus among executives on how to use their customer service department correctly. Together, both parties on the customer service line suffer causing discontent on the phone, corner office, tarmac, and on the web.

Surowiecki writes, "For a start, most companies have a split personality when it comes to customers. On the one hand, C.E.O.s routinely describe service as essential to success, and they are well aware that, thanks to the Internet, bad service can now inflict far more damage than before; the old maxim was that someone who had a bad experience in your store would tell ten people, but these days it’s more like thousands... On the other hand, customer service is a classic example of what businessmen call a “cost center”—a division that piles up expenses without bringing in revenue—and most companies see it as tangential to their core business, something they have to do rather than something they want to do."

Is your customer service something that you truly want to do or do you feel pressured into it to keep customers?
What is the solution for customers and for customer service departments? We'd like to hear your thoughts, DM us on Twitter @customerworld

Read more - ARE YOU BEING SERVED?

Study: Americans want Federal customer service to be a priority

Businesswire.com reports that the results of the “Uncle Sam at Your Service: 2010 Federal Customer Experience Study,” which examined American citizens’ expectations and perceptions of U.S. Federal agencies’ customer service. Whether through Federal student aid, tax processing, disaster relief, or even airport security – U.S. Federal agencies offer services to 307 million Americans every day.

Here are a few highlights from the report:

According to the study, Americans currently grade private sector customer service experiences higher than service received from Federal agencies. The study reveals that Americans want the Federal government to improve customer service, and many are willing to pay for the upgrade:

* 83% of Americans say that customer service is something that Federal agencies can improve
* 42% of Americans say they would pay an additional $10 in taxes each year for better government service – $552.3 million more in taxes annually

Also,

Americans want problems solved quickly, clearly, and with courtesy. Currently, private companies outrank Federal agencies in these categories; however, some agencies are taking great strides to improve service. Despite some improvements, agencies must focus on expanding Web presence and moving more services online:

* 85% of Americans want Federal agencies to provide more information and make more services available online
* 63% of Americans who interact with agencies over the Web are satisfied with their experiences

For more information, visit the original article here.

Five ways social media is impacting customer service

We ran across a blog post over at CallCentrehelper.com that outlines five innovative ways that social media is impacting the customer service world. Guy Tweedale is Senior Vice President, European Operations of Jacada writes:

1. It levels the playing field
2. Makes consumers more informed
3. Far less frustrated consumers
4. Authenticity in customer experience
5. Customer service is (finally) a higher priority in the boardroom

We've seen in case studies how one customer who "tweets" their complaint can impact the entire image of an organization. How is your company using social media to not only connect with customers but ensure that customer experience is stellar both off and online?

Should all companies that have customer support issues be on Twitter?

ConversationAgent.com researched larger companies that are using Twitter for customer service and relationship management. Blogger Valeria Maltoni writes that during the vetting process she looked at three distinct factors:

1. answering customer questions in real time -- in other words, they have the support of the organization to be problem solvers, and not just to point to policies and disclaimers
2. thinking about customers first -- which means, navigating the line between company rules and customer needs with skill. It will come as a shocker to many of you, putting a "customers first" tagline is a tiny step if you don't walk the talk
3. orienting customers on what the account is about -- often you can tell the level of thoughtfulness from the bio alone

The top companies using Twitter include: JetBlue, SouthWestAir, Comcastcares with nine more making the cut. We encourage you to read the post for more information.

But interestingly, Maltoni asks if its even important for customer support to be on Twitter? Can traditional customer support survive with the influx of social media? Maltoni asks if the data and understanding of the customers on Twitter actually help the organizations understand the customers that aren't on Twitter. Do you think that data would stand?

YouTube offers companies 15 minutes of customer service success

With the recent development by YouTube to allow users to upload 15 minutes of videos to their account; there are a bevy of new ways that customer service professionals can utilize this resource to help and connect with customers on a digital level. Tony Bradley of PCWorld showcases two ways that that companies can use the extra 5 minutes to connect with their customers and team.

Customer Support. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is comprised of thousands of pictures streamed together. Rather than explaining processes like installation, configuration, or troubleshooting in a manual, or with text and images on a Web page, create customer service video clips for common tasks and post them on YouTube. Video clips will be appreciated by customers, and take some of the burden off of the help desk.

Training. Businesses can use YouTube to deliver effective training. Simply giving a training manual to an employee has mixed results--they may not really read it and they may not really understand it if they do. Paying a trainer, or delegating another employee to conduct training costs money, and results may vary depending on the trainer. A video clip allows you to record the training exactly as it should be delivered, and re-use it over and over without incurring any additional costs.

