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 SERVICE
EXCELLENCE IS ROCKET SCIENCE
The Biggest opportunity companies have to gain a competitive advantage
is to get to know their customers better. Dr Ian Brooks explains what
drives service excellence. ...read on
FINALLY,
SOMETHING
IS BEING DONE.
Mark Twain once observed that everybody talks about the weather
but nobody does anything about it. I think the same could be said for
customer service. ...read on
SORRY
I CAN'T HELP YOU
I was talking to a young fellow the other day who had just started
a job at a petrol station. I asked him what he did (I knew it wouldn’t
be pumping petrol that’s for sure!). ...read
on
PAUSE
TO REFLECT
Another year is about to end and another year will soon begin. It
seems the wheel of life turns faster and faster every year doesn’t
it? But before you prepare to enter another year and start the cycle
all over again, take a moment to reflect on the past year. ...read
on
UNCHARTED
TERRITORY
In today's competitive and crowded marketplace, there
remains a large unknown landmass that is ignored by marketers and managers
alike. Charting this unknown terrain is critical to business success
because it is the place where the customer lives. ...read
on
DO
YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
There’s an old saying in psychology: A difference to be a difference
has to make a difference. All business leaders understand that to have
a competitive advantage they have to be different from their competitors.
...read on
GETTING
AN EDGE
we are all trying to get a competitive advantage, that little edge
that will make customers want to do business with us instead of someone
else. We know it’s not enough to deliver good customer service,
or meet our customer’s expectations. ...read
on
WHY
THERE'S SO LITTLE TRUST
If there’s going to be a long-term relationship between you and your
customers, then they have to be able to trust you. Trust is the essential
ingredient in any successful and enduring business relationship. ...read
on
A
SIMPLE IDEA
It seems that managers and business owners just love a new business
theory. Each fresh flavour of the month is seen as a cure for all the
problems the business faces. Of course they never are. TQM, ISO, CRM,
and EVA, to name only a few, each had their day in the sun.... read
on
IN
THE DARK
I was talking to one of my supplier’s front-line staff the other
day, and I enquired about what progress they were making on a major
project that, when completed, would affect all customers... read
on
YOU
DO HAVE A CHOICE
I’ve said it before: You can either compete on value or
you can compete on price. If you choose not to compete on value, you
will have no choice but to compete on price and that is likely to
cost you dearly in the long run. ... read on
ARE
YOUR STAFF UP TO SPEED?
Iam constantly amazed at the number of businesses where staff do
not have the basic product knowledge necessary to sell their products.... read
on
HIRING
THE RIGHT PEOPLE
have long believed that staff are not a company’s biggest
asset - they are the company. Without them, nothing would ever happen.... read
on
DON’T
LOSE THE PERSON IN THE TRANSACTION
I walked into a bank the other day to withdraw a large sum of cash.
There was hardly anyone in the bank so I walked right up to a waiting
teller. I presented my completed withdrawal slip and two pieces of
identification. The teller... read on
PUTTING
THE “I”
BACK IN T E A M
The other day I heard a manager say, “So I told him, there’s
no I in T E A M.”
That started me thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that
not only is that manager wrong, but he has put his finger on a major
problem.... read on
ARE
YOU PRICING FOR PROFIT OR POVERTY?
It is hard to pick up a business magazine today without reading about
how some industry is in trouble because of price wars that have destroyed
margins, and therefore the profitability of the entire industry... read
on
IT’S
UP TO YOU
It has been a tough year. The global economy, which
was always headed into a recessionary period, got kicked into touch
September 11 and it is now clear that the bears have taken over the
global markets. .... read on
Story
Time at the Office:
Everyone loves a story. This little fact about
human nature is under-used in the world of business. ..read
on
Five
Steps to Better Customer Service:
Step 1 Invite all your staff, or at least all the
people in your department, and ask them to describe the kind of company
they would like to see your organisation become. ..read
on
Customer
What?
I think I’ve discovered why we have a 39 cent dollar.
On the weekend, I tried to buy a pre-formed waterfall for my garden...read
on
Creating
AWESOME Customer Service:
Today most companies understand that customers are
not just important to their business, they are their business. ..read
on
What
Are You Selling?
Everyone lives by selling something. If you are not selling products
and services, then you are selling ideas, or even yourself. But what
are people buying? ..read on
Have
You Fallen Into The Trap?
Like all savvy business people, you know that your
financial success this year will not come from going out and capturing
lots of new customers, it will come from getting your existing customers
to come again and again to buy more. ..read
on
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ARE
WE TAKING CUSTOMER SERVICE SERIOUSLY?
