Spread the Love
by JoAnna Brandi
Devotion is the feeling or showing of great caring, commitment and loyalty to the customer. It's dedication, it's enthusiasm - it's LOVE! When you create a business a customer loves coming back to, they come back and they bring friends. They say nice things and experience joy when they interact with you. Do something nice for your customers Valentines Day (and everyday.) Spread the love, spread the joy. 

Keep Your Advocates Advocating!
by Jill Griffin
There’s an important difference between a client and an advocate. Advocates do more than simply buy from you. Advocates are engaged customers who demonstrate their vendor allegiance through such activities as spreading positive word of mouth, recruiting new prospects and helping their vendors improve. How can a firm nurture trust to help sustain these important advocate behaviors?

Common Sense That Isn't Always So Common (A Lesson from "The Cult of the Customer")
by Shep Hyken
For years I've been preaching that a lot of customer service is common sense that, unfortunately, isn't so common. It is the great companies that consistently deliver an experience that meets, if not exceeds, expectations. And, much of this experience is common sense.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
by JoAnna Brandi
It's a real challenge for me sometimes with my "warm and fuzzy" message to appeal to the CEO crowd but I've been doing it successfully now for more than 11 years. How do I convince "C" level execs to take a look at my emotionally based work? Easy. I talk numbers. Not the kinds they're used to seeing which are based on accounting principles - but the numbers that fuel the economics of loyalty.

Making it Easy to Talk to Customers
by JoAnna Brandi
Customers. Gotta love them. We all want more of them and we all want the ones we have to spend a little more time and money with us. These days many customers don't have the money to spend and so the natural tendency is to want to go out and look for new ones who do. It's a great strategy, it's necessary, but it's really only half the story.

Crucial Questions to Superior Sales
by Jeff Mowatt
When your customers aren’t sure which of your products or services they should buy, consider this handy tool that not only helps create clarity, but also positions you as a trusted advisor. I’m referring to a time-test sales tool known as SWOT. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

How Vulnerable Are Your Customers? Five Keys to Protect Your Customer Assets
by Curtis N. Bingham
Your customers are vulnerable. With cuts made to sales, services, and programs, customer relationships are at greater risk than ever before. For perhaps the first time ever, your loyal customers may be listening to your competitors. What can you do to protect your most important asset: your best and most loyal customers?

What Do Your Customer's Value?
by JoAnna Brandi
By now, many companies have settled into a "new normal." Spending has been curtailed for a while, smart leaders are doing everything they can to foster a little creativity and innovation and smart employees are looking to come up with new ways to attract and keep customers. Building customer loyalty should be important to everyone.

The Key to Winning in this Economy is Great Customer Service
by Jim Sirbasku
Get your employees to stand together behind your company and you will find that it is possible to navigate through this harsh economy with a renewed confidence in what you have to offer and the customer service you provide. Trying economic times are an opportunity to build loyalty among customers by showing them that you care.

Cutting Service Costs without Cutting Service
by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson
How does an organization avoid sending a very mixed message by telling the front line to “wow” their customers in the morning and announcing staff cutbacks and expense reductions in the afternoon?  How do you add value when there are no more resources to fund the addition?  In a phrase:  imaginative service!  The notion that exceptional customer service must cost more is pure myth.

Banish Fear, Build Resilience and Keep Customers Loyal
by JoAnna Brandi
I'm talking to lots of people these days who are cutting their budgets. That's necessary and expected in times like these. But, I'm also hearing that some are afraid to invest money (or even time) into training and motivating employees to maintain the kinds of positive attitudes that will keep them healthy and keep the remaining customers loyal. If you're one of them, I dare you to think about that again. While the marketplace is breaking down businesses from the outside in, fear is eroding businesses from the inside out.

My Other Man
by Jill Griffin
I'm a happily married woman. But I'm here to confess: I have "another man" in my life. His name is Lalo. He is a reminder that America is full of remarkable, resilient business builders with abilities to search out untapped customer needs, profitably meet them, and earn deep customer loyalty along the way.

