10 Reasons Why Your Customer Service Fails

I receive a newsletter from Marketing Professionals and it had an excellent article called "Top 10 Reasons Why Your Customer Service Fails" by Valerie Maltoni.

Here is a brief on what she wrote:
1. You’re doing all the talking – my grandmother used to say: “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. They are meant to be used proportionally.”

2. You are not doing anything about it – you don’t follow through with the feedback you request.

3. Your customer service reps don’t have the power to help – you are putting the most junior and least supported staff up front.

4. You have no idea of the cost to you of losing customers – if you were paying attention, you would know that good service means you retain more customers. Acquiring new customers costs more.

5. You see customer service as a cost, not a benefit – when you look at your department as overhead, you tend to under fund it and under staff it.

6. You are not keeping your brand promises – it does you no good to spend millions in advertising when customers find you difficult to deal with. A good experience is one of the best investments in your brand.

7. Your product needs help, start there – it is quite natural to think that your baby: your product or service is the best. Well, it may not be and that’s where you need to start helping customers, by providing a better one.

8. You did not notice the problem, so you’re behind on fixing it – this is how crisis get started.

9. You don’t have customer service – nobody is assigned to it, nobody owns it.

10. You don’t listen to your customer service reps – they know what’s going on and they would tell you.

She made some excellent points and all that I agree with. To view the whole article, you can visit her blog at: Top 10 Reasons Why Your Customer Service Fails. Take time to read the whole entry.

Business Growth Comes from Within

I am working on a presentation for a group of business owners and my topic is Growth Comes from Within. What I am talking about? What could cause businesses to grow from within?

Perhaps it could be employee morale, upselling of products, or what about customer service? My presentation is going to be about customer service and how getting the customer is one task but to keep the customer is a totally different task. I believe one of the most effective ways to grow your business comes from the current customer base through excellent customer service techniques and skills.

Some of the areas I will speak about is: customer evangelism, a happy customer is a referral base. The golden rule--Treat others as you would want to be treated. Repeat sales from happy customers. I will also give suggestions on techniques to use, such as information sharing through newsletters and ezines. Follow up skills of your sales people and customer service reps.

These are just some of the areas I will touch upon. Do you have any suggestions that would be good to share with my clients? My presentation is on the 27th, so please comment and share your opinions.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

A Perfect Ending to a Contract

I have come to the end of a contract with one of my clients. We have spent the last three months focusing on creating marketing material and activities to bring full circle the artwork, book writing, and speaking engagements of the business. Each piece of the business feeds off of each other but in the beginning there was not a clear view of how to successfully promote this.

We met frequently and also spent time on the telephone. A media package was created that was successful in getting an article in the newspaper and also finished off this week with a couple of bookings of speaking engagements for the business in the future.

To me it is the greatest pleasure to see the goals reached at the end of our commitment together. This does not always happen because some efforts takes months to see the outcome of the initiatives, but in this case, we saw it at the very end of our contract.

It should be every businesses goal to achieve the customers' goals. No matter if you are a retail store or a business coach, the goal in business is to create an experience for the customer so when they leave they are singing praises. Customer service at its best.

Even if the client and I had finished our contract without a booking, we still would have accomplished our goals and the client was satisfied. The client realized that it would take time to reap the benefits from the fruits of our labor. The material created to promote the business was the goal. The booking of an engagement was the benefit.

Make it your goal to create an experience your customer/client will not forget. Can you imagine the testimonies you receive when goals are met? I have received my testimony in writing and plan on putting it on my website soon!

Go out and create a pleasing customer experience!

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Are you Searching or Feeding your Current Customer Base?

An associate emailed yesterday and was asking for suggestions on how to help his client get more customers. The business is 20 years old, air conditioning and heating company, and had made money in the past but now was just making ends meet. The associate thought the market was saturated and it was hard to stand out in a sea of air conditioning companies. What do you think?

