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Don’t Rush to Resolve Quickly - 4/29/25


The customer is angry, so you use the CSS LEAD technique as designed.  You, listen, empathize, accept responsibility, and deliver on a remedy.  But it doesn’t work.  The customer is still upset, and maybe even a little more frustrated than when you started…why?! If the use of this technique fails, Read more

Energy v. Apathy - 4/22/25


I asked a couple friends who are much more scientifically-oriented the question: What is energy?  I didn’t mean E=MC2.  I meant physiologically, what is energy? They described a lot of things that sounded really good, yet far too advanced for my non-medical mind. Part of the reason why energy is of Read more

Prep Enough to Personalize - 4/15/25


Everybody loves Howie.  He is an account rep for the local air conditioning and heating company.  When I say Everybody loves Howie, I’m definitely talking about the customers.  His co-workers love him too, but customers are especially fond of him.  They seem to really enjoy their conversations with him, Read more

Get Your Customers to Brag, Not Bolt - 4/8/25


Here are two customer retention concepts that we discuss with some sports clients: BIRG and CORF.  BIRG is Basking In Reflected Glory.  CORF is Cutting Off Reflected Failure. You want BIRG.  You want the customers feeling so good about your organization that they want to be a part of your Read more

Narrow Your Focus to Seek Excellence - 4/1/25


You’ve probably heard companies use phrases such as: “We want to go from being good to great.”  Maybe they’ve said: “We strive for perfection, and although we’ll never reach perfection, maybe we can achieve excellence along the way.” These organizations find some kind of a catch phrase or slogan, but Read more

Avoid the Unfriendly Ghost - 3/25/25


Last week we talked about the qualities of “PERKI Customer Service,” essentially what attitudes and actions are characteristics of those who provide great customer service.  This week, let’s take the opposite approach.  What are some of the mistakes that people make?  Maybe these are mistakes of omission or commission; Read more

PERKI Customer Service - 3/18/25


After having worked on hundreds of projects over the years with thousands of thousands of individuals, some things become pretty clear. There are certain traits held by people who are great in customer service.  Look at this list, and do a self-assessment.  Which apply to you? Positive and Patient Do you Read more

It Helps to Downshift - 3/11/25


One of the first tips I heard when I was learning how to drive related to what to do when the brakes fail - downshift.  Shifting into a lower gear can slow down a moving vehicle.  I would explain this in technical terms to you, but considering I’m not Read more

Patience is… - 3/4/25


Patience is a…pain in the neck.  Why is it so hard to be patient?  Those of us who work in customer service know that we constantly have to show patience with our customers.  We’re ready to move to the next step or the solution because we’ve heard this issue Read more

Everybody Doesn’t - 2/25/25


Joey received the compliment, but he was confused.  Paula, his boss, and Joey had their monthly one-on-one meeting, and Paula noted that, although he was new, Joey was already doing a great job!  While there were learning curves on some of the organizational policies and the technology that he Read more

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To Improve Customer Retention, Make Products Free?

Posted on April 5, 2012 in Business Advice, World of Customer Service Please leave a comment

To increase its customer retention, Sprint announced that it’s discounting fees on their pay-as-you-go service. In the Fox Business article Sprint Looks to Boost Customer Retention With Lower repaid Bills, it’s noted how Sprint’s new Boost service “is $5 less than the starting price of the brand’s current lowest-priced plans.”

According to the article, “Sprint has had some success drawing customers to its Boost brand through a program that lets users lower their bills by $5 per month following every six on-time payments. Sprint’s prepaid customer rolls grew by 20% last year to 14.8 million, while its contract business shrunk.” In business school, that’s referred to as cannibalizing yourself. But I digress…

The interesting point here is that the company is trying to increase retention with a price drop (and also by pulling customers away from its other products).

Companies who truly understand customer retention strategies understand that a price drop is the absolute LAST thing you should ever have to do. This price drop retention strategy is for companies who have allowed customers to view them as a commodity, and some companies are thereby viewing themselves as commodities.

