Archive for June, 2008
I know most of us have a particular person that is extremely difficult to buy gifts for. You know the ones that always frown when they open their birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and / or Christmas gifts. They seem to always return the gift no matter how much we searched for the “perfect” gift for them. At first it was a challenge to find the right gift they would like and not return. But after several years, we all give in to the fact that whatever gift we give this person, they will find something they do not like about it. Well, I have found the gift they would keep.
It is at Sticks and Stones website. This company created a gift idea that everyone would enjoy. They started by creating a photo gallery of letters they found in nature (”Sticks”) and architecture (”Stones”). They then custom frame whatever word or words you want. I created the frame above on their website and posted it here for reference. So by using someone’s name or surname, would make a memorable gift for anyone, no matter how difficult they may be to find a gift for. So for a great gift idea, check out www.sticksandstones.com.
On my last post, I discussed that delivering Seamless, Trustworthy, Attentive and Resourceful (the STAR Qualities) service, your company can create Positive Defining Moments (PDM’s) on every single service interaction. My next topic will be on knowing when PDM’s have actually been created. This is very difficult to determine, however, you need to know that your customers judge or grade your service during every transaction.
In general, customers are clear about what their expectations are and judge their service experience by comparing your company’s performance against what they expected in each Defining Moment. If you think of it like a report card, when your company performs to the customers expectations, the grade they assign that service, will be average, or a “C”. When a customer has a good or bad experience, they will assign a mental grade that will be above or below the average grade, or their expectations. I have included a “Customer Report Card” for a visual reference below:
The higher the grade, the more likely your customers will be loyal. To build Customer Loyalty, it’s important to find ways to “Exceed Expectations” (B’s) or “Dazzle and Surprise” (A’s) your customers. If your company delivers service that simply meets client’s expectations, per my discussion regarding The Importance of Customer Service; 80% of Customers that switched to a competitor, said they were satisfied before making the switch. Meaning they were grading the service they received a “C”. In order to prevent these customers from switching to a competitor, they need to be grading your service a “B” or an “A”.
The heart of providing Stellar Service is trying to create PDM’s, in the Three Dimensions of Service by using the STAR Qualities on every single service interaction, with both internal and external customers. If your company can consistently provide Stellar Service, it will create Loyal Customers for years to come.
In my previous post, I discussed the Three Dimensions of Service where Positive Defining Moments (PDM’s) can be created. I will now discuss how more PDM’s can be created by knowing exactly what customers are looking for in every service interaction.
Regardless of what product, industry or type of service your company provides, customers consistently value and expect four major qualities in the service they receive. Delivering on these four expectations is critical in creating PDM’s. These four qualities are referred to as the STAR Qualities and are listed below:
- Seamless - The ability your company has to manage service factors that are invisible to the customer. Customers want to take advantage of all the services your company offers. However, they want one point of contact and do not want to speak with numerous people or worry about all the details. They expect your company (or an employee at your company) to coordinate events on their behalf.
- Trustworthy - The ability your company has to provide what was promised, dependably and accurately. Customers want to feel they are in capable hands and whatever promises were made are absolutely kept. Although they may want things to go right the first time, they EXPECT a service breakdown to be resolved quickly and thoroughly.
- Attentive - The ability your company has to provide caring and individual attention to customers. Customers want to be acknowledged quickly and politely, and to be treated with respect. They simply what your company to welcome the opportunity to serve them.
- Resourceful - The ability your company has to provide prompt service and creative solutions. Customers want a flexible approach to service. They expect you to meet and handle their requests or needs in prompt and creative ways.
These qualities define what most customers value in your company’s service. Customers want service that is Seamless, Trustworthy, Attentive and Resourceful. When your company provides service that exemplifies the STAR qualities, your company is creating PDM’s. As you can see, the STAR qualities go hand-in-hand with the Three Dimensions of Service. Seamless falls in the Hidden dimension, Trustworthy mostly falls in the Business dimension, Attentive in the Human dimension, while Resourceful embodies all three dimensions. By delivering STAR quality services, your company has an opportunity to create PDM’s every single day.
However, how do you know if your company actually created a PDM? Well you won’t always know. But you need to know that customers grade your service, and your company, during every single service interaction. On my next post, I will discuss How Customers Grade Service.
On my last posting, I discussed how Positive Defining Moments (PDM’s) builds customer loyalty. But how exactly can your company constantly be creating PDM’s? Well we need to look into your service interactions to determine exactly where PDM’s can be created.