Nearly all businesspeople will agree that with fewer
and fewer products or services being truly unique, the customer service
experience has become the sole differentiator for the vast majority
of companies. In other words, the quality of your customer service
is what will give you a competitive advantage. ...read
on
WHO
ARE YOU WATCHING?
To pass the time while at anchor in Woolshed Bay on the Coromandel,
I idly threw some bread overboard to feed the ducks. ...read
on
GET
THEM TALKING.
Your staff know they have internal customers but do they know their
internal customers? Probably not, unless you have given them formal
opportunities to meet with their internal customers. ...read
on
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION RESEARCH IS A WASTE OF MONEY.
Don't waste your time and money doing customer satisfaction research.
It won’t tell you anything worthwhile and it’s not likely to change
the way your business operates. ...read on
WHO
NEEDS IT
When my boys were in high school, we used to organise coaching for
them if they seemed to be struggling in any of their subjects. One
day, I asked my son if any other students in his class were getting
coaching. ...read on
YOU
MAY AS WELL LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS
You may as well learn from the mistakes of others. After all, life
is too short to make them all yourself. There’s a good lesson
to be learned from General Motors, and most of the other car manufacturers
for that matter. ...read on
IF
YOU CAN DREAM IT ....
I recently attended the graduation ceremonyfor the University of
Auckland's Arts students. After the ceremony, I stood outside the old
Town Hall on a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon, and gazed across Aotea
Square at the sea of brightly coloured academic gowns and the beaming
faces of proud graduates and even prouder parents. ...read
on
A
QUESTION OF TIMING
A professor at a Business School organised for the CEO of a large
local company to come and talk to a small group of his brightest students
about life in the ‘real’ world. At the end of the wide-ranging
talk, the CEO asked if there were any questions.... read
on
LESSONS
FROM AN INNOVATOR
He was an Australian, from Brisbane, and he wore that black leather
cowboy hat Aussies like, a white T-shirt and baggy brown pants. He
carried a little too much weight as many of us do these days, especially
when you get over 50, which I’d say he was... read
on
Another
group of customers.
widely accepted definition of a customer is “someone who uses
any product or service you produce.” The advantage of using this
definition, of course, is that it includes internal as well as external
customers. But it also includes another customer group, one often neglected
by managers. ... read on
MY
HEROS
Every time I drive through an industrial park I am struck by the
hundreds of small businesses lining the streets, hidden at the ends
of long driveways, or cloistered in the basements of large buildings.... read
on
OOPS!
YOU FORGOT SOMETHING
After a refreshing break and too much Christmas ham,
you’ve come back with a clear mind and renewed energy. ... read
on
LOYALTY
ISN'T ENOUGH
The July issue of the Harvard Business Review has an
interesting article called the The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty.
The authors studied four large companies in different countries and
found a weaker than expected relationship between customer loyalty
and profitability. Their findings have led them... read
on
DO
YOU REALLY KNOW?
Do you know what kind of experience your customers want to have when
they buy from you? I mean, do you know for a fact? Have you asked them?
.... read on
MAKE
THEM PROUD
How many salespeople do you have? And how many full and part-time
employees? What effect would it have on your business if those two
numbers were the same? Imagine if you had 10 sales people instead of
1; or 60 instead of 6; or 5000 instead of 100. Well, you could.... read
on
No,
really. It's not complicated:
Business is tough, but it ain’t complicated. The
aim is simply to keep profitable customers for a long, long time.
Therefore, the Number 1 priority has to be customer retention...read
on
A
Day At The Shops:
The other day I went shopping for a new video player
to replace one that is on its last legs. ..read
on
There’s
More To
Service Than Thinking About It.
It is hard to believe that there is anyone in the
market place who does not believe that delivering excellent customer
service is important,... read
on
Don’t
be Customer Focused
In this crowded and competitive market, we all realise
that looking after our customers is important. Not that we are doing
that very well mind you. ..read
on
Profit
from Your Relationships
In the mature and saturated markets most of us work
in, you won’t grow your profits by concentrating on your products
or services. You need to focus on your customers. ..read
on
Business
Is Tough. So What?
By now you have been back from your holidays long
enough to realise that the New Year's resolution you made - you know,
the one about not working so hard this year, not getting so stressed
out, working at a more relaxed pace - is just not going to happen.
..read on
Turning
Bad News Into
Good News
Most business people do not understand how fortunate
they are to have an unhappy customer standing in front of them. Only
one out of nine customers bother to complain. ..read
on
Good
Morning
New Zealand This Is your
Wake Up call
Last week I was invited to speak at a business seminar
in Auckland... The purpose was to talk to business people about how
they could benefit from The America's Cup, APEC and events organised
for the Millennium. ..read
on
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5
STEPS TO CREATING A GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
To be successful over the long-term, your business needs
to have profitable customers who come back again and again and again.
