Last week at Fellowship Friday, Mark Brisson of Fun Spot shared with us the concept of the Boaz Blessing.
Boaz was able to bless Ruth by having his harvesters leave a little extra behind for her to glean. This gesture cost Boaz little. He gave up a bit of inventory and spent a minute or two giving instructions to his employees.
But his effort meant a great deal to Ruth. In the same way, we can look for opportunities in our work to be a blessing to someone else.
When the Spirit leads us to give, even a few moments of our time or a bit of lagniappe can provide abundantly for others.
We have two Fellowship Friday meetings each week: one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Locations change, so there's likely to be one in your area soon. On Feb. 3, we'll be at BankFirst in Oviedo at 7:30 a.m. and Jason's Deli in Altamonte Springs at 1:30 p.m. For other Fellowship Friday dates and times, check the website.
We hope to see you there, and while we pray we can be a blessing to you, we pray even more that we can help you be a blessing to others.
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Friday, July 1, 2011
Listening to Your Customers
By George F. Brown Jr.
Successful business strategies build upon shared successes. When your strategy creates value for your customers, your firm also gains value.
One tool critical to such strategies is customer-based insight. Many businesses have some kind of Voice of the Customer program to gather insight from customers. There are three primary goals for such a program:
We’ve all had “Duh!” moments—when an insight that should have been obvious was overlooked. One of my Duh! moments (and I admit to many) occurred in a company I was running some time ago, when we faced major challenges keeping up as our customers expanded globally. The Duh! moment came when a colleague asked, “Have we ever asked our customers about their expansion plans?” We started to do so, and the problem never resurfaced.
Effective listening doesn’t stop with direct customers. It’s necessary to listen to all of their customers. Pay attention to the entire customer chain: the path that leads from your customers all the way to the final users of their products. Perspectives vary at each stage, with implications that ripple backwards and forwards. Remarkable insights can be gained simply by asking customers at each stage what they would like to know about the other stages.
Two things make this a challenge: First, while the three metrics clusters almost always apply, actions to be implemented differ from one customer to the next. Customize your program to gain insights about individual customers. Amalgamated data can yield an outcome that is right on average, but missing the mark with each individual customer.
Second, it takes insights from many people to get an overall picture. A customer’s perspective is shaped by the experiences of many people: designers, engineers, salespeople, and so on. Rarely does any individual know all the details relevant to every dimension of the supplier’s relationship with their company. It takes a lot of listening to understand what matters to a major customer, but that effort is required if a solid portrait is to be developed.
First, topics should only be brought up after discussions about the future environment and the characteristics of best-in-class suppliers have been completed.
Second, distinguish between generic wishes for “better” and situations in which current performance is bad compared to competitors or a meaningful benchmark.
Third, learn whether customers will reward a supplier for improvements in metrics where they say they want “better.”
Select a few targets in which to invest management attention. Narrow the focus to action plans where improvement will provide a payoff. Learn what the customer would do differently if a certain change were made. If the answer is “nothing,” then the change should be reconsidered. On the other hand, if the customer can explain with clarity how the change would leave them better off, then the change has the potential to create value for both firms.
George F. Brown Jr., along with Atlee Valentine Pope, is the co-author of CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press. Brown is also CEO and co-founder of Blue Canyon Partners Inc., a strategy consulting firm.
Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.
Successful business strategies build upon shared successes. When your strategy creates value for your customers, your firm also gains value.
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| Photo by Carl Dwyer | sxc.hu |
Gain customer input.
Learn the customer’s perspective on the future business environment and their most pressing needs. This brings insights about product innovation, critical services, trends, and more. These insights can help you get ahead of opportunities and strengthen your value. The key is to keep looking forward, rather than focusing on past performance.We’ve all had “Duh!” moments—when an insight that should have been obvious was overlooked. One of my Duh! moments (and I admit to many) occurred in a company I was running some time ago, when we faced major challenges keeping up as our customers expanded globally. The Duh! moment came when a colleague asked, “Have we ever asked our customers about their expansion plans?” We started to do so, and the problem never resurfaced.
Effective listening doesn’t stop with direct customers. It’s necessary to listen to all of their customers. Pay attention to the entire customer chain: the path that leads from your customers all the way to the final users of their products. Perspectives vary at each stage, with implications that ripple backwards and forwards. Remarkable insights can be gained simply by asking customers at each stage what they would like to know about the other stages.
Learn what makes a best-in-class supplier.
