customer retention | Customer Service Solutions, Inc. - Page 27

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Don’t Harp on the Customer’s Mistake - 6/24/25


Seth’s daughter, Sarah, had missed some swim classes, and Seth remembered that the aquatics center had several make-up classes available late in the summer.  So Seth pulled up the class schedule on his phone, found one that worked on his and Sarah’s schedules, and planned to attend a session Read more

Create Customers for Life - 6/17/25


Veronica has gone to the same automotive service shop for at least 20 years.  She bought a new car about a year ago, and this is the third car she’s brought to the shop instead of taking her car to the dealer where she bought it.  She’s had three Read more

Don’t Turn the Customer into the QA Department - 6/10/25


Roberta received a form with information filled in by the company after her conversation with the account rep.  Roberta just needed to review the information, fill in some of the blanks, sign it, and resend it in order to set up a new account. She noticed that the effective date Read more

Imitate to Improve - 6/3/25


Oscar Wilde said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Now this doesn’t mean that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.  Nor does it mean that great impersonators such as Rich Little, Dana Carvey, or Frank Caliendo are always offering flattering portrayals of those that they imitate. Wilde’s Read more

How the Customer Perceives a Truth as a Lie - 5/27/25


You’re the customer, you’re asking about an unused item that you’re returning, and you hear the employee say: “The refund process takes 7-10 days.”  You’re thinking: “Great!  I can get the refund check as early as a week from today!”  The reality is that the company means that they’ll Read more

Tell Customers What’s Next - 5/20/25


In most businesses that have been around for a while, how a process was originally designed is not how it currently operates.  Sometimes this change is referred to as “practical drift,” where the actual process moves further and further away from the documented steps over time.  Maybe the changes Read more

Questions to Guide You to Empathy - 5/13/25


“If I was him, I would do ABC…” If you’ve ever heard somebody say this - whether it’s a friend or acquaintance, whether it’s some TV reporter or podcaster - you may get as frustrated or as annoyed as I do. I get annoyed because we are not that other person. Read more

Negate the Nervousness - 5/6/25


The customer needed a loan, so he walked into the bank, but he was a little nervous.  He knew that launching his business would be easier if he had some working capital, but that’s about all he knew.  He was anxious because he didn’t know what to expect in Read more

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

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When Contracts are Ending, Decisions are Pending

Posted on May 12, 2011 in Business Advice, Government, Sports Please leave a comment

In the recent article Landlords must focus on customer service, landlords in Nottingham, England note how they are focused more and more on customer service. With the down economy, they’ve been forced to shorten the length of leases, which means the customer’s decision to stay or go is made much more quickly and frequently. According to Anna Kirk of King Sturge, “tenants, in the main, hold the balance of power.”

So the customer holds the power. The customer makes the decision. The customer – your revenue stream – has leverage. For a landlord, the tenant’s leverage increases as the length of the lease decreases.

Likewise, for economic development agencies who have a business retention and expansion program, when local businesses’ leases are up, that’s an opportunity for them to move.

Similarly, when a season ticket holder for a sports organization comes to the end of the season, they have to decide whether or not to renew.

The point is that – whether with the landlord, for a local municipality, or for a pro sports team – when contracts are ending, decisions are pending. Revenue streams are not permanent; you have to work to make them continue. You have to work to build relationships and value during the contract term so that you’re not having to sell so hard at the end.

Having a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month contract with a client should be looked at as a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month opportunity to build rapport, relationship, trust, and credibility. You should be executing a plan during that timeframe to result in a renewal at the end.

So what’s your plan?

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

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


Never Chase a Profit

Posted on May 5, 2011 in Business Advice Please leave a comment

Increase your company’s profit by 10%. Improve your department’s profit by 20%. Increase your contribution margin by 30%.

There is nothing you can do to make that happen. It’s impossible. There is no way that you or anyone else can move a profit line. Period.

If your goal in your business life is to drive profits, you will never succeed by trying to move profits up. It cannot be done. You cannot physically move a number. You cannot physically add dollars to a profit figure. That’s not how it works.

Instead, on the top line, you have to know which actions that you take which cause your customers to spend more. On the bottom line, you have to know what actions to take that can reduce your expenditures. It’s a focus on the actions that drives profit, not a focus on the dollars.

The top line focus is the customer. Why do they buy? Why do they spend more? Why do they tell others good things about you? Why do they stay? The answers to these questions lead you to actions that help you grow the top line. You need to ask customers these questions. You need to act on the answers.

The bottom line focus? You may think it’s internal operations, but I disagree. The bottom line focus is the cost of acquiring that dollar from the customer. What does it take to get a dollar from a customer? How can you spend less to get the dollar? What are you doing that in no way attracts a dollar from that customer? The answers to these questions will help you determine how to reduce expenditures.

To increase your margins, focus on the customer. Never chase a profit.

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

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


From Harvard’s Calculator to Your Ears…and Eyes

Posted on May 4, 2011 in Business Advice Please leave a comment

The Harvard Business School promotes its version of the “Customer Lifetime Value Calculator.” This is a method of determining the true potential financial impact of your customer to your business.

There are 5 main pieces to the impact-calculating puzzle:

· Base profit – Transactional profit

· Profit from increased purchases – Profit from multiple transactions

· Profit from price premium – Profit from willingness to pay more per transaction

· Profit from reduced operating costs – Profit from less expenditures to retain than acquire the customer

· Profit from referrals – Profit from less expenditures to get customers via referrals than marketing/advertising to acquire them

So if this is the financial “Why” of customer retention, what is the “How?” The “How” comes from 3 things:

· First, you have to have what we call a Client Relationship Development (CRD) strategy to continually “touch” and develop relationships with customers over time – even when they’re not spending a dime with you.

· Second, you need to have a Client Experience Management (CEM) strategy – where you build a service and sales experience that hits all the key hot buttons.

· Third, you need a Service Culture that creates the people, processes, attitudes, structures, communications, and general alignment of everything the organization is about…toward the customer.

Calculate your customer’s potential lifetime value, and then create the “How” strategies to tap into those dollars.

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

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


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