For that to happen, your customers must have a great experience every
time they do business with you. ...read on
IT'S
YOUR CHOICE
“To be honest, I’m not prepared to be completely customer driven,” he
told me, his chin stuck out and his eyes flashing. “We have some customers
who cost us money and some who are more trouble to do business with
than they’re worth. ...read on
LEARN
FROM THE LOW-LIFE
You have undoubtedly noticed that the cunningly clever chiefs of
New Zealand’s petrol retailers have decided the future of their
industry is best secured by ignoring the customer and focusing on reducing
costs. . ...read on
YOU
NEED TO AIM HIGHER
Like all savvy business people, you know that your financial success
this year will not come from going out and capturing lots of new customers,
but from getting your existing customers to come back again and again
to buy more and more. ...read on
A
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
There’s something about the end of one year and the beginning
of another that makes me reflective. I find my thoughts drifting back
to things I’ve done in the past and then, like a cow chewing its cud,
I ruminate about the ideas I had back then... read
on
THE
ANSWER IS IN FRONT
OF YOU
The other day, a businesswoman approached me at a conference. “If
you could give only one piece of advice to help people be successful,” she
said eyes twinkling, “what would it be? What’s the most important thing
you’ve learned?” ....read on
PREPARATION
IS THE KEY
By now I thought we would have been sick of post mortem discussions
about Team New Zealand’s resounding defeat in the America’s
Cup, but very little has been said about it lately. ... read
on
ONE
LAST THING
I know it is the end of the year and you are scrambling to get everything
finished before you take a well-deserved Christmas break, but there
is just one more thing I would like you to do for me.... read
on
WHO
IS GOING TO BE
THE FIRST?
You know your business is doing well, but you also know that complacency
can be a killer. You know that if you are the market leader, your competitors
are studying you right now to find out how to catch up with you.... read
on
THERE’S
ALWAYS TOMORROW
emember the times you set out to improve in some way. Perhaps you
wanted to be more patient with your staff; or to become better organised;
or to make those follow up calls to your existing customers?...read
on
CAN
YOUR CUSTOMERS
TRUST YOU?
magine you were walking down the street and you saw a vendor selling
snack food such as hot dogs and chips. The smells made you realize
that you were hungry but as you got closer, you could see that the
caravan looked rather dirty..... read on
Missed
Opportunities:
Does anyone know the name of the person who programmes
the computer that allocates the seats on Air New Zealand? ...read
on
Market
To The
Customer Within.
When most of us think about marketing, we think
of an activity directed towards attracting the right customers, convincing
them that our products and services are worthwhile and, most importantly,
working to retain their business...read
on
TOO
CLOSE to CALL:
It was tough this year. Choosing the winner of the
Dumbest Thing I Ever Saw Business Award was harder than usual...read
on
It's
Not Really Selling
Most people are uncomfortable selling. In fact, even many professional
sales people dislike cold calling intensely. So, why do most of us
have an aversion to this most important business activity? ..read
on
What's
The Point?
Here's a brain teaser for you - just to help you warm up for the
challenges 1999 is sure to bring: Why spend a lot of time and money
attracting customers to your business and then, when you finally succeed
in capturing them - or even more remarkably, actually persuading them
to purchase something, do something to annoy them? ..read
on
Never
Forget
There are two things you should never forget. First, business
is a social activity involving people. Secondly, people like to be
treated in a certain way. ..read
on
Are
You Really Serious?
Are you serious about providing superior value to your customers?
I mean really serious, not just paying lip service to the idea. ..read
on
The
Central Business Process
Business is tough, but it's not complicated. The trouble is, most
of us over-complicate our businesses and then get lost in the mass
of detail we have created. ..read
on
It's
OK To Be Behind
Even those who are passionate about winning will
agree there is one time that it's OK to be behind - and that's when
you are chasing your dreams. ..read
on
Put
Your Prices Up
Tired of being pressured to give discounts? Fed up
with watching your margins go down while the prices you pay for raw
materials go up? Well, don't put up with it any more. Put your prices
up! ..read on
DON’T
LOSE THE PERSON
IN THE TRANSACTION
I walked into a bank the other day to withdraw a large
sum of cash. There was hardly anyone in the bank so I walked right
up to a waiting teller. I presented my completed withdrawal slip and
two pieces of identification. ...more
Is
There A Pattern Here?
I'd like to share with you some observations I’ve made
recently.
Firstly, try as I might I cannot get enough material for a
regular feature in this newsletter citing examples of outstanding customer
service. ..read on
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