Service Recovery - Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
by Shep Hyken
Just recently I've had several clients call to discuss problems they were having with service recovery. While their issues were somewhat complicated, the strategies we discussed were simple and direct. Here are the seven strategies that can help turn a touchy situation with a customer into a confidence building Moment of Magic®.

The New Silver Bullet for Growth and Customer Loyalty
by Curtis N. Bingham
If you want to grow your business while simultaneously increasing customer loyalty, the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) might just be the silver bullet you are looking for.  The Chief Customer Officer or similarly titled role assumes executive-level accountability for customer relationships, much like a COO is accountable for operations and the VP of sales for revenue growth.

Are You Turning Raving Fans into Roving Fans?
by Diane Berenbaum
Companies work hard to make their products work faster, last longer, look sharper, and taste better than others on the market. They go as far as to create high-tech systems enabling customers to order items at lightning speed. This is all great and certainly can lead to a heightened customer experience; however, neglecting the human side of the product marketing mix leads to missing opportunities to connect with your most enthusiastic customers.

Five Pillars of Sustaining Exceptional Service
by Jean Marie Johnson
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a great service provider? How do they consistently provide service that goes above and beyond customers' expectations? What makes it possible for some organizations to deliver consistently exceptional service? We at Communico have dedicated ourselves to finding the answers to these questions for years, and we are pleased to share our findings with you.

Is Customer Service Dead or Just Dying? Plus the Top 8 Ways to Insure Your Customer Service is Not!
by Bob Norton
I challenge any manager to make sure they use their own service anonymously on a regular basis (secret shopper) to experience what they have created. My guess is you will be shocked at the many layers of problems you will encounter created by automated attendants that route people in circles, poorly trained customer reps, badly designed policies and procedures that have somehow gotten out of step with the current world.

Building a Case for Getting Better
by JoAnna Brandi
Every once in a while I’m looking through my files and I find something that was once shared only with one customer that has great relevance to anyone who deals with a customer. I ran across some notes I’d made for an executive of a large company that I was coaching. He wanted to convince the rest of the team that the "Customer Experience" was so critical to their business that they should be making a large investment in training everyone who touched the customer to go above and beyond, to add discretionary effort, to go the extra mile.

Buying Trends: the Shift to Hassle-Free
by Jeff Mowatt
You may have noticed a shift in recent years in what it takes to satisfy customers. Customers are now making buying decisions less on the quality of an organization's products and services, and more on the quality of the buying experience itself. If you're a business owner or manager, this trend offers both risk and opportunity.

Know Stress
by JoAnna Brandi
We're all so stressed! There's so much to do in our customer service department and only a certain amount of time to do it. We get it done, but at a harried pace. What can we do to alleviate some of the stress? I am answering this question because I want as many people to see this as possible. It’s an important reminder about the response-ability we have for our own healthy state of mind and body. We can’t take great care of customers unless we take great care of ourselves first.

Seven Steps to Build Customer Loyalty
by Gregory P. Smith
Most businesses spend more time and energy trying to find new customers instead of retaining those they have. The logic behind customer retention is simple--It costs far less money to keep customers happy than to spend much more money recruiting new ones. Loyal customers tell their friends about your business and will spend more money than new customers.

The Real Costs of Losing Customers
by JoAnna Brandi
Another customer walks out of the door or hangs up the phone vowing never to return to your place of business again. What's the big deal? You can't please everyone, right? That's the attitude of many employees these days, or so it would seem from their behavior. Companies that typically begin the investigation of customer cost find that the number is much higher than they would have guessed.

Have a Love Affair with Your Customers! Five Ways to Keep Your Customer Romance Burning
by Rosemary Rein, Ph.D.
As I have been finalizing my chapter on "WOW! Customer Service" in the upcoming book "Blueprint for Success and Survival" with Dr. Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, I have been reviewing my field notes from working with business clients who have successfully propelled their business from Now to WOW!  They are Businesses, large and small who have transformed their organizations and dramatically increased their revenues  by having a renewed love affair with their customers!

