Product or People

What's it all about anyway. I recently meet with a client who just couldn't figure it all out. "What's the big deal about customer service anyway" he said. "Product is what brings in the money. If we sell something we create cash flow right. Just because I have a customer it isn't going to guarantee me anything. Money in hand is what it is all about".

Is he right, is it really focusing on the product and sales that makes it happen or is it really about focusing on the customer? Almost all of the marketing and branding industry supports him. This is especially true of the big firms. Are they right, what are your thoughts on this?

As always we invite your opinions and comments.

For more information on customer service or the "Totall Customer Experience" check out "The Customer Development Center"for current up to date strategies and articles.

What was that you said? - Customer Service

"What was that you said" she asked as she looked up from the register with her hand phone apparently glued to the side of her head.

“I said hello!” as I replied to her question.

She smiled and answered, "What did you say? I can't really hear you”

Then I asked a little bit louder, "Can you help me find..." and before I could finish she blurted out in a rather rude sound,

"Wait a minute it's to noisy",

"Are you talking to me?” I somewhat apologetically asked. Then as the somewhat fleeting smile disappeared; she stood up and walked away without even looking in my direction to talk on her hand phone in another part of the store.

I stood there somewhat bemused by the incident and for the lack of service. As I looked around the store I found my self standing alone and a mouth with a half formed question. A simple question that would have just asked, "could you help me please?”, but there I stood waiting half frustrated because of the clerk’s lacking sensitivity and half chuckling because of the so predictable behavior. "What to do?” I asked myself.

And then there it was, a noise, hidden behind some boxes and files. I heard it before, but I wasn't exactly paying attention after the clerk had rudely left me standing. Hoping that it was human, after all I was in a computer store, I peeped around a corner to find two men in conversation. One was on his knees putting something in a window display and the other sitting on a box containing a computer printer, both in full conversation about something to do with the night before.

There I stood in full view waiting, hoping, and wishing that someone would notice me without my begging for some attention. Attention that was rightfully mine to have. I mean after all it was my money that I wanted to spend in their store, right?

Finally, with a loud noise I cleared my throat, and if startled into a new world the two stopped and looked in my direction. “What do I do to get some help?” I politely asked.

They quickly looked at each other and then the one on the box silently, as if by some pre-arranged signal, left to go do something else while the other continuing on with the window display said, "I'll be with you in a moment".

I stood there for what seemed like forever wondering why the window display was so much more important than I was. After all I'm the customer, right? maybe I should have worn a bright T-shirt with vivid lettering that said,”I’m a Customer don’t ignore me”.

Finally after what was actually only about five minutes he stood up, turned, smiled and apologized with a very short “I’m sorry I took so long?”. There he was standing in front of me with his white managers tag pinned to his shirt as if in testimonial to his leadership and dedication.

Then the manager said, "Yes, can I help you now",

“Hmmm, the damage was already done”, I thought. After that my question seemed somewhat mute and its urgency somewhat less important. After all what was the purpose of my being there when they clearly really didn't care about what I wanted anyway. “There are other stores who sell computer accessories”, I told myself.

I just said, "never mind, I forgot what I came in here for". Then I smiled and walked out of the store.


This really happened and I didn't really know how to put it to you other than in the way it took place.

Most of you who will read this post will do exactly the same thing as that clerk did or manager did sometime today or tomorrow and it's a shame that this has to be the reflection of who we are and the value that we put on our customers, but it is.

Your comments are welcome as always and we invite your replies.


If you would like to learn more on customer service you might want to visit the
Customer Always blog written by Maria Palma or you may wish to read articles and research on customer service and customer experience management at "The Customer Development Center.

Planning for Good Customer Service

To keep in the theme of my last post let me do a little drilldown to the area of customer service. Typically to me customer service is no more than a business doing what it has to do to close the deal. You need a smile and a good morning for someone to buy your product that's what you do and no more, if you need to add a clerk to help the decision process ok but no more. Little is ever done beyond what is thought to be the necessary to secure the deal.