All service interactions occur within Three Dimensions of Service. They are the following:
- The Human Dimension - This dimension tends to the emotional needs of both the customer and the service provider. Every customer needs respect, understanding and individual attention. Your company’s skills in the Human Dimension help you meet those needs. Sometimes it can be a cheerful hello, other times by defusing an angry outburst. Your company has human needs as well during a service interaction, such as courtesy and recognition of your expertise.
- The Business Dimension - This dimension tends to the practical needs of a transaction. A business need prompts a customer to seek your company’s product or service. When your company meets these needs quickly and fully, you are helping to create PDM’s. Your company also has business needs, such accurate information to fulfill a client’s request that your company must meet during every transaction. Balancing both these needs, your customer’s and your company’s, is a key challenge of achieving Stellar Service.
- The Hidden Dimension -Much of your service transaction is hidden from your customers. Your standard procedures, the interactions between you and your employees, even your company’s capacity are all invisible to your customers. Your company’s skills “behind the scenes” support your performance with your customers. But you also need to be aware that your customer’s hidden dimension, such as events or attitudes unknown to you, can affect a service interaction.
It takes skills in all three dimensions of service to create PDM’s. Your company can’t control all aspects of the Business or Hidden Dimensions. But you do have much more control over what happens in the Human Dimension. This is where your company has the greatest opportunity to create PDM’s. It is highly recommended to ALWAYS start and end every service interaction in the Human Dimension. A simple “hello, how are you doing” to start the transaction and a “have a great day” to end the transaction will go a long way. Too many companies put most of their effort in the Business Dimension or discuss way too much of the Hidden Dimension with their customers. It is in the Human Dimension where your company can definitely differentiate themselves from your competitors.
In order for your company to continue creating PDM’s, you need to know what your customers are looking for in a service you provide. In my next post, I will discuss the Four Qualities Customers Seek in every service transaction.
So we have discussed the Importance of Customer Service (CS) and the Benefits of Customer Loyalty, let’s now look into how we can Create Loyal Customers. Before we can discuss that, we need to think as a customer for a bit first. We as individuals are customers everyday, even at work. We are customers to our vendors and to our internal departments. How many times have we come across bad customer service? Many right, but every so often, we come across a service interaction that is memorable because something happened that left a strong impression of that service on us.
That event is called a Defining Moment, which by definition; is any point in time when a customer judges the service your company provides, thus judges your company as a whole. When a member of your company greets a customer, answers a question, offers options/suggestions, offers to solve a problem/issue, or even tries to recover from a service breakdown, can all be defining moments.
Depending on how your company handles each defining moment, your customer can have a positive or negative experience. Your company’s action, in short, in each defining moment can either strengthen or weaken customer loyalty. When your company strives to create Positive Defining Moments (PDM’s) you help build loyalty. This is the heart of Stellar Service, your company’s effort to create PDM’s.
Your company is defined in the eyes of your customers. Your company’s actions, moment by moment, either build or erode customer loyalty. When your company creates PDM’s, you help ensure that your customers will want to remain loyal to your company, thus helping in its success.
However, it takes more then simply being aware of defining moments and making them positive ones as much as possible. On my next discussion, I will go over The Three Dimensions of Service, in which PDM’s are created.
As discussed on my previous post, Customer Loyalty is key to any successful business. I will discuss how to build loyal customers, by providing Stellar Service, on later posts. But I want to focus on the benefits of customer loyalty.
Loyal customers show feelings of trust and confidence in your company. These feelings inspire customer actions with clear benefits. They resist offers from competitive companies, recommend your business or service to others, and are willing to work with you when they experience a service issue or breakdown. From a business perspective, when you hear a loyal customer complain, they are often simply trying to make your business or service better. Wise companies listen to these complaints to try and improve their business or service.
Here are the Four main benefits of customer loyalty:
- Retention - Customers that continue doing business with your company, provide a solid base for success. If they purchase additional products or services, the payoff is even better.
- Referrals - Customers that encourage others (friends, family or even strangers) to choose your business or service over the competitor’s, save you the cost of attracting new customers. Per my previous post, it costs 5 times more to attract a new customer then to keep an existing one.
- Reputation - Customers that speak well of your company, increase your public support, as well as positive interest from investors, future employees, and the media.
- Revenue - Customers that give your company a larger share of their business, increase both your overall revenue, plus the recognition that comes with success.