Making Attitude Adjustments: Improving Customer Service Behaviors - Other than Replacing People
by Jeff Mowatt
Not long ago, if a customer service employee fouled-up, he or she was warned, then if improvements didn't happen, was shown the door. In today's workplace however, where it's so difficult just maintaining staffing levels, dismissal doesn't really fix the problem - it just changes the problem. Next time one of your frontline employees needs an attitude adjustment, consider how this teacher handles a surly student.

It’s a Business Decision
by Jay Ewing
Those words seem to be the forgiver of any brutal decision in the business world. It is the reason given to employees who have worked tirelessly for a company for decades, only to find out at the 12th hour, that they are redundant. How did we get here? How did we arrive in such a callous world, and how can it be fixed?

Customer Service - A Reality Check
by Rick Sidorowicz
Here is a reality check in the format of an internal survey designed to highlight the gaps between intention and reality. It can be an extremely powerful tool to identify gaps, challenge perceptions, prioritize developmental needs and re-launch your enterprise or business unit to embrace a truly customer-focused culture.

Getting Rid of the Rulebook
by Liz Tahir
What rules and regulations in your company have the potential for offending your customers?  Certainly, it is necessary to establish policy and regulations to help your business run efficiently.  But are these rules so rigid they have no exceptions? When there is a need for an exception, your employees should not only be authorized but encouraged to use their judgment in each situation.

Can You Provide Extraordinary Customer Service?
by Liz Weber
How do we provide Extraordinary Customer Service? Look at it for what it really is: "Extraordinary" is simply "Extra Ordinary" Customer Service. Simply do more of the basics when it's appropriate.

Hurry Up and Wait
by Liz Tahir
What is becoming obvious is that while businesses are devising all sort of ways to save company time and money, it generally is at the expense of the customer. How did we get to the point where the company’s time is more valuable than the customer’s?

Being Present is a Gift to All: The Real Meaning of Real Time
by Craig Harrison
They say wherever you go, there you are. Yet how present are you at any given time and place you find yourself? Many professionals appear in body but little else. Don't get marked as missing in action.

Influence with Ease®
by Jeff Mowatt
Jeff Mowatt knows the art of influence:  employees serving customers; colleagues promoting ideas; human beings interacting in relationships. We have featured several of his tips in a column in The CEO Refresher and they are guaranteed to enlighten and inspire. Exercise influence . . . with ease . . . for results.

Growing Your Business One Customer at a Time
by Liz Tahir
Remember that the big money isn’t as much in winning customers as in keeping customers. Each individual customer’s perception of your company will determine how well you do this.

The Five Biggest Customer Service Blunders of All Time
by Paul Levesque
Those businesses that deliver a superior total experience are typically those that enjoy a long-term competitive advantage - along with virtual immunity from the kinds of headaches that plague everybody else.

Magic Words: Music to the Ears of Your Customers
by Craig Harrison
Let's look at the power of words to create trust, allegiance and commitment in our customers and clients.

What is Your Lagniappe?
by Ed Horrell
How to apply "a little extra" effort to improve your customer attraction, retention and satisfaction.

Powering CUSTOMERS onto Your Agenda: Five Customer Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking
by Jeanne Bliss
For many CEOs, what now exists is a frenzied awareness of a problem that often leads to an even more frenzied approach to a "solution." Here are the questions you should be asking.

Stellar Service Requires A "Bias to Action"
by Craig Harrison
Customers pine for staffs that are more than pledged to serve, but poised to serve. Help your staff be biased to action and the reaction of customers will be great.

The Ultimate Question
by Keith Starcher
We have the example of those who have gone before us and built businesses that are “more than just profitable.” Are we courageous enough to ask our employees and our customers the “Ultimate Question?”

Do You Need a Chief Customer Officer?
by Jeanne Bliss
Beyond the notion that it's a good idea, not many know how to structure the Chief Customer Officer role and its place in the organization. Here are some thoughts to help you proceed.

The Voice of Customer Service
by Craig Harrison
Customer relationship management tools abound, yet let's hear it for old technology. Your voice is the most multifaceted customer service tool in your toolkit.

Actions CEO's Take if They're Committed to Customers
by Jeanne Bliss
I've never seen a CEO who wouldn't sign up for customer loyalty, customer focus and just plain improving things for their customers. It's getting them to drive the company to do something about it that's the challenge.