How else do you envision YouTube's new service helping you and your business?

Should the US Government regulate airline customer service?

Allen Howell of Forbes.com covers the interesting topic of airline customer service regulation. We thought the question was particularly thought-provoking so we're opening it to our Customer 1st readers. What do you think?

As Howell points out in his article, the question of government influence with customer service can be tricky, especially with a government regulated industry like air travel.

Let us know your thoughts via Twitter!

“Customer Service is the New Marketing!”

Fast Company recently interviewed Aaron Magness of Zappos, Inc. In the interview, Fast Company's Brandon Gutman asked Magness about his position and about how marketing and customer service have changed business. Here are a few highlights that we thought were particularly interesting.

Fast Company- What is marketing really about?

There are five principles that I try to focus on in everything that has to do with marketing:

· Customer service is the new marketing. The days of dictating your brand to the public are long gone. There is so much access to information; the customer is actually dictating your brand to you.

· Communicate with your customers, don’t market at them. Customers get bombarded with marketing messages every day (practically every second). Find ways to interact with them. Discussions drive loyalty, not one way messaging.

Fast Company- How do you breed better customer service?

I’m really inspired by positivity. This can take many forms and isn’t the same for everyone, but it really stands out for me. I think it’s contagious and people build off it. It helps in personal areas the same as business. You can’t provide great customer service with a negative attitude or culture. My goal is to be as positive as I can, and hope that has an impact on those around me. I choose to surround myself with positive people and you tend to find that the majority of “success stories” generally have a great attitude about life. It all comes down to the Golden Rule. It’s not difficult to understand and we all have it in us.


We encourage you to read the interview it its entirety.

Zappos’ Marketing Chief: “Customer Service is the New Marketing!”

Customer Service Woes for US Big Banks

Daily Finance reports that the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey was released today at the two biggest banks in the United States, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have "consumers giving both institutions the thumbs down."

Dan Burrows says, "The reasons for the drops in satisfaction are pretty obvious, according to ACSI. Bank of America customers are suffering from the cost-cutting undertaken to offset higher-than-expected debt resulting from the Merrill Lynch acquisition. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase is having difficulties swallowing Washington Mutual -- and it's the customers who are getting indigestion."

Learn more: Big Banks Get Thumbs Down on Customer Service

Budget cuts axe KS Medicaid customer service line

The Kansas City Star reports today that Medicaid budget cuts in Kansas have forced the state to axe its customer service line. Starting in February, a help line for doctors and pharmacists who provide Medicaid care in Kansas will close. Hours for a customer service line for Medicaid recipients will be “sharply” reduced.

The delays in confirming eligibility for new Medicaid applicants will grow. The state will cut $200,000 in funding earmarked for overtime and extra help to reduce the backlog.

Are there any other means of customer service that the state can introduce?

Learn more: Budget cuts axe KS Medicaid customer service line

Poor Customer Service Costs Billions

DestinationCRM.com reports that a new, "The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement," may finally put the damage bad service can create into a language executive boards understand -- dollars and cents. According to the survey of 8,880 consumers across 16 countries, poor customer service cost an aggregate of $338.5 billion per year, the average value of each lost relationship across all countries surveyed costing $243.

Learn more: Poor Customer Service Costs Billions

Is this news to you? How are you leveraging the costs of customer service?

Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets

Barney Beal of SearchCRM.com reports today that customers in emerging markets seem to have more bad experiences to share thereby making a customer service strategy even more important for businesses. According to the results of a recent survey by Accenture,
the survey, conducted over the summer, found that 87% of consumers in emerging markets switched providers in at least one industry sector because of poor service in the past year. That's 18% more than the global average. And, the survey suggests, they're not hesitant to tell others about their experiences -- 69% tell their acquaintances about bad experiences and 25% use social media to spread the word. In emerging markets, 40% of consumers said they use blogs and other online media to tell others about their negative experiences.

Learn more: Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets

5 Ways to Flub Customer Service

Samuel Greengard of CIO Insight lists ways that even the biggest companies can flub customer service. He writes, customers are rarely satisfied with the service businesses provide. Understanding those complaints, as well as the processes and technologies associated with customer service, can help CIOs and their teams avoid these customer-care blunders.

1. Outsourcing without understanding all the implications
2. Relying on incomplete metrics.
3. Underutilizing analytics.
4. Taking your existing customers for granted.
5. Trying to be everything to everybody.

What do you think of Greengard's list? Any that you'd like to add?