These benefits are referred to as the Four R’s: Retention, Referrals, Reputation & Revenue. As you can see, Loyal Customers do provide valuable benefits in helping a business become and remain successful. It is to any company’s benefit to create customer loyalty.
In my next post, I will speak about How to Build Customer Loyalty.
Having worked in Customer Service (CS) for over 12 years, I will be sharing the values and know hows of providing Premier Customer Service. In fact, I am a Certified Facilitator for my company, via Achieve Global, so I will be sharing over the next few weeks the concepts used while Facilitating several sessions regarding CS. Ever since working in CS, I have little to no tolerance for bad CS as a customer. I get frustrated with companies that do not value CS. Although I have read several articles about companies, such as Zappos.com, that are recognizing CS as a means to building loyal customers and moving away from the idea that CS is simply a “call center”. Loyal Customers is key, always have and always will. So how do companies build customer loyalty? By delivering or providing “STELLAR SERVICE”! I will describe exactly what stellar service looks like in later posting, but want to first go over some very fascinating facts about customers:
- It costs a company an average of 5 times as much to attract a new customer as to keep an existing one.
- On average, dissatisfied customers tell 10-16 people about their negative service experiences.
- It takes about 12 good service experiences, for a company to overcome a single bad one.
- 91% of unhappy customers won’t buy again from the company that displeased them.
- Of customers who switch to a competitor, up to 80% say that they were satisfied before make the switch to the other company.
The last fact most people find confusing. But it simply states that 80% of customers switch even if they were satisfied, or their expectations were met, with a company’s product or service. In order for a company to be successful, they need to exceed client’s expectations. These are amazing facts that most companies either ignore or simply are not aware of. All these facts lead to the importance of building customer loyalty.
In my next posting, I will go over the “Four Benefits of Customer Loyalty”.
I came across this web site with live TV on-line. There are literally hundreds of TV channels from all over the word, which are live 24-hrs a day, 7-days a week. You are able to register, for free, and watch these channels. Plus as a member, similar to other social websites like youtube, you are able to upload videos yourself, which are available to all members from around the world. I saw one that was pretty funny, check it out here.
The coolest part of the website is that any business, charity or organization can now own a Wi-Fi TV Station. You will be able to provide the content, and Wi-Fi will provide the TV delivery platform which will allow anyone in the world with an internet connection to see your TV station and even chat live. You will also get your own URL (www.YourNameTV.com) that points to your Featured Station page. You will be listed as a Feature Station with a link on virtually every Wi-Fi TV page. How cool is that? You will also be listed under the topics of your choice, plus you get a spot on the Wi-Fi TV Ticker to place links to your station. But the 24/7 TV station with streaming content is what separates Wi-Fi from any other social website. Owning your own Wi-Fi TV Station is the best way to take your business, charity or organization to a new level. No wonder real estate agents, car dealers, churches, and companies involved in golf, wine, art and others are lining up to buy Wi-Fi TV stations. If you want to take your business to the next level, maybe you should check out Wi-Fi TV.
A friend’s daughter went to Spain as a student exchange for a year, and he told me they joined Skype to communicate with her on-line for free. What a great idea! Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. They have created software that allows on-line users to communicate to anyone around the world, and if they are both with Skype, it is free! For a minimal fee, you can call landlines, cell phones and even send text messages from your computer. Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world.
Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landlines and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding. During these times of economic hardship, this is a great opportunity to eliminate or cut on some expense. For detailed product overview and key features, click here.
When I was a child and had the coughs, my mother would give me a spoon full of honey with some fresh lemon juice. It worked like a charm, and I have used it on my own children. But never knew why or how it worked, until I came across an article that explained it’s alternative healthy uses. Honey simply sooths the throat and thins the mucus. But apparently, there are other uses for honey. It is good for hangovers, yes I said hangovers. Honey is loaded with fructose, which speeds up the metabolism of alcohol. So it is suggested to take 2 spoons full of honey and spread over toast. It should help fairly fast.
Another use is on minor cuts, scrapes and burns. With its antibacterial properties, honey will help speed the healing process. It is recommended to use twice daily for best results. But the most fascinating use is as a body polisher. According to the Mii Amo spa in Sedona, Ariz, mix:
- 1⁄4 cup honey,
- 3⁄4 cup raw sugar, and
- 1⁄4 cup olive oil;
- Rub the mixture into wet skin, then rinse it off.
You can get soft, smooth skin with this gentle, natural ex-foliating body scrub. All this from honey! It’s great to have it handy at home, not only for cooking, tea, for these healthy reasons as well.
0 Comments 