I totally disagreed. I do not care how many current companies offer the same service, customer service is what makes you stand out. I recently bought an air conditioner unit over a year ago. Have I heard from this company? Have they called to see if I would like a check up?

The company was thinking they needed new customers but did they forget their past customers? The easiest person to sell to is someone who is a present customer and is satisfied with your service and/or products. Most businesses do not recognize the goldmine they have in their current customers.

I recommended to him that they survey their current customer base for feedback on products and service. Take notice of the positive comments and utilize them for testimonies; utilize the negative comments to identify areas in which the company should work on improvement. Turn your weaknesses into strengths and create "Customer Evangelists". When your customers are satisfied they are sharing with the world the excellent service and products you offer. This in turn creates repeat business but also helps to grow your customer base.

Another area of recommendation was to do follow up calls quarterly, seasonally, and after an installation of new products. If you remind people they need to service their high dollar investment to keep it running smoothly, most people will come back to the seller of the product if their service is good.

Another must for the customer friendly business, create a newsletter for mailings to customers keeping your business name in front of them. Write or buy articles of content that are a benefit and information for your customers. Offer specials through your newsletter.

Businesses will continue to succeed if they continually strive to meet their customers' expectations and if they over achieve they will have a customer for life along with all the word-of-mouth advertising that this person shares. Feed your current customers and searching for customers will become obsolete.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Business to Business--No Customer Service

I was speaking with a friend who owns a childrens hair salon the other day and she was expressing her dismay of the business world today. She told me in the past year she has been in business, almost all of her B2B contact has resulted in no follow-up and poor customer service.

She currently has her business listed with a business broker since June and from the day she listed she has not had any contact from them. I guess they have her listing under contract so that is all that mattered. Do they not realize what word-of-mouth advertising she could give for them? What is wrong with this company?! An update would be nice!

She said the same happened with her liability insurance. Where is the agent that signed her up? They must have got the commission and ran. She asked me if I thought this was regional mind set or did I think it was across the US.

I have stated this before, to beat out the competition all you have to do is have excellent customer service. Following up on your orders, meetings, or business interaction, with a phone call makes you outstanding in the eyes of a business owner. Most get the order placed and move on to the next business. Repeat business is the easiest to maintain because all it takes is customer service. You do not have to sell them on your product or service because they already know what you offer and have purchased previously. Now they would like a little TLC--Tender Loving Care!

Recently I was putting together an E-book titled "The Ebook on Customer Service" to offer to new subscribers when signing up for my newsletter. As I was in the process my thoughts were, will people want this? If they do, will they utilize the information in the book? Seriously, I doubt it. But if the information compiled will help just one business owner/manager/entrepreneur have better success when trying to achieve excellence in customer service, I have achieved my goal.

Carole DeJarnatt

P.S. If you would like a copy of this Ebook, visit the company website, Alliance Advisors, Inc. and sign up for my newsletter. If you are not interested in the newsletter, you can always opt out at a later date.

The Cost of Poor Service

We have all been there at one time or another. You've experienced the poorest service you have ever received. We do not forget either. Today I still remember the episode referenced below as if it were yesterday.

Calculating the Cost of Poor Customer Service
By: Carole DeJarnatt, Alliance Advisors, Inc.
Have you ever thought about how much money has been lost due to poor customer service? Is it happening within the organization you are affiliated? Or perhaps you are the owner and are not aware of the practices of your employees.

A few months ago I had decided to purchase a new laptop. Being a business owner and from a small town, I try to frequent the local businesses if they have what meets my needs. This timeframe happened to be the week after Christmas so I am thinking there are lots of sales going on and I should be able to purchase something at a decent price. I tried the local store that claimed to have new computers and laptops.