That is old school and that is about as old school as you can get in concept. In today's new customer driven markets that approach isn't working very well and it is frustrating the consumer/customer/client to levels where they are starting to take their revenge. How? Well blogging and word of mouth campaigns are one way, and they are getting creative in finding new ones. Today businesses need a total customer experience that involves the customer and the employee.

Why wait for the customer to get to the point of frustration over your lack of response to often simple areas of concern, the customers concern? A simple little planning can change the direction of your customer initiative and make your business even more profitable. Businesses that are sensitive to the customer and the resulting experience they have while doing business will rule the competitive markets. Today's companies need to be responsive customer sensitive and relationship based. Small businesses are not an exception to this and face the same issues as the big boys.

What's needed is a culture switch. Planning to be successful can start with something as establishing a customer service policy and then creating a simple training program to teach your employees or managed underlings the value of the policies. Less than 3% of the existing businesses in the US and Canada have anything resembling a policy and in Asia it is basically non-existent.

Planning doesn’t have to be complicated or take a taskforce to establish a simple but effective customer policy to guide your business or department. Most can be completed in one session of an hour or two. These policies should be dynamic and responsive to your customers as you try to meet their needs. In other words they can change or be added to to sustain a good customer balanced business. Have fun, but take it serious.

If you need more information on customer service or the customer experience check out the
Customer Development Center

As always we invite your comments.

When You Fail to Plan, You Fail - Customer Service

In working with various businesses, both large and small, I have seen a pattern emerge that is always predictable and that is the failure to plan. It really doesn't matter the size of the project or the flow, the cost, or the purpose, it just seems that business owners, managers and employees feel that there is no need to plan. This by the way includes the initial business plan for a startup business.

More business failures and product introductions, new lines or technology owe there failure of acceptance and thus there total failure to one very simple principle and that is the failure to plan. Oh! yes, I often hear the refrain from many if not most I've got it all in my head. Well what's not on paper isn't. I could write for days on this topic and I wonder if it would ever make an impact. I have been working with this one tech company, tech companies are the worst, to do a business plan so that we can move their product to market.

Why a business plan because the business plan contains elements that should define your product, your market, and strengths and weaknesses or S.W.O.T. analysis. In your product or service section it should contain market research on each product or service and how it will be accepted by your identified market including their need analysis, and rate of use. The one thing that is never if ever put into the customer section of the plan is the customer service principles that will govern the retention and loyalty factors needed to develop ongoing and continuing business.

Business plans are two types the one that 99% of everyone does, the one to retain financing, and the business plan that is the dynamic changing blueprint of the ongoing business. The latter should have embedded in it a plan for customer service policy, customer relationship management policies, customer experience policies and those for sales and marketing, employee training, hr and the implementation of those policies. Now you may ask why? It is really quite simple. If you want to succeed you need to have a map that can benchmark your performance and direction as a business, if not your company will take off and flounder.

Now many will argue that the above mentioned are not part of the business plan and should be separate. This can be the case, but if you want to measure the total performance of the business you need to have it in a perspective that can be quickly referenced.

Keep the day to day details and policies that govern your business including your customer management policies separate and match these against the business plan to make sure that they maintain the integrity of your over all vision and focus. If they deviate to much make the changes to bring them back in line. If the nature of the business and market are changing then change the business plan to reflect this and then change the policies to reflect your new direction. But always remember to be an effective customer centered business you need to plan it, reflect it and do it.

We invite your comments. Please feel free to comment and post your own responses.

If you would like to read more on customer service or the total customer experience please go to the "Customer Development Center at http://www.customerdevelopmentcenter.com.

Customer Service Is A Cultural Perception

To start this off in the proper perspective let me offer to all the fathers out there a "HAPPY FATHERS DAY".

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Thailand. Sometimes to really learn and understand the value of lessons one needs to understand we need to see the world through the eyes or in this case the culture of someone else.