In virtually any industry, customers will stick with companies for many reasons, not just price. And those other reasons (product quality, wait times, customer service, responsiveness, relationships with the employees, affinity for the company, making customers’ lives easier/better/more hassle free, and on and on and on) provide the value piece that plays into decision-making far more in many customers’ eyes than price.

Before you do your next price drop to increase retention…before you start heading in the direction of free products…before you willingly cut your own profits in an effort to become more prosperous (if that even remotely makes sense), find out the specific factors that drive loyalty for specific customers, and do the best job possible of incorporating those into a 1-to-1 retention strategy.

Avoid the easy and (for the long-term) ineffective path to customer retention – avoid the price drop.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more at our new website! http://www.cssamerica.com/

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/


BRE and Beyond…Act on What You Know Makes Customers Happy

Posted on March 29, 2012 in Business Advice, Government Please leave a comment

Fix what customers don’t like, but also give customers more of what they do like.

Continuous improvement in customer service is not all about root cause analysis and process improvement. Much of it is about doing more of what already satisfies the customer.

In the article Survey: Oshkosh good for business as CEOs cite better economic outlook, the local economic development organization reports results of a survey of local businesses. When economic development organizations have a Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) component, it’s because they want to retain those industries and those jobs (and those fees and taxes, etc.) locally. So surveys are conducted on businesses just like retailers conduct surveys with customers.

The Oshkosh article notes changes made as a result of the survey to help businesses become more accessible to customers and to plan for infrastructure changes. But one of the great things about BRE surveys or any surveys for that matter is that the survey organization also learns what the customer (or in the case, the business) likes – they like talking about their facilities or products, oftentimes they like the personal relationship with BRE organizations, they like help with facilitation of difficult permitting processes, they like the access to qualified technical personnel locally. And BRE organizations that are great at what they do, use the information on what makes customers happy to their benefit.

If the industry likes to share information about their facilities and products, find forums to allow them to present about themselves. If they like the relationships with the BRE staff, create Touch Point Plans for ongoing relationship-building. If the business likes help with permitting processes, create an issue-resolution process in partnership with the local code enforcement agency. If they like the access to qualified technical personnel, ensure businesses are establishing relationships with local providers of technical staff, with community colleges, and even some high schools.

Whether it’s for a BRE organization or a private business, research to uncover customer likes is important. Sometimes capitalizing on what already makes them happy is as important as fixing those things that bring frustration.

Act on what makes customers happy.

Interested in CSS’ Government Services? Check out:

http://cssamerica.com/cssgovt.htm

http://cssamerica.com/cssbrenews.htm

http://cssamerica.com/cssbresurvey.htm


For Some Angels, the Devils are in the Details

Posted on March 28, 2012 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

There are times when the best tool in customer service is…a calculator.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (a Major League Baseball team) got a PR black eye recently when it told ticket holders to redeem vouchers for their “advanced ticket packages” (about 7,000 were sold) at the stadium starting on a Tuesday at 9 a.m. Just to set the stage – there was a potential for thousands of fans to show up at the stadium at the same time to select seats.

Almost needless to say, this didn’t turn out well. In the article Angels’ ticketing fiasco is latest case of bad customer service, the author notes that 1,000-2,000 people showed up, and no more than “a few hundred” made it through the line by the time the box office closed at 530p.

Angels management told the author that essentially: (1) There were a lot of people wanting vouchers, (2) It takes a while for each person to select seats, and (3) What did you expect?

The bigger question is “Why didn’t the Angels use a calculator?” If they would have estimated a conservative 1,000 people at 8 minutes per transaction, then that’s 133 staff hours required. If you’re only open 9 hours, you need at least 15 booths open the full 9 hours. That’s BARE MINIMUM. In fact, they had as many as 2,000 people there and only had 7 booths open. They should have known weeks in advance that this was a major blunder waiting to happen by simply taking out a calculator and pushing a few buttons.

If customer service is important to your organization, and you have an upcoming event, do simple projections on volumes and workload, and make sure you have the staffing to support it.

Customers care about their time. Take a minute and grab a calculator to ensure you can show that you care about their time by minimizing waits.

Think this is interesting? See our work in Professional Sports at: http://cssamerica.com/csssport.htm


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