The Profit Power of Customer Intimacy
by Gerard A. Abraham
"Customer intimacy" is a much-less-publicized yet fundamental lever of sustainable top-line revenue and earnings growth, as a means to increase share price and shareholders' value.

Why Corporations Continue to Disappoint Customers
by Jeanne Bliss
For all the beating of breasts about the customer as king, we still haven’t gotten very far? It’s because of the corporate machine and how we citizens of the machine have been programmed to achieve our success and reward.

Is Workplace Happiness a Business Decision?
by JoAnna Brandi
Want a more positive workplace where you and your co-workers feel happy and motivated? The overall message: Happiness creates resilient employees who, in turn, create resilient, thriving companies.

Customer Service is Not a Four-Letter Word
by Gregory P. Smith
The Ritz-Carlton hotels know if you treat your customers well and make a special effort to please them - guess what? They come back, tell their friends, and maintain a long lasting relationship of loyalty.

The Power of Using Names
by Shep Hyken
Want a simple strategy that will help build stronger relationships with anyone you work or do business with? It really is simple. You already know it, but it is worth reminding you of it. It is - using names.

Speed of Recovery
by Byron Kalies
How do you handle complaints in your business? I went to a seminar once where complaints were described as snowflakes. They're rare, precious and absolutely unique. You cannot buy them. They are the best feedback you'll ever get.

Enjoy Eight Ways That Loyalty Pays
by JoAnna Brandi
The customer experience makes or breaks customer loyalty. With so many choices today, it's the quality of the experience that will determine whether or not they'll come back, purchase more, and refer their colleagues and friends to you.

These Five ‘Positivity Pointers’ Can Help You Enhance Your Customer Experience
by JoAnna Brandi
Positive, life-affirming, optimistic people attract goodness to their lives. They attract positive people and circumstances, and they achieve great results. And why wouldn’t they? They’re a joy to interact with!

Create Customer Loyalty and Improve Your Bottom Line
by Jim Teegarden and Bob Krok
Understanding customers' requirements is fundamental to business success. The most important basis for strategy development, however, is a comprehensive understanding of what drives customer loyalty and how strong those drivers are.

Stop Sabotaging Your Customer Relationships
by Lora Adrianse
Take action now! Stop sabotaging those relationships with unnecessary standards that don't really matter to your customers. Your customers and your CSR's will love you for it.

At Your Service: The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service!
by Susan Friedmann, CSP
When you satisfy our customers, they not only help us grow by continuing to do business with you, but recommend you to friends and associates. The practice of customer service should be as present on the show floor as it is in any other sales environment.

No Time or Dollars to Train Your Team? Make the Most of ‘Teachable Moments’
by JoAnna Brandi
There are simple, no-cost techniques managers can implement to maintain ongoing training even as employees are behind their desks. They’re known as ‘Teachable Moments.’

The Honeymoon Should Never Be Over
by Shep Hyken
The first time you do business with someone is like a date. You hope they want to go out – or do business with you - again. You finally, as some say, close the deal. . This is really the start of the long-term relationship.

Leveraging the Voice of the Customer - The Seven Step Process to Customer Oneness
by Tim Gregory
When you are a customer's best option, all things considered, the customer selects you. If your delivery team is profitable, you make money.

Your "Chief Customer Officer" - Why this New Role in Your Company is Indispensable
by Curtis N. Bingham
This officer will embrace a broad view of the customer base, the marketplace, and future trends, using this view to drive both corporate strategy and organizational changes and initiatives, so necessary for profitably servicing customers and adapting to the marketplace.

The Four Percent Solution: Using Complaints to Further Loyalty
by N. Ramasubramani
Research shows that only 4% of dissatisfied customers ever bother to complain. Others just keep quiet. They may be putting up with an inferior product experience or silently shift to some other brand without a warning. What does this mean to the marketing manager?

Complain, Complain
by JoAnna Brandi
Although we are constantly being reminded in the business press and by our consultants about the importance of treating our customers well and adding value to their experience - use your own experience as a guide - what's the state of service today?