For the first time I saw an entire country whose culture both in and out of the business sector is centered in the idea that people are centered, centric in the success of life. We forget to easily what creates the power behind our success and the success of others and loose this very simple focus. For the most part it is the loss of this people are first focus that also creates most of our failures.

In a business context, for them, people come first.

In recent studies businesses are starting to learn that the customer drives competition and define our services and products, except maybe for the marketing sector, but most of all our customers define who we are as a business and as a person. The Thais realize this and when ever anyone enters there place of business or when they call on a client they humbly offer gratitude and thanks and before they even start they put the customer /client first. It has become an ingrained part of their culture. Maybe we should do the same. In a customer centered and driven business this attitude would make the difference. In fact there isn't a business running where this type of culture wouldn't redifine there level of success.


As always we invite you to share your comments and ideas.

If you would like to learn more on customer service or customer experience management please visit
"The Customer Developent Center.

It's What You Know That Makes The Difference - A Customer Experience

My wife and I decided we needed a new bed and mattress set. Well, actually she decided and like a good support system I followed along and helped her in her research and purchase.

As always I am constantly on the look out when it comes to customer service and in furthering the concept of "The Total Customer Experience". None the less, as usual, I was some what disappointed.

The store we went too first was a chain department store. Here we were hopping to get a general knowledge of mattress types and brand pros and cons. Well guess what? Like so many other large retail firms not one floor employee, which numbered 7 including the department manager, could tell us the first thing about mattress construction or the differences in the various brands of mattresses they offered. Most firms hire and train people in minimal knowledge about the operation functions of their store and rarely about the products they sale, how to compare them or how to help their clients compare them. The emphasis seems to be "oh hi, you're here so buy or don't bother me". They do know how to follow you around and smile when you can find them. Now this may not be totally fair to the occassional employee that does it right because there are exceptions. Not a great approach for customer service or in creating an overall positive customer experience.

When I asked why I should by my mattress there instead of somewhere else I got a shrug of a shoulder and a very poor apologetic attempt at why without any real sincerety. Hint: Train your employees about the products or services they sell and why buying it at your store is better than at someone else’s. You may not want to know, But your customers do.

Now that shouldn't take a real brain storm to set up, but it is a major issue. Next we decided to check out a bunch of small furniture dealers on their pricing, furniture styles and mattress selections. You know the quality and style stuff. My wife usually leaves those issues in my hands. Whether or not that's a good decision on her part only she would know.

We went to eight small furniture stores staffed at between two and eight people. They all new their pricing and terms and of course that's a good start, but they were very short on the knowledge end and the customer service and identifying customer need really sucked. You would think tha smaller businesses would be more customer sensitive since they are competting with each other and chain pricing from the big stores.

The first store we went into gets my 5 star approval ratting. To my surprise the clerk that helped us was extremely knowledgeable. We were looking for a solid wood bedroom set of above average quality and unique design so we were in somewhat of a special niche market.

The sales person was standing at the door as we approached and greeted us with a smile and friendly sincere greeting. Then she asked what we were looking for and we of course told her. Yes, a lady sales clerk, who put all the men that day to shame. Now the store specialized in teak furniture and I will have to agree it was nice. What impressed me was her willingness to understand our needs (through a meaningful conversation) before even showing us the product. She actually cared about the customer first and not the sale.

Hmmm, she then showed us two selections of beds that they had that met our requirements. Now this gal in her late twenties new everything you could imagine about the wood, where it came from, the cut of the tree the lumber came from, the construction of the furniture, how and why various jointing techniques were used and more. She could explain why her Teak furniture (which was from Burma) was superior to other teak and why buying from their store was a better choice. If I was intending to buy the style of furniture she had I would have looked no further. She answered all my questions professionally and treated us with honesty and respect. I still may go back end of the year for something else I saw.

