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Familying with Customers - 10/28/25


In our transactional society, it’s hard to think about customers in the long-term.  But if we want to be as successful as we can as an individual or as a business, we need to view customers through a relationship lens. What do we need to know about them to Read more

Avoid These Techniques - 10/21/25


We had a Customer Service Tip of the Week recently that addressed gaining control of the conversation.  One of the key points was that the focus should be on gaining control of conversations in various circumstances, but trying to avoid making it your goal to gain control of the Read more

View Quality through the Customer’s Eyes - 10/14/25


Geri had been dealing with backups in the downstairs plumbing system of her house on and off for the past year.  The most recent company that she called in to unclog the pipes stated that they could send a camera down the pipes and tell her exactly where the Read more

Be Supportive, Not Defensive - 10/7/25


[An employee on the phone with a customer…] Who told you that you didn’t have to submit that form? … Bob?  Oh brother!  You see Bob is our “special” co-worker.  He seems to always tell customers the wrong thing to do, and we’re having to clean up after him.  Read more

Some Customers LOVE Predictability - 9/30/25


I was facilitating focus groups of businesses that utilize local government services.  The phrase that popped up multiple times was “Time Is Money!”  What these municipal customers were conveying was that their time was valuable, and delays were wasting their time.  But the conversations were not just about how Read more

Find Your Special Sauce - 9/23/25


When I watch a football game and I see a great quarterback (somebody who may be considered a “Star”), he might be an excellent runner, have a big arm, be able to diagnose the defense and get his team into the right play.  But he’s likely not great at Read more

Gain Control of the Conversation - 9/16/25


The customer’s angry or upset or they have a complaint.  They’re very chatty or very wordy or they just want to talk to somebody.  You’re on a time crunch, and the customer obviously is not. There are times when you need to gain control of the conversation.  It’s important for Read more

Complement with a Compliment - 9/9/25


We perform many tasks for our customers every day, and when we’re done with a step in the process, oftentimes we will tell the customer what’s been done.  But if we want to create more of a WOW experience, if we want to make the customer feel a little Read more

When Patience Begets Patience - 9/2/25


Jennifer, the server, walked toward the couple in the restaurant.  The customers had been seated for a minute or two, and they noticed the server was walking briskly toward their table.  Jennifer recognized the couple she was about to serve, because they had been in the previous week. Since the Read more

Address the Expectations that Were Set - 8/26/25


Before the caller ever got to Marco – the customer service representative, the customer had been working with the company for months.  They had read the marketing brochures, had a conversation with a sales rep, reviewed the new customer information on the website, and read all the information e-mailed Read more

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EF Hutton and MIT…

Posted on June 15, 2010 in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

When MIT talks, people listen. Okay, so that’s a bad take-off on the old EF Hutton commercials, but there is a comparison to the old EF Hutton commercials. If you remember from back in the 1980s, EF Hutton (a brokerage firm) had a series of television commercials where one person would be talking to a friend in a crowded place (like an airport, a classroom, a restaurant, a golf course, etc.), and once they stated “EF Hutton says…” everyone around would stop what they were doing and listen intently to the person talking. They wanted to hear what EF Hutton said (to see some of the old commercials, go to www.youtube.com and search on EF Hutton). But I digress…

MIT does something on a biannual basis that all companies should listen intently to and consider. They perform student satisfaction surveys (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/student-satisfaction.html). While that may not be an earth-shattering revelation, keep in mind that MIT is a preeminent university. They have a fantastic reputation and brand. They could operate with the assumption of their own self-worth, but instead they ask students – those 18-21+ year olds – “How are we doing?” They ask “How can we do better?” And they ask their research partner “How do we compare to others?”

They ask because, like their students, they want to learn. And who better to learn from than your customers.

MIT asks about its impact on the student over time at the University (a true outcomes-oriented focus) in terms of the improvement in student’s analytical thinking abilities, their knowledge, their communication skills, their ability to plan/execute projects, their ability to function independently, their ability to relate to others, their self-esteem, and their ability to write.

If the student is – to some extent – both customer and product, than one of the best ways to measure outcomes is to see how that student has grown in these ways and many others over time.

MIT is outcomes-focused. What outcomes do you measure in terms of your impact on your customer?

MIT’s students talk, so MIT can listen. We should listen, too.

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