Category: implementation

25 Ways to Show Loyalty to Your Customers

ThanksYou_Flickr-woodleywonderworks(Photo courtesy flickr | woodleywonderworks)

A business that values its focus on its customers, regularly find ways to show their loyalty to their customers. It is a good practice for your & your customer facing teams to regularly find novel & memorable ways of doing this.

Chip Bell & John Patterson have listed 25 ways of doing this in their Wired & Dangerous blog:

  • Invite a customer to an important staff meeting to talk about their needs and goals
  • Arrange for a special learning experience for customers
  • Name a policy, building, or conference room for a key customer
  • Start a fund or scholarship in the name of a key customer
  • Poll your customer for their input on important changes you plan to make

Read the entire list here.

Related Posts:
~ Suddenlink | Customer Experience Lessons
~ Social Media Lessons From FedEx
~ Customer Loyalty
~ What is a customer centric organization?

Suddenlink | Customer Experience Lessons

CableGuy
(Photo courtesy flickr | Dex Encarta)

In his post FastCompany | 7 Timeless Ways To Improve Customer Satisfaction, author Drew Neisser filters out the following success factors for customer (satisfaction or experience – call it what you may) initiatives based on Suddenlink’s success. In a struggling economy & in an industry with a questionable reputation for bad customer experiences, Suddenlink has shown improvements in multiple industry measures – $ terms & otherwise. 

  1. Put someone in charge – having someone responsible for customer interest makes customer initiatives more focused
  2. Measure. Measure. Measure. – rely on multiple measures of how your business has performed in the customer’s perspective
  3. Fix the real issues – measuring is a starting point; addressing issues that are identified as part of the measurement is the REAL deal
  4. Link metrics to evaluation – to make customers a priority, link metrics to performance evaluation & even compensation
  5. Detractors are an opportunity – unhappy customers or detractors should be viewed as an opportunity for positive conversion
  6. Use social media to understand & serve customers (not sell more) – social media is a great listening tool to understand needs & respond to issues
  7. Continuous improvement – customer initiatives should never have an end, they are always work in progress to achieve even better customer outcomes

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Related Posts:
~ Amazon – World’s Most Customer Centric Company
~ Tony Hsieh – Delivering Happiness
~ Volvo’s Quest For Customer Centricity
~ Customer Service Champs 2010

Customer Experience Resolutions

“Many companies have customer experience efforts underway and it’s time for them to embed customer experience management into the rhythm of their business — making it a fundamental part of how their organizations operate. Here are my 2011 resolutions for companies that have the courage and resolve to get to that next level.”
– Bruce Temkin

Read the full post here.

Reinforce The Positives

ServiceExpress_ExpressMonorail 
(Photo courtesy Express Photorail)

India is gaining in reputation for being the services & hospitality capital of the world. But, instances of bad experiences introduces doubt if the country & its professionals have what it takes to deliver on this promise. I came across a Vir Sanghvi article today that deals with the issue of service attitude (or the lack of it) amongst professionals in this industry. Causes vary between employee’s lack of long term commitment to a job, multitude of employment options, corporations taking customers for granted, etc. – all matters beyond any one individual’s control. Overwhelming for anyone wanting to better the situation!

Can such systemic issues have simple individual remedies?

Read the full article here.  

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Related Posts:
     ~ Changing Scales in India
     ~ Enterprise IT – Just A Utility?
     ~ When Customer Rule!