Identify the metrics customers use to evaluate their suppliers, then develop internal action plans to meet those targets. Blue Canyon Partners identified three clusters where such metrics are concentrated: relationships between suppliers and customers, the suppliers’ ability to meet customers’ expectations, and suppliers’ ability to deliver high-value innovations.Two things make this a challenge: First, while the three metrics clusters almost always apply, actions to be implemented differ from one customer to the next. Customize your program to gain insights about individual customers. Amalgamated data can yield an outcome that is right on average, but missing the mark with each individual customer.
Second, it takes insights from many people to get an overall picture. A customer’s perspective is shaped by the experiences of many people: designers, engineers, salespeople, and so on. Rarely does any individual know all the details relevant to every dimension of the supplier’s relationship with their company. It takes a lot of listening to understand what matters to a major customer, but that effort is required if a solid portrait is to be developed.
Fix what’s important to the customer.
Too often, this is the only goal addressed by the Voice of the Customer program. It is important, but is third in terms of long-term impact. It requires focusing on what can be improved along all the dimensions of customer interaction. There are three keys to doing this without focusing on the past:First, topics should only be brought up after discussions about the future environment and the characteristics of best-in-class suppliers have been completed.
Second, distinguish between generic wishes for “better” and situations in which current performance is bad compared to competitors or a meaningful benchmark.
Third, learn whether customers will reward a supplier for improvements in metrics where they say they want “better.”
Select a few targets in which to invest management attention. Narrow the focus to action plans where improvement will provide a payoff. Learn what the customer would do differently if a certain change were made. If the answer is “nothing,” then the change should be reconsidered. On the other hand, if the customer can explain with clarity how the change would leave them better off, then the change has the potential to create value for both firms.
George F. Brown Jr., along with Atlee Valentine Pope, is the co-author of CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press. Brown is also CEO and co-founder of Blue Canyon Partners Inc., a strategy consulting firm.
Do you have expert advice to share? E-mail Kristen.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Go also the second mile
By Mark Goldstein
I’ve been trying to help my mother and father through their transition into assisted living. They have both reached a point where they need special care in every aspect of their lives. Needless to say, this has put an extra burden on me. Fortunately there are many caring people who are helping greatly.
An example of this happened when I was washing my parent’s car and realized that the registration expired in February. Checking further, I found the insurance had lapsed also. After going online to re-register the car, I immediately called my friend Angie Martinez, principal of Florida Chartered Insurance Group in Oviedo, and explained the situation. She contacted Jacqueline Eiermann, a senior agent who specializes in auto and home insurance.
Within one hour, on a Sunday afternoon, Jacqueline had secured an insurance policy for the car. But here’s the best part: Since my parents had let their insurance lapse, they should have had to pay a large penalty. However, Jacqueline was able to add me to their policy, and the company accepted this as continuous coverage. What’s more, she had already gotten me a quote with that company, and even though I hadn’t switched yet, that company still offered a multi-car discount. Talk about going the extra mile for a client!
The bottom line is that when you approach the renewal date on your home or auto policy, I would strongly recommend that you first contact Jacqueline Eiermann. She will not only get you the best value, but as you can see, she never stops working for her clients. You can reach her at 407-278-0423 or by e-mail.
Have a great story about one of your fellow chamber members? E-mail Kristen.
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| Kotangens - Fotolia.com |
An example of this happened when I was washing my parent’s car and realized that the registration expired in February. Checking further, I found the insurance had lapsed also. After going online to re-register the car, I immediately called my friend Angie Martinez, principal of Florida Chartered Insurance Group in Oviedo, and explained the situation. She contacted Jacqueline Eiermann, a senior agent who specializes in auto and home insurance.
Within one hour, on a Sunday afternoon, Jacqueline had secured an insurance policy for the car. But here’s the best part: Since my parents had let their insurance lapse, they should have had to pay a large penalty. However, Jacqueline was able to add me to their policy, and the company accepted this as continuous coverage. What’s more, she had already gotten me a quote with that company, and even though I hadn’t switched yet, that company still offered a multi-car discount. Talk about going the extra mile for a client!
The bottom line is that when you approach the renewal date on your home or auto policy, I would strongly recommend that you first contact Jacqueline Eiermann. She will not only get you the best value, but as you can see, she never stops working for her clients. You can reach her at 407-278-0423 or by e-mail.
