Archive for the ‘Customer Service’ Category

Don’t Forget About Gathering Client Feedback

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

(Thanks to Gina Abudi for contributing this guest blog)

It is important for service-oriented organizations to regularly gather feedback from their clients.  Unfortunately, too many organizations don’t bother to check in with their clients to see how things are going. The feedback you gather from clients will help in many ways, including: (more…)

So you’ve got something, but you don’t want to sell it to me?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Recently my husband went to the movie theatre to buy some tickets that we were going to give to some people who had helped us out recently. He wanted 8 tickets. The theatre said “no, sorry – we only (more…)

AAA is paying attention, but is that good or bad?

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Last week, before leaving for a long weekend in Las Vegas, I impulsely tweeted a message about my husband being stuck in a ditch. I said: (more…)

Are you ready to serve GenY?

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

For years, the “baby boomers” represented the focus of much of society – from television programming, to advertisers’ focus to social media commentary from journalists and academics. But, today there is a new generation that is rapidly gaining attention and focus from these groups. (more…)

Why are you hiding your contact information?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Have you ever noticed how difficult some people make it to connect with them? I can understand the very elite, supremely famous celebrities that are so inundated with attempted contacts from masses of strangers that they absolutely need to put up barriers. But, what about those whose web sites and professions would lead one to believe that they make a living based on their ability to serve the needs of potential customers, existing clients or others who could help them make valuable connections? (more…)

Can your brand be *too* well-recognized? Apparently yes!

Friday, November 6th, 2009

An article in the November issue of Entrepreneur raises an interesting perspective on the proliferation of big brands and whether having a big brand can, in some cases, be a negative.

Apparently, Starbucks – arguably a big, big, brand – is going incognito in some markets. It’s opening up neighborhood coffee shops (more…)

What do your customers want?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Last weekend I was at a craft show – an annual outing where I sell beaded jewelry that I design and “dabble at” throughout the year. Unlike previous shows, this year I sold hardly any ear rings, usually a high demand item both because of their uniqueness and low price I think (I have to be honest with myself!). This year I sold (more…)

The early bird

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Sometimes it can be the smallest of things that leads to a lost opportunity. Small things that can, I think, be easily corrected.

I had a personal example of this recently while working on a proposal for a branding project. I needed to gather some price information for some elements of the project. In two cases, I contacted two different individuals, asking for some estimates. In each of these cases, one of the people got back to me right away – the other, not at all. (more…)

Little touches leave lasting impression

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Our water heater went out recently and my husband researched and ordered a part online from – www.plumbingsupply.com. Not the kind of company that one might, necessarily, expect anything special from, right? After all, a plumbing part is a plumbing part.

But the day the part was delivered – I heard my husband exclaim first: “Hey! The part is here!” and then, shortly after that, “Wow! Isn’t THIS cool!” (more…)

Social media as a process improvement tool?

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

While Facebook can be fun and Twitter seems to have captured the interest of the masses who are all tweeting in 140-character mini-blogs about everything from what they had for breakfast to the emerging news event they just saw outside their window, many still point to these tools as more of a diversion than a legitimate business tool.

Until recently. (more…)