The other seven stores and some twenty sales people later couldn't even come close to our 5 Star Sales Lady. Some couldn't even tell me what the name of the wood the bed frames were made of let alone anything else. None could tell me about the construction or any other issue and most of all none could tell me what made their product better than someone else’s. In fact not one other clerk even bothered to ask what was we actually wanted let alone get up to greet us. They seemed to be glued to the couch, chair or lost in a closet. Talk about an other bummer experience.

The first sales clerk was trained in the basics of furniture construction by her company and then she researched and found out the rest on her own. Don't you wish she worked for you?
I may go back and do an interview with her just to see what else sets her apart from the rest. But knowledge of her product and why it was superior was a big start and it certainly made a dent in my armor. She was ready to meet her customer’s needs and educate them so that they could make an informed choice. Yep, FIVE STARS for the furniture lady.

The point here is your clerks, sales team and even the receptionist should be trained in your products. They need to answer questions and educate your clients/customers so that informed decision can be made especially if they are comparing you with others in your field. Everybody in the organization should be able to explain with some authority why your company and products are the best for the customer who is asking, including the accountant. This applies to chain stores as well as small stores, service businesses and B2B businesses. If you have one employee please train them. Don’t let the lack of information be the one thing that turns away your customers. It would surprise you how this one issue destroys your ability to finalize a sale.

If you would like to read more on understanding and creating a better customer experience you can go to The Customer Service Experience Blog written by Glenn Ross or go to The Customer Development Center. Both are great sources and give insight on customer service and the "total customer experience".

As always, we invite your comments and opinions.

What's happened to our email

It doesn't take a madman to notice that the email industry is in shambles from all the trash that's floating around on the net these days. The effectiveness of email and newsletter campaigns is diminishing as people are starting to tire of the job of filtering through all the junk mail just to get what they want to read. Even with a double opt in email or newsletter many of the newsletters and emails are ignored and many are caught in the spam filters set up by corporations, ISPs or the system operator themselves, what to do?

It certainly doesn't help the customer's experience with your company when your percieved as part of the problem. In fact many customers quit many of their lists because instead of quality emails or newsletters that they signed up for they get an onslaught of up selling and needless marketing from the people they trusted. As a thought market sparingly, but effectively. Customer love real communication and information. They will tollerate some direct marketing, but will turn off to you and your company when faced with to much of it.

Talk about a bummer experience. The idea behind the customer experience methodology is to create contact points in which the customers trust is enhanced and the relationship they have with your company is a positive relationship they can count on for a number of issues, the least being privacy. Building an over all best customer experience is what it is all about.

There are a number of ways actually that you can reach your client and eliminate a number of issues that are all on the negative side of receiving email including opt in list you can't always opt out of. That is the use of a Desktop Marketer. This solution gives your client full control of what comes across their desk from you and by empowering your client with final say they turn around and give you the trust and buy in you need to be effective.

What is a Desktop Marketer? It is a software solution that allows your email and newsletters to go strait to your client's/customer's desktop. Talk about revolutionizing the effectiveness of email. Yep, you can send it strait to them by passing filters, spam traps, black holes and other such nightmares. The customer has complete control over what they read and you can market directly to the customer or market niche unlike with RSS feed solutions.

What really makes this software so hot is that the client sees it as soon as it arrives. It is separate from the normal email bag and is not mistaken for the garbage or unwanted solicitations that so often get in the way. Have an important message to get them, no problem send it and they see a notification icon on their screen immediately. Talk about a command performance.

the Desk Top Marketer creates such a powerful customer experience that it sends your customer/client's trust right through the roof, the same with newsletters and other email communication. This is such a powerful tool. I can't count the number of emails sent and not received. If you’re running an online business communication has to be a number one priority.

