More Freedom Considered for Virgins: Empower Through Trust
Okay, the title may be somewhat misleading, but Richard Branson has announced a policy for a small number of employees at the Virgin Group. Essentially he is copying something that is occurring quite frequently among tech companies in the Silicon Valley and just so happens to be practiced in my company as well. Okay, get…
How Sorry Are You? Keys to Driving Satisfaction While Resolving Customer Issues
In addition to their products and services, I am a fan of Zendesk because they openly share pertinent customer experience information. Unlike others who report customer experience results, Zendesk’s data is not the byproduct of surveys but instead emerges from customer interactions with over 25,000 businesses in 140 countries. Here are some high level findings…
Easy Wins
Ahhh, summer – a season of sunshine, valiant efforts to slow one’s life down, and vacation travel. It’s hard not to notice, however, how our great escape efforts are often marked by so much preparatory and participatory stress. Marketing guru (and a man who was kind enough to endorse my Zappos Experience book) Seth Godin recently posted…
Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy – Loving your Customer and your Message
Here’s an exercise for you. Try to go one day without seeing an advertising message. Ok, how about an hour? Some subtle, others overt, marketers are finding us in as unsuspecting of places as the bottom of golf holes. Every business is talking at customers. But what makes that chatter banal or brilliant? For a…
How to Balance Service Standards with Empowerment
I recently had a conversation with someone who just changed customer-facing jobs. Beyond the dynamics of salary, benefits, and the myriad of other factors that influenced her decision to move on to the next professional opportunity, the way she described her former position stuck with me: “I didn’t like that I couldn’t see customer issues…
True or False? Measuring Performance Leads to Better Service
If you said “Yes” – you are either amazingly astute or you had a chance to look at the recently released Q1 Zendesk Benchmark report. In either case – Congratulations! Zendesk, the maker of customer service software that streamlines customer support and fosters self-service and engagement, studied the use of analytics and their impact on…
How to turn problems into customer loyalty
I recently visited a store to make a return. I suspect that few people relish this particular type of retail encounter – not the employees, not the customers. Both sides often seem prepared for a debate at best and an argument at worst. It is an unexpected relief when the experience is seamless. The product…
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