For your reading pleasure
we have provided below free articles about customer service,
customer focus, customer satisfaction and related
topics.
On
this page you will see the titles of each article as well as a brief
introduction to each article. To read the article click where
indicate. (read more...) contained in
each introduction. If you would like to print the articles please
use the link provided and download the article in a pdf format.
I hope
you will enjoy this selection of what I consider poignant articles.
Since I plan to add more as I come across them I invite you to come
back often to see what's new.
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Research
Findings on the Importance of Creating a Customer-Focused Culture -
It will shock you!...new
Every month we scan as much of the Customer Focus, Service
Excellence and Customer Experience Research as we can to make sure
we have our fingers on the pulse of what customers and business
leaders are saying and thinking. Here is a short summary of what
current research is revealing. It's not listed in any order as it is
all important!
read more...
How Can You Drive A
Customer Crazy? ...new
We were recently interviewed by Canadian Retailer Magazine and the
resulting article is a great read. We have published it here, with
the author's permission.
If
you're in the retail business, you know customer service
is
one of the biggest targets of consumer complaints. What
you probably didn't know is that a recent
survey found good customer service to be so important to your
customers that 95
per cent of them say their experiences with the customer service
representatives can make or break a relationship with a
particular brand or
company (see survey results below).
read more...
Customer Focus in a Slow Economy
...new
So here we are again. The economy is
getting tough and for many, life is stressful and difficult. For
business, this is not new. We’ve all been here before. Hopefully
we’ve learned from the last time the economy slowed … But then
again, have we?
read more...
What is Customer-Focused Leadership?...new
While Customer Focus and service
excellence is everyone’s responsibility, this is particularly true
for anyone who manages and supervises others. That’s why we believe
that...Customer Focus is a
Leadership issue. To become a
customer-focused leader, it is helpful to look at the best practices
of other organizations when it comes to management and leadership
practices and tailor these to your specific situation.
read more...
To be (Customer Focused)
or not to be... What a Question
Most
of you will probably recognize this soliloquy from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
To die: to sleep;
What has this got to do with Customer
Focus? Based on the unacceptably high levels of poor or mediocre
customer service, prevalent across North America and other parts of
the globe, it appears that many companies seem to favor “not to be”.
read more...
Why
Customer Focus Differentiates
Has this ever
happened to you? You're in a hurry. You want to complete your
business and the person serving you is preoccupied with something
other than serving you. Then when you are served, you might get an
insincere apology for the delay followed by the completion of your
transaction. If asked to describe this experience you would likely
respond "That's typical" or "It's nothing more and probably a little
less than I expected."
read more...
Customer
Expectations vs. Customer Needs
The first rule of stellar service
delivery is:
Service is all about expectations.
You buy a product; you expect it to work
the first time. You go to a discount supplier, you expect the
quality to be less than the high end dealer, but you still expect
what you buy to work, first time every time. When it comes to
products, expectations are pretty clear. People expect a good
quality product based on the price they are willing to pay for it.
When it comes to service, expectations can get a little fuzzy. When
a customer begins ...
read more...
FAST GUIDE: 10 Success Factors of Customer Focus
Customer Focus is more than Customer Service. It is an aligned
whole-organization approach to customer satisfaction and service,
leading to customer loyalty and advocacy. The result is sustainable
profitability.
read more...
Letter To The Editor
Isn't it curious that, despite all the articles and commentary about
the strategic importance of service quality and the empirical
evidence which concludes that building customer loyalty through
service quality is a profitable long-term business strategy, the
service that most of us receive is average at best, and indifferent
in most cases. Proof is found in the endless stream of horror
stories shared in the press, on the internet and around the dinner
table. The scary thing is that this low level of service is typical
and when there is a problem, all too often things just get worse.
read more...
Back
to top
Shocking Recovery!
"Submitted for your judgment, a business plan. This plan is mapped
out to the nth degree. It describes the particulars of how to do
business. But what can't be anticipated is the tension that washes
over a customer like a dense fog. This is the tension that is
inherent in registering a complaint. This particular tension,
registering prominently on the anxiety scale, brings a foreboding.
It carries with it a premonition of doom and is experienced,
unfortunately, too often...in the Service Zone."
read more...
Improving the Customer Experience through Customer
Journey Mapping
Today’s customers are becoming more demanding and often drive a hard
bargain. They utilize multiple channels and touch points to interact
with your organization during their life cycle (Customer Journey).
If you are serious about differentiating your organization, you
cannot ignore the negative impact that inconsistent and piecemeal
customer experiences will have on your business.
read more...
Using Information to Create Value for Your Customers
Ask most any employee at work today in American business the same
question: "What's our biggest problem?" and you're likely to get the
same answer: "Communication!" How can that be? Look at the
proliferation of technology that has vastly improved the way in
which information is sent and received in corporations. Consider the
inordinate amount of time we spend during the typical business day
in meetings. What about voice mail, e-mail, pagers, cell phones, fax
machines and computers? Yes, even with the multitude of
communications technology at our fingertips; even with the increased
knowledge base and education of the American worker; even with new
concepts in leadership and teamwork, most people will tell you the
major cause of problems in organizations can be attributed to
"communication."
read more...
Back
to top
No Theory. . .No Learning: A Requisite for Real
Change!
To quote an unheralded Deming phrase... "No Theory, No Learning."
Explained, it warns us that unless we fully understand the theory,
set of assumptions or thinking that we held true when we created
practices and procedures that we use presently, we will be forever
condemned to create different versions of what we have always done
in the future. The result...no real change, just different
manifestations of what we always used to do.
read more...
Would You
Do Business With You?
If more company presidents and their senior managers asked
themselves this question with the customers’ view in mind, many
would answer “probably not.” The reason? Customer service. Much has
been said, done and written about customer service during the last
decade. Millions of dollars have been spent on programs, training
and systems. However, the results have been disproportionate and
often outright disappointing. In a recent issue of Fast Company, the
cover story declare d “B e t r a y e d ! The biggest lie in business
is ‘the customer is in charge’… How could an idea so right go so
wrong?”
read more...
Frequently Annoying Complaints and how to deal with them
Anyone who's ever had a customer has
had a customer complaint - across industry lines, from the paperboy
to the Fortune 500 company CEO. Customers are customers, after all.
And customers complain.
read more...