There is no special technology to learn or prep for as there are with other solutions like RSS feeds. The customer experience is so positive that the effectiveness of the email and newsletter campaigns run by those using this software went right out of sight, often with 100% response rate. Such responses mean higher conversion ratios and much better effectiveness ratings on communication. Check it out, if you don't try it your crazy. Especially new businesses that are coming online really need to use a .Desktop Marketer to enhance and strengthen their growth. As you build your email list you need to have a way to push your response rates and this is the best way out there. Enjoy your success with the Desktop Marketer

As always we ask for your response and comments.

To learn more about the customer experience and customer service visit "The Customer Development Center.

Part of the great Customer Experience is the Employee

I had the privilege of reading a good blog by Glenn Ross at "The Customer Service Experience Blog". Once again he brings to the forefront a problem that is probably the main root in establishing good customer service programs and customer experience strategies, and that is the employee connection. When ever I have a chance to escape the confines of the office or home for that matter, I always take the time to probe the employees where ever we take our time to shop, eat or just relax. It could be a coffee shop, a small family business, a local manufacturer or a large upscale store with multiple departments and regardless of the country, culture, or the size of the business the patterns are the same.

Employees get the rough end and are rarely included in decision processes and their feedback goes almost always ignored. Generally the employees single out the managers as the main issue. As a consultant who usually works with these managers I will second this appraisal of the leadership from the rank and file.

The single most destructive force in any size business comes down to the managers (leadership) taking responsibility for what happens or doesn't happen in any given business, this includes manufacturing as well. Managers are more focused usually, owners too on how they look instead on how to help those below them function and work better.

When something goes wrong it is always passed down from the owner, CEO, or chairman down to the bottom. If they could blame it on the janitor they will. This is the BIGGEST flaw in the development of consistent customer service programs and strong customer service strategy development. The fact that those who should lead the way aren't allowed to lead and when those who initiated ownership of a project or policy do screw up, they blame others for not doing their job in the first place.
Every business owner and employer is responsible for seeing that there employees are happy, well trained, listened to and included in the decision making process. Managers are facilitators not dictators. Little can be done effectively in the way of customer centered policies and strategy development without the full involvement of the employee. This is especially true since they are the primary contacts at every department level and the prime implementers of all policies.

So if your customer loyalty sucks, your retention rate is somewhee south of the south pole and when you say customer service your customers say what? Tke a look at how you are inlvoving and rewarding your employees. If you want a great customer response, effective policies and outstanding performance you better look to your employees and maybe listen to them, involve them and reward them.

As always your opinions matter a great deal to us and to those who read our blog. Please feel free to share your feelings and opinions.

If you would like to learn more about customer service and customer experience strategies please visit "The Customer Development Center"

Customer Experience - Atitude is everything

First and Foremost, may I wish a

BIG Happy Mothers Day

to all the moms who may read this blog and to those moms who are busy doing other things.

I had the opportunity of walking into our neighborhood police center the other day, and no I wasn't in trouble. I was seeking information. I was greeted by two very sharp looking officers at the desk. They greeted me with pleasant warm smiles, and were ready to answer my question, or to address my needs, what ever the task was. When asked questions they answered politely, and they were well versed in their knowledge.

Wow! if only the businesses that we own or do business with every day could get a load of this. They were also quick to smile, and even laugh in response to the customer; putting even the most tense people at ease. Yes, there were some very tense individuals that came through the door, while I took care of my concerns.

They were professional and human all at the same time. I know no less than 1200 businesses that I would recommend them to immediately take over employee training.

My curiosity got the best of me so I asked some relevant questions as to training and such. To my surprise these were street cops, the ones that drive cars, walk the streets and knock on doors. They are, as part of there shift work, put on desk rotation for two hours out of their shift. Yes, they were trained in community relations and in dealing with tense people, and no they were not trained in customer relations or in help desk procedures, but they did a superb job anyway. Why these were men and women who cared about there job outcome not about themselves, who had made a commitment to excellence and had a passion for what they were doing. Is every cop this way? No, but I would bet there are a higher percentage of individuals in the ranks of this police force than there are in the employees you hired.