What Great Service Leaders Actually Do
by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson
Great service leaders don't stop for a moment to think about what "walking the talk" looks like. When the stress is on and the stakes are high they set the standard for their organizations.

What's Love Got To Do With It?
by JoAnna Brandi
Customer loyalty is not dead, but it is ailing. It is given only to those companies that earn it and keep earning it by delivering value and positive experiences on a consistent basis.

New Rules for Mining Customer Intelligence
by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson
We found new rules for mining customer intelligence in a 1975 Peanuts comic strip. We marveled at how timely it had remained and how insightful its counsel for today's challenging business environment.

Do You Want Me to be Good to You, or Good for You?
by Shep Hyken
Think about that question for a moment. Being good to the customer means you take care of them, give them great service, etc. But being good for the customer is different. It is helping them or enhancing their experience.

It’s About Customer Service
by Susan Dunn
There is nothing so valuable as a customer in your store, in front of your face. It takes a lot of time and money to get a customer in your store in the first place, and what you do once they’re there matters.

Tips for Effective Leadership - Tip #3: Don’t Satisfy Customers
by Wolf Rinke
Only if you and your team members consistently exceed your customers’ expectations will customers remember you and your organization.

Low Value Customers: Children of a Lesser God?
by N. Ramasubramani
It is definitely a good practice to pamper your MVC. But the tendency seems to swing to the extreme right and axe all those who are not in this elite class. Such a strategy is myopic and is bound to affect the health of any brand because it suffers from the several misconceptions.

Magnetic Service: Secrets to Creating Passionately Devoted Customers
by Chip R. Bell and Bilijack R. Bell
The difference between remarkable and run of the mill lay not with the price the customer was required to pay but rather the value the customer felt privileged to experience. Shared stories led us to seven secrets for creating passionately devoted customers.

Winning the Battle for Customer Loyalty
by Jill Griffin
Companies with a clear and accurate picture of customers' preferences enjoy substantial advantages in anticipating customer needs and delivering exceptional products and services.

Trust Tools for Tough Times
by Jill Griffin
Trust. It's in short supply these days and for good reason. I have coined a customer relationship model that centers around key customer development stages. The model can be used to build, sustain and regain customer trust.

Why Can't Microsoft Make "Soft" Packaging?
by Eileen McDargh
Why is it that Microsoft wants you to buy its product but does not want you to open the plastic case that is welded around the cardboard box? I believe that such packaging along with cockroaches will survive atomic disasters!

Delivering Unanticipated Value
by Jill Griffin
Companies around the world today are struggling to build substantial levels of customer loyalty. The key to loyalty building is to provide value, as defined by the customer. Linda Farrington is a value builder of the highest order.

Twelve Laws of Loyalty
by Jill Griffin
Proven principles for turning non-customers into loyal advocates, by the author of Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It.

Satisfaction Guaranteed!
by Debra S. Goldman
The customer determines whether a company will be profitable. Their loyalty will result in additional spending, increased market-share through word-of-mouth promotion, improved reputation, and increased profits.

Perfect Customer Service: Bigger is NOT Better
by David A. Goldsmith & Lorrie Goldsmith
If you're doing everything right, your customer base will be growing and your customer service department will not.

The "Wow!" Factor
by Shep Hyken
The "Wow!" factor boils down to one thing; exceeding the expectations of the customer. It goes past great customer service. In short, the basic idea is to bring the element of surprise into your business.

Think Like the Buyer
by Shep Hyken
What I mean by this short phrase is that sometimes we think we know what our customers want, but what they want is something completely different. So we need to get inside our customers' heads and give them what it is that they want versus what it is that we think that they want.

First Impressions
by Shep Hyken
A simple concept based on the original notion of managing the Moment of Truth and creating Moments of Magic.

Speed - the Differentiation Factor Between Great Service and Even Greater Service
by Shep Hyken
Speed and quick response need to be integrated into virtually every business. People want things fast.

Margaritas or Lemonade? Great Customer Service is About Small Details
by Gregory P. Smith
When designing your customer service plan, consider what small details you can provide making your place of business stand out in the hearts and minds of your customers.

