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Customer Service and Marketing - Its not that Hard!
Customer Service and Marketing that Works Go into many businesses today and try and get service, its sometimes impossible! The customer service officer is on the phone talking about personal issues, there is not enough staff, and they are...
Customer Service Warning—What to Watch for That Indicate We Have a Customer Service Problem
Do you frequently hear that customers are unhappy about something, and sometimes they are downright frustrated.
Yet, what you hear from your employees is, “Stupid customers! They just don’t understand how to use the product”?
As the owner, or...
How To Deal With Customer Disputes Without Losing Customers Or Giving Away The Store
When you are a customer, it is convenient to be dogmatic about the old "customer is always right" ideal. However, some customers take advantage of their power position, using their eternal status of "right" to take advantage of business owners and...
It's Still About Customer Service
My shopping experience lately has been amazing, and not in the good sense. Most of the time when I walk in a store one of four things happens: (1)I can tell who the salespeople are because they’re walking around with headsets on talking to one...
Top Ten Online Choices to Get Clients to Choose you Again and Again - Part 2
Did you know that 95% of coaching businesses fail because their owners don't pay enough attention to sales copy?
Whether you are a professional speaker, coach, or entrepreneur, every business wants more clients. Even more, they want to entice...
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Where have all the delighted customers gone?
WHERE ARE THE DELIGHTED CUSTOMERS?
QUESTION
If every company wants to delight its customers, then how come we don't spend most of our ‘customer days’ delighted?
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES?
The so-called new economy and most new business have been built around a specific promise. This promise is that the 'customer is in charge’. The reality is that customer service has reached the pits. Call centres in the depths of the countryside leave us hanging on while we listen to more piped music.
As customers we feel betrayed. It seems remarkable that an entire business philosophy, a mantra chanted across the modern world is so obviously without substance. Many banks, universities, shops, restaurants, builders' merchants, and software companies patently fail to deliver. The customer is not king. The customer is left waiting to be heard (again!).
To reflect on what has happened, one of the promises of the new economy evangelists was that the customer would finally be in charge. We weren't supposed to need to call the customer care department because everything would be right first time!
The reality is somewhat different. How often does the call centre tell you 'We are experiencing higher than usual call volumes' or 'all our customer service
operatives are currently busy' or ‘you are in a queue’? This first statement is almost always followed by the second (incongruous) comment, 'We value you your call'.
Basically, the new economy was meant to make service better, quicker and more effective for customers. At the same time it was meant to make it easier and cheaper for the companies. So much for the theory.
Companies are starting to wake up to the fact that the customer is actually very angry with them. Customer service ratings are a nonsense - the average score is always 'above average'.
Most customers do not feel 'in charge'. So, see what happens if you do put them in charge…
About the author:
Robert Craven - author of business best-sellers ‘Kick-Start Your Business’ and ‘Customer Is King’ (foreword by Sir Richard Branson)... ‘one of the UK’s leading marketing specialists’... the ‘entrepreneurship guru’. He runs The Directors’ Centre (http://www.thedc.co.uk), helping growing businesses to grow.
Robert Craven
rc@thedc.co.uk
http://www.thedc.co.uk
http://www.kick-starters.com
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