The point is customer experience management is managing all aspects of customer interaction with a given business or company, and hiring the right people that can embody this, and show genuine sincerity to your customers is (should be) the prime number one step to great customer service. If who you hired employee that can do what these guys did in handling people coming through the door then you hired the right people/person.

Customer service that aids in the developing of high customer retention rates,developing strong customer loyalty and long term strategic cash flow growth isn’t an illusion, if you develop your business with the basic foundation of skilled employees that have the right attitude and are well trained in the scope of your business, including customer care. In other words use smart customer experience development. I don't think I need to relate how this would affect someone’s business. Even if you only have one employee in a whole in the wall key shop you need to focus on more than just tasking skills. Hey sure they can make great keys, but they aillienate the customer.

If you have a machine shop and two lathe operators they should not only be the best you can get at running a lathe, but they should be well versed in customer relations development and be able to answer all questions that effect your scheme of work as a company including customer help desk skills. If not, then train them.

Your businesses success depends on it. Then of course if you just want to struggle for your contracts don't. This would apply to large, regional or small firms. If your struggling making your target numbers or would just like to do more than breakeven follow the above advice.

Please feel free to comment. We are always willing to learn from you.

If you would like to learn more about customer service or customer experience management please check out "The Customer Development Center"

Are Your e-mail Marketing Efforts Reaching Your Customers

Customer communication is the lifeblood of any business and industry. It is so important a topic that millions of pages of online and offline content have been devoted to the essence of proper expression, format and etiquette. Yet it seems like no matter how much was said before it still needs to be addressed. In the perspective of the customer experience communication has played an even more important role than in business days of yore. Meaning, that last week when we took it for granted and today we need take another look at it.

For all businesses email has become a method of quick exchange and reaffirmation of appointments, commitments; delivery of packages and of course the main exchange medium of ideas. So what’s the big deal? Well, email use has declined some 20% in the last few years because of spam, fraud, identity theft and other issues. So now to ofset the trend, at least of the spam content, the industry and government have gotten together and come to terms with an email authentication process. This is significant enough that if you’re not online with it now you better get there. The ISP industry is now supporting and driving this initiative. What does it do? It identifies the sender and provides that identity to the ISP and the receiver of the email.

The problem is that it creates more catch alls for legitimate mail and newsletter marketers who are trying to reach their primary clients and Opt In list members. An ISP may screen your e-marketing effort based on the ISP criteria for authentication enforcement. Meaning, you will be rejected if you met certain profile or behavior types. Every ISP or email provider such as Yahoo or AOL has similar, but differing ways in which to interpret and apply the authentication measures. No matter what you do you will most likely never be 100% effective in your e-marketing and newsletter marketing efforts.

With this onset of email authentication the world of email is entering into a new stage of reestablishing the email as the primary communication tool of business and personnel content mediums. Big problem is that it’s just starting to be used and it isn't a cure all to an ongoing industry wide problem. It is however a much awaited start and the article that is provided by b2b emailmarketing helps to explain the necessity of adhering to getting with the program.

Now DON”T worry. Yes, there is another alternative and that alternative has powerful implications for your business success. Thee is a new direction in the industry that can if not supersede the side effects of email authentication measures by bypassing them altogether. The power of the direct desktop delivery program is enormous. Desk Top Marketing solutions such as Desk Top Marketer Pro guarantees 100% of all mail and newsletters being delivered and read by those targeted in your marketing audience. This process absolutely is a must to increasing and enhancing the customer experience of captured customers. You can get it to who you want when you want without outside interference and be assured of accurate and on time delivery.

Check Out Desk Top Marketer Solutions. Where authentication can't guarantee delivery or that spam filters or ISP blocking won’t stop your mail, desk top delivery software such as Desk Top Marketer Pro can guarantee it will get through.

Imagine 100% open rates of your email and e-marketing news letters

As always we invite your comments and suggestions.

If you want more information on Customer Experience Management please visit "The Customer Development Center"