…and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.—Matt. 5:41 NRSV
Have a great story about one of your fellow chamber members? E-mail Kristen.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Six key steps to working out customer service kinks
Author Maribeth Kuzmeski shares this anecdote to show that customer relationships are made or broken when something goes wrong:
“If a service recovery plan isn't understood by the entire staff, everything snowballs,” says Kuzmeski, author of ...And the Clients Went Wild! How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want and The Connectors: How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life. The hotel incident actually happened to one of her associates.
"If you don't have well-developed service recovery techniques in place, you'll lose the customer every time," she says. That leads to angry customers vowing never to return—and maybe decide to share their anger with countless others online.”
Kuzmeski offers these tips for service recovery:
1. Recognize and truly understand your customer's situation. Provide individual care. People with children have very different needs from busy businesspeople. Train your customer service people to recognize key differences and adjust responses accordingly.
2. Make sure what you're saying is happening is really happening. Customer service is more than following a script. "When the hotel guest made the second call, it's likely the front desk representative didn't check to see where the maintenance man was," says Kuzmeski. "Taking the time to locate him would have gotten the guest the service she needed."
3. Be specific about how the problem will be handled. Let the customer know what will happen and when. The more information customers have, the less anxious they feel.
4. Complaint number two is an emergency. Most people can forgive one mistake, if it’s addressed promptly. A second complaint calls for emergency mode. If you want to keep your customer, you must take care of the problem immediately.
5. Make sure the service philosophy permeates the business from top to bottom. The hotel in the anecdote is part of a chain with a rewards program for repeat customers. When the guest called to complain, the rewards people understood the inconvenience and tried to make it up to her by offering additional rewards points. "They hadn't properly trained their onsite staff,” Kuzmeski says. It’s crucial that everyone understand the customer service plan and be able to solve problems.
6. Don't assume customers will give you a second chance. If a customer takes the time to call you about a problem, you are lucky. You don't always get a chance to make it right. Often, customers just move on. And the real concern is that it takes only one dissatisfied customer to create a public relations disaster. Dissatisfied customers have created blogs and YouTube videos sharing their tales of bad service with the world.
Kuzmeski says customer loyalty is achievable, “but you have to have the service chops to take care of them. Make your customers and your relationships with them a priority—always! When you do so, you can create clients for life."
While at a hotel, getting ready for a crucial business meeting, you turn on the hairdryer, but the power goes out. You call the service number and hear "Someone is on the way." After twenty minutes and two more calls, anxiety turns to anger, when a "service" person asks, "What do you want me to do about it?" Finally, the power comes back on, and a maintenance man explains it wasn't his fault and makes excuses about what went wrong internally. No one acknowledges or apologizes for your inconvenience.
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| Brian A Jackson | iStockphoto |
"If you don't have well-developed service recovery techniques in place, you'll lose the customer every time," she says. That leads to angry customers vowing never to return—and maybe decide to share their anger with countless others online.”
Kuzmeski offers these tips for service recovery:
1. Recognize and truly understand your customer's situation. Provide individual care. People with children have very different needs from busy businesspeople. Train your customer service people to recognize key differences and adjust responses accordingly.
2. Make sure what you're saying is happening is really happening. Customer service is more than following a script. "When the hotel guest made the second call, it's likely the front desk representative didn't check to see where the maintenance man was," says Kuzmeski. "Taking the time to locate him would have gotten the guest the service she needed."
3. Be specific about how the problem will be handled. Let the customer know what will happen and when. The more information customers have, the less anxious they feel.
4. Complaint number two is an emergency. Most people can forgive one mistake, if it’s addressed promptly. A second complaint calls for emergency mode. If you want to keep your customer, you must take care of the problem immediately.
5. Make sure the service philosophy permeates the business from top to bottom. The hotel in the anecdote is part of a chain with a rewards program for repeat customers. When the guest called to complain, the rewards people understood the inconvenience and tried to make it up to her by offering additional rewards points. "They hadn't properly trained their onsite staff,” Kuzmeski says. It’s crucial that everyone understand the customer service plan and be able to solve problems.
6. Don't assume customers will give you a second chance. If a customer takes the time to call you about a problem, you are lucky. You don't always get a chance to make it right. Often, customers just move on. And the real concern is that it takes only one dissatisfied customer to create a public relations disaster. Dissatisfied customers have created blogs and YouTube videos sharing their tales of bad service with the world.
Kuzmeski says customer loyalty is achievable, “but you have to have the service chops to take care of them. Make your customers and your relationships with them a priority—always! When you do so, you can create clients for life."
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