I decided to call first so I could talk with someone on the telephone. An answering machine answered the telephone and informed “they were busy with a customer and would return the call.” I did not leave a message. I tried again an hour later and the same scenario. Finally on the third call I left a message stating “I wonder how many customers you have lost due to no response.” I did not leave any contact information. Later that day I decide to drive to the store since it was only a few miles from my home. When I arrived at the store, I find out the store is not open at all. It was closed for the week!

To say the least I did not purchase my laptop from this store, nor will I purchase from them in the future. I did send them a letter notifying them of situation that occurred and how I could help them improve on their services. I never heard from them.

What do you think this cost that company? I spent approximately $700 on my computer, but was I the only customer that tried to contact them that week? Probably not. Being the only local store to have the services and items they claim to carry, there were probably some inquiries.

In my opinion, this company could be more appealing than the Best Buys and Circuit City’s of the world. Being a local company, they have the opportunity to show their customer they are the one stop shop for all their computer needs with the home town appeal. I much prefer to buy from a local company than one of the bigger ones when their customer service is the personal touch. All of us want the personal touch when dealing with companies and I believe the smaller business has the greatest opportunity to apply and show they care.

The big companies also have the opportunity for personal touch but I have not come across one yet that does it well. Customer service is so important, no matter whether you are big or small. People want to buy from companies they know who will take care of them but also care about them. It is not about what they do but it is about what they do for you! Take care of your customers’ everyday as if it were their birthday! Do we not try to be nice to people on their birthdays if we are aware?

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Exceptional Customer Service

Here is an article I wrote recently about my pleasurable experience at a fast food location in Tifton, GA. Hope you enjoy!



Rate your Service Five Different Ways
By Carole DeJarnatt, Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Have you experienced exceptional customer service? How did it make you feel? I do not know about you but it gives me a wonderful feeling somebody showing they really care. When I receive service as such, I try to let the person or manager know. In today’s world it is rare that you receive comments of satisfaction, much less for superior service.

I recently stopped at a Captain D’s fast food restaurant in Tifton, Georgia. As my husband and I were walking up to the restaurant, an employee was outside and greeted us with a friendly “hello”. We walk into the restaurant and we are greeted by many friendly “hellos”. The front counter and kitchen personnel were all wearing big smiles and welcoming faces. I asked them if a contest was going on within the franchise system to judge who the friendliest store was. I was told by the order taker that it was their job to greet customers in a friendly manner everyday. I also noted as I walked through the door, that most everyone was busy cleaning something. The counter, the floor, the tabletops, the bathrooms; you name it the employees obviously took great pride in their jobs and the store.

My experience at this location made me aware of how important it is that we not only give customer service, but that we exceed our customers’ expectations. These employees exceeded my expectation by the constant smiling faces, friendly conversations, customer care in a fast food environment, and cleanliness of the facilities. If I were that franchise owner I would be very proud.

Where do you rate with your customer service? Some of my recommendations on evaluating services are:

1. Do an email survey questionnaire. The answers you receive will be a huge benefit to you if you take heed to them.
2. Have Customer Service Representatives ask questions about the service to incoming callers. Some people will not want to take the time but others will be glad you asked.
3. Mail a survey via postal service. Do not leave out those who do not share the world’s enthusiasm with technology.
4. Adapt your survey or phone queries to your business model. In a franchise model, each owner would need to adapt their efforts to how they do business. Perhaps their only venues are fairs and festivals. Survey your customers as you supply their product. Perhaps give them so much off if they fill out your questionnaire.
5. Be creative and make it fun for the customer. This is just another form of exceptional customer service. How many times have you had fun telling a business what you thought about their service?

Most companies realize the need for customer service but successful companies strive for exceptional. Exceptional service is what makes you stand out from your competitor and if applied effectively you will not have to worry about the competition in the future.

About the author:

Carole DeJarnatt is the President of Alliance Advisors, Inc., a business advisory and coaching service for development and implementation of strategies for greater success in the future of businesses. For more information, visit the company website at http://www.allianceadvisorsinc.com/.