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2024 Holiday Poem - 12/24/24


I sometimes hear it said That things have never been like this before. That challenges are unique, That stresses seem like more.   I sometimes hear it said That we're asked to do much more with less. That workloads are increasing, And we're resource-constrained at best.   And others often say That things are really very good. That they enjoy those Read more

Is Their Poor Planning Your Emergency? - 12/17/24


Have you ever heard the saying:  Your poor planning is not my emergency. I’ve heard it said often – not necessarily directly from one person to another.  More typical is that I hear it from the person having to drop everything and do something immediately because someone else didn’t think Read more

Empathy Examples for Everyday Situations - 12/10/24


I’ve often said that empathy is the single most important characteristic of people who are great at customer service.  If empathy is essentially “to understand the other person,” it helps so much to have that ability in order to specifically help someone.  To talk to what’s unique about them.  Read more

Tell Them Why You’re Giving Thanks - 12/3/24


Thank you! Merci! Danke! Doumo! Gracias! It seems like every language has a translation of Thank You.  Even though I only fluently speak English and speak Spanish, un poco, I – and probably most of you – have heard some or all of the translations of "Thank You” noted above.  Read more

Refine Your Decision-making Process - 11/26/24


Every day, you make decisions of what to do and what not to do.  And in the world of customer service, often the affected parties are our customers, our co-workers, and our company.  Here are a few quotes to consider when you’re thinking about evaluating and refining your decision-making Read more

Acting on the Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/19/24


In last week’s tip, we shared 5 Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service.  This week, let’s address what “taking action” looks like on those key principles.  If last week was about what to do and WHY, this week is about the HOW. Engage with Interest: To engage with interest, proactively Read more

Guiding Principles for Great Customer Service - 11/12/24


It’s hard to know every procedure, every policy, every technique possible to handle every situation correctly.  After all, maybe our procedures are standard, but our customers are not.  Maybe our policies stay pretty consistent, but our customers’ needs and issues, their attitudes and actions can change from customer to Read more

From a Simple Question to an Exceptional Experience - 11/5/24


Phyllis loves her job.  It’s not just because she loves being a customer service representative, not just because she really likes her co-workers, and not just because she enjoys her company.  It’s because she really appreciates her customers, as well. A customer had ordered a register book off the company Read more

Fix One Problem without Creating Another - 10/29/24


If you’ve ever had an issue with your dishwasher, this will sound familiar.  I’ve dealt with so many dishwashers over the years, and they always seem to have some kind of an issue.  Maybe it’s because of the mix of water and technology, but for whatever reason, these never Read more

Delight Your Customers - 10/22/24


Buddy the Bug Man was different.  His company was new, and the only reason why Janet tried him out was that the service she had used for years just wasn’t working.  Whether it was mosquitoes in the yard, ants in the kitchen, or cockroaches flying through on their way Read more

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Create a Custom Retention Toolkit

Posted on April 20, 2011 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

In the article Marketing starts with customer service, the author promotes the concept of identifying the 20% of your customers that drive the majority of your business. Then market to them and provide them with stellar service. The idea is to have a targeted marketing approach for your top existing customers just as you would to a target demographic (using more typical marketing parlance).

Later in the article, the different marketing strategies are referred to as retention tools…hmmm…interesting.

It’s interesting because many of us think about customer service as responding to requests, as resolving issues, as anticipating customer needs. But from a retention standpoint, what collateral (or to use the author’s term), what tools do employees at your company have available to them to keep and grow business with existing customers?

Remember from our other blog posts that retention is different from marketing in that retention needs to be more personalized – more 1-to-1 based on the customer’s true renewal drivers. But once you know those drivers for your key client types, you may find consistencies such that a high percentage of customers will stick with you for a few key reasons.

In pro sports, the teams often offer many benefits to customers, but we’ve surveyed enough season ticket holders (STHs) to know that those benefits are rarely the reason why the STH renews are not. So don’t come up with a laundry list of benefits; again, be targeted.

If the retention driver is “being in the know” with your company’s latest product offerings or events or initiatives, possibly have an “Insider” newsletter that only the best customers receive before the general public – it could include a personalized letter from the CEO. If the driver is quick turnaround on special orders, ensure you have a fast-track process for urgent orders available to key customers. If the driver is the relationship with the organization’s people, make sure the employees share their names, ask about the customer, give unsolicited tips on the use of the products or meeting other customer needs.

Identify reasons why your key customer types would stay or go, and then create your own retention toolkit.

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/


Don’t Just Create Raving Fans…Keep Them

Posted on April 13, 2011 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

I love hearing ticket sales executives talking fan relations, promoting season ticket holder (STH) retention. Maybe 15-20 years ago in most major sports, fan relations was simply customer service or a function of the box office. Retention didn’t matter so much because for every STH lost there was one on the waiting list. Or even if there wasn’t one on the waiting list, the bonuses to the sales reps were better if they got a new account than if they renewed the one they already had; seem backward? Welcome to professional sports – we want to ring the bell, make the sale, close the deal. Marketing and Sales are sexy. Customer service is…well…serving others. Not so sexy.

Now fast forward to today. In a recent Sports Business Daily article, Todd Taylor of the Texas Rangers is highlighted as one of the “40 Under 40.” He’s the new executive vice president of ticket sales and marketing for the team. He is interviewed about his successes previously with the Milwaukee Brewers, and this modern day ticket sales exec talks about what? He says “The important thing was to stay very fan-focused and put a big emphasis on fan retention. We knew early on, for example, that we were not going to have a big bump in new sales after we got CC Sabathia and went to the playoffs [in 2008]. So we put our energies very strongly into retention and fan experience.”

Nice. And the decision is based on simple math. If you have $50 million of ticket sales revenue each year, if you can retain 90% v. 80% of that revenue, that’s 10% additional (or $5 million) saved from last year’s STHs that your Sales/Marketing gurus don’t have to find in new business just to offset the losses.

So how much revenue is your customer worth in one year? How much more revenue could your organization earn by retaining 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% more of that revenue year-to-year?

Put a number on it. Put that number in front of your Marketing, Sales, Financial, and Operational Executives.

Then tell them that it’s not just about making raving fans…it’s about keeping them.

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/


Where are all the fans?

Posted on March 8, 2011 in Business Advice, Sports Please leave a comment

There’s a reason why fan retention is so low among many sports teams, and it’s not just bad play on the field or a bad economy.

It’s about a core lack of understanding about what drives fan satisfaction and loyalty. Too many individuals who are charged with keeping up revenues are purely marketing or sales-driven. The key word is “purely.” Executives in these roles don’t often enough have training in client retention, understand a strategic view of retention, or think “long-term” when they map out retention plans.

Maybe it’s because MBA schools rarely teach customer service and customer retention principles. Maybe it’s because serving someone isn’t as sexy as closing a new deal. Maybe it’s because they don’t understand the true financial impact of retention strategies, research, and structures. Maybe it’s all of the above.

But if organizations want to be successful long-term…consistently…they need to understand external retention strategies and the internal structures and culture to drive those strategies.

They need to have dedicated leadership in charge of retention, incented on retention, trained on retention, and motivated by relationship-building and retention.

Rethink retention.

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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