Comments on: What’s Your Signature Response to Problems?

By: stevensreeves

stevensreeves — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:11:57 +0000

Couldn't agree with you more. Thirty years in sales and account management has taught me over and over again the critical feature of successful businesses is the way that handle customer dissatisfaction.

Those who do it well win friends and references for life.

Those who don't get commoditized and churned at the earliest opportunity.

My two main bug bears recently have been the cellphone companies and credit card companies.

Both spend fortunes trying to control churn.

By: frontofficebox

frontofficebox — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:11:57 +0000

By: stevensreeves

stevensreeves — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Couldn’t agree with you more. Thirty years in sales and account management has taught me over and over again the critical feature of successful businesses is the way that handle customer dissatisfaction.

Those who do it well win friends and references for life.

Those who don’t get commoditized and churned at the earliest opportunity.

My two main bug bears recently have been the cellphone companies and credit card companies.

Both spend fortunes trying to control churn.

By: Sarah Guinot

Sarah Guinot — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:34:20 +0000

Thank you for this article!
Mistakes and problems happen often and I am often shocked with how some companies handle them.
I think the problem is that a lot of companies do not empower their salespersons and any other staff in contact with customers. If management makes sure all the staff understand the company's strategy with regard to customer service, gives everybody a sense of responsibilty and even gets salespersons excited to catter to customers' needs, then customer retention will increase.
However, I wonder how to motivate salespersons during a recession, when wages and jobs are cut. How would you engage your staff to better serve customers?

Sarah Guinot
http://www.oddpodz.com

By: Sarah Guinot

Sarah Guinot — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Thank you for this article!
Mistakes and problems happen often and I am often shocked with how some companies handle them.
I think the problem is that a lot of companies do not empower their salespersons and any other staff in contact with customers. If management makes sure all the staff understand the company’s strategy with regard to customer service, gives everybody a sense of responsibilty and even gets salespersons excited to catter to customers’ needs, then customer retention will increase.
However, I wonder how to motivate salespersons during a recession, when wages and jobs are cut. How would you engage your staff to better serve customers?

Sarah Guinot
http://www.oddpodz.com

By: CrimeCleaner

CrimeCleaner — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:32:49 +0000

Great post. I own and operate a crime scene cleanup company and we have tried to change the way business is done in our industry. We have really tried to bring the “customer service” side of things to our field, not just simply cleaning and moving on. I'm sure we are all familiar with the phrase my dad hammered into my head for the last 25 years “Life is 10% percent about the problem and 90% how you react to it.” Every suggestion listed is right on!

By: CrimeCleaner

CrimeCleaner — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:32:00 +0000

Great post. I own and operate a crime scene cleanup company and we have tried to change the way business is done in our industry. We have really tried to bring the “customer service” side of things to our field, not just simply cleaning and moving on. I’m sure we are all familiar with the phrase my dad hammered into my head for the last 25 years “Life is 10% percent about the problem and 90% how you react to it.” Every suggestion listed is right on!

By: Phoenix Advertising Agency

Phoenix Advertising Agency — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:44:42 +0000

This post is awesome. WOM affects most businesses more than they realize.

By: KJ Rodgers

KJ Rodgers — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:36:25 +0000

Some others on the SWOM site (Society of Word of Mouth) talk about elvating above customer expectations, but for many businesses, it is harder said than done, unless they have the creative effort and support.

By: Ted Hurlbut

Ted Hurlbut — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:17:36 +0000

Empowerment is the most important thing here, in my mind. Empowering employees to fully engage customers with broad discretion to resolve issues creates a positive experience for customers and builds long-term loyalty. This is a challenging concept for the national chains to fully implement, but it's been a core value of successful independent retailers for decades.