The Dangerous Customer
by Shep Hyken
We aren't talking about customers who have a complaint about you and choose to tell everyone they know. We are talking about that potentially very dangerous type of customer, a "satisfied" customer.

Moments of Truth, Misery & Magic
by Shep Hyken
Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression. Seize the opportunities to create moments of magic!

Customer Service
by Jim Stovall
Whether it is in your personal or professional life, The Golden Rule still applies: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Too often in business, we spend all of our time on one side of the equation and fail to get that customer perspective.

Denta+: A Case Study of an Experience Economy Enterprise
by Bob J. Holder
Exceptional customer experience and Russia seem as similar as going to the dentist and being happy about it. Yet, Denta+, an Omsk Russia dental clinic, seeks to "wow" customers. Denta+ has lessons for not only Healthcare firms but any business that wants to improve customer retention and attraction, word-of-mouth marketing and seeking to provide new economic offerings.

Better Service for Our Customers
by Matthew Ho
The first tenet of retail is to make it "easy to shop." Matthew Ho has an interesting point of view from the front lines in travel retail and from Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping" written by Paco Underhill.

Your BOLD Service Mentality - Make Service Your Top Priority
by Jody Urquhart
How compassionate are your systems to the needs of your customers and staff? People keep the service mentality alive, so create a system that is flexible to them. Your bold service mentality will shine through.

Improving Customer Service Through Effective Communications
by Bob J. Holder
A firm develops a customer focus by providing its associates with communication skills that will allow them to be reassuring, empathic and responsive.

Leadership and Loyalty
by Steven C. Coats
Do you (or your company) deserve the loyalty of customers, employees, partners and shareowners? Think about your answer from their perspective.

What Happened to Customer Service? The State of the Union - Spring 2002
by Rick Sidorowicz
There is a very, very serious "disconnect" between what you want to have happen and what you think is happening, to what is actually happening with respect to customer service in retailing today. We are missing such an amazing opportunity.

Righting a Wrong - Getting the Customer Back
by Daniel Houck
Treat the glass with respect and it will do more than hold "whine", it will hold up your organization.

Mosquitoes Do Bite
by Jim Stovall
You have often heard it said, "Don't sweat the small stuff." When it comes to undue worry, everything is small stuff; however, when it comes to paying attention to details in your business or personal life, there are no small things.

Customer Service Lessons From the Trenches
by Martien Eerhart
How to deal with explosive customers, your nightmare customer, and seven ways to improve customer service without spending a dime.

Customer Service is a Timeless Key to Profitability
by Jim Clemmer
Effective teams, organizations, and leaders exist to serve others. And those who provide the highest levels of service/quality enjoy the richest rewards. That's not just some platitude or warm and fuzzy theory, it's become a well proven fact.

Four Ways to Motivate Service Professionals - A Guide to Getting Wow Performance
by Mary Sandro
The only thing harder than delivering excellent customer service consistently is motivating someone else to deliver excellent customer service consistently. Here are four motivation strategies that can help your organization succeed … one professional at a time.

What Happened to Customer Service? The State of the Union - Spring 2001
by Rick Sidorowicz
If you are an executive running a retail enterprise please listen slowly. The state of the union is pretty pitiful - honest! There is an enormous void and opportunity out there - just waiting to be filled.

Customer Service Improvement: It's Mission Critical to Your Future
by R. Michael Donovan
Here are 10 questions you can use to assess the degree customer service is a competitive advantage for your company, and guidelines to use to develop an effective approach to customer service improvement. The article is in .pdf format - please use your back function to return to The CEO Refresher.

Thank You for Outstanding Service!
by Rick Sidorowicz
They 'Get it' at the Banff Springs Hotel!

Customer Service That Goes Above and Beyond
by Laura Benjamin
Service on unbelievable levels means going a little bit above and beyond what most people expect.

Customer Service Quiz - Part One
by Rick Sidorowicz
A five minute quiz - with no middle ground - to identify gaps and opportunities.

Customer Service Quiz - Part Two
by Rick Sidorowicz
Another five minute quiz - true or false, black or white, on or off - with no middle ground - to identify gaps and opportunities.

Related Topics: Customer Relationship Management | High Performance Retail

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