Category: Customer Service
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Customer Experience: What Kind of Employee Are We?
Here’s a brief thought exercise. Would you hire this employee? If they were on your staff, would you retain them? Punches the clock exactly, and refuses overtime without significant compensation Does the absolute minimum work possible to not get fired Spends their free time outside of work promoting themselves relentlessly Spends half their time at…
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Great Customer Service in One Slide
Service is the dominant form of industry these days. Everything is a service; in fact, -as-a-service is appended to an enormous number of industries. We have software-as-a-service. (the online apps economy) We have platform-as-a-service. (the API economy) We have vehicles-as-a-service. (the ridesharing companies) We have space-as-a-service. (home and office timesharing apps) Yet how many of…
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What is CX? What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience, or CX, has been and continues to be a hot topic for businesses seeking higher marketing ROI and longer customer retention. As with any seemingly new topic, we’ve lots of jargon to contend with. What is CX? How is it different from previous efforts to retain and grow customer loyalty? Let’s dig into…
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AI Primer for Marketers Part 6: AI-Powered Conversation
The most innovative marketers routinely pick up new things, try them out, and succeed or fail. Why are marketers struggling so much to adapt to artificial intelligence and machine learning? In this series, we’ll explore machine learning and artificial intelligence to build a foundation for understanding the field – and how it applies to marketing.…
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Necessity Drives Innovation in Customer Experience
Disruption rarely occurs because a new technology magically makes everything better. Few creators of software and algorithms build solely for the purpose of disrupting anything. Many creators of companies build to solve a problem they’ve had and they don’t see anyone else trying to solve, or entrenched interests block. Imagine an industry so bad that…
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The Hidden Lairs of Your Most Passionate Customers
The following is a guest post from the inimitable Jay Baer. The best opportunity to grow your business with customer service is to engage with your “onstage haters,” or customers who complain in public forums. And the best opportunity to engage with your onstage haters isn’t in social media (yet). More than half of onstage…
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Customers are a marketing method if you’re smart
I was listening during my morning workout to the Marketing Over Coffee discussion that John Wall and David Meerman Scott were having about how wireless connectivity is essential, and why more event venues don’t invest in decent Internet connectivity. When you think about it, this is fundamentally a result of believing that customers are a…
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Get the first cup on the table as fast as possible
This morning, John Wall and I were discussing the merits and drawbacks of the diner in which we do Marketing Over Coffee each week. One of the hallmarks of good service at a restaurant is that things initially happen at a rapid pace. You get seated quickly and your first order of drinks or appetizers…
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The most powerful customer service secret of all
The simplest and most powerful customer service secret of all: tell your customers what’s going on. Or better yet, give them the ability to tell themselves. Refer back to my joyful travelogue recently. The #1 thing the airline could have done to make everyone’s wait easier would have been to provide more timely information. If…
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First steps on the path to exceptional
The path to becoming exceptional is relatively simple to get started on. In a world that has generally accepted mediocrity, if not outright failure, finding a few parts of your business to improve that will push you past your competitors is simple. It starts with listening to yourself. Consider all of the complaints people have…