| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
In the Villa of the Sick Cat -- A Lesson in Customer Care
If you're a pet owner, you know the stress of having a sick pet and you know that having a great veterinarian is a wonderful thing. My cat, Zoe, came down with a nasty infection that had me racing off to the vet's office last week with an unhappy, howling kitty in tow. (She's doing much better now.) This was my first visit to this vet's office, having just moved here last year. When I arrived, the building was under construction. Lots of hammering, sawing, and loud noises-not exactly the controlled, calm atmosphere preferred by a sick pet. But fortunately, Zoe lives in the House of Perpetual Construction Projects, so she did okay. But, what really struck me was the construction project itself. The waiting room has been transformed into an Italian Villa with high ceilings, a graceful figure-eight-shaped pool in the center of the room, a decorative fountain, and "faux" plants. It is gorgeous and would make a great setting for a romantic Italian meal complete with fine wine and a strolling violinist. My first reaction on walking in was "This is beautiful, I wonder how high my vet bill will be." As Zoe and I sat waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting), I watched all the other customers coming through the door. Each one looked around at the beautiful setting and said "I wonder how much this is going to cost me." The newly designed waiting rooms and exam rooms were not designed for the customers-dogs and cats. They weren't designed for the humans bringing in their pets for medical care. It's a total ego design. Impressive. Elegant. Grand. And instead of all the customers (animal and human) being wowed by the design, they reacted negatively. You see, sick cats and dogs want quiet, dark spaces and they want their visit to the vet's office to be over quickly. Instead, the new design with its concrete floor (fashionably treated to look like a sun kissed rock patio) and its soaring ceilings means that every time the phone rings the noise reverberates throughout the waiting area. The poor scheduling means that a sick pet has to stay in that waiting room for what must seem an eternity. And of course, the humans immediately understand that the money to pay for this project has to come from somewhere?namely their wallets. Fortunately, our new vet turned out to be competent and caring and Zoe is recovering nicely. But, the business lesson remains. Focus on what your customers care about and you'll never go wrong. Caroline Jordan, MBA helps self employed professionals build successful businesses, attract clients they enjoy working with, improve cash flow, and develop additional sources of revenue. To find out how visit: http://www.TheJordanResult.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Customer-Service - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Making The Most Of Newsletters Newsletters can be wonderful tools for communicating with your customers or prospects. Because of their format, they're often infused with more credibility than traditional brochures. Sales Marketing: 10 High Impact Ways To Improve Your Customer Service If you want to last a long time in business and succeed, you must learn how to make your customers happy.You have to know who are your customers, what they want and keep in touch with them and their needs. Increase in Customer Sales = Increase in Customer Service One of the most popular questions asked in online business forums or even by my customers and subscribers is this :"How the hell can I increase my sales?"or"I've got tons of visitors but nobody seems to be buying anything? What gives?"FISHNETS WITH HOLES? ANYONE?Getting traffic is not the be all and end all of a successful online business. It requires skills, specific online marketing strategies designed for your site and a robust customer service strategy. Is your Online Business Customer-Friendly? Customer service is increasingly seen as one of the most valuable uses for a commercial World Wide Web site. Your Web site is available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis. Client Service as a Competitive Advantage As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations during the last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answer the questions I pose.For example, if I ask people, "What is your unique differentiation in the marketplace?" or "What does your organization really excel at?" They will almost always reply, "It has to be our client service. Writing The Book On Great Customer Service Q: One of the big chain bookstores recently opened up near my small book store. Already I can see my business starting to decline. Listen to Suggestions If you are up to your ears in a stressful situation, it becomes difficult to think clearly. Sometimes, it is best to walk away from a problem, and think about it, rather than try to solve it with an instant solution. The Reality of Customer Service in America and Best Efforts in Franchising, We Can Do Better Yesterday I went to buy a sandwich at a franchised outlet. I thought while driving up would the owner be there to help out and save some money on labor, knowing a holiday weekend is hard to get labor. Automating Your Help Desk Workflow Do you know you can open, answer, close and report help desk information without human intervention?Automation is a powerful feature provided by most enterprise level help desk products; however, most organizations rarely take advantage of these features. Based on a survey conducted by RightStar Systems, only 5% of the help desk managers interviewed were using automation to its fullest capacity. Communicating for Profit and Customer Satisfaction The President of a 200+ store division of a major retailer learned of a serious communication problem and commented that 'this was to be expected in large organizations'. Well, that clears everything up. Loyal Customers Take Commitment In today's competitive world of retail, many stores are implementing external marketing programs designed to attract new business.Unfortunately, the cost can be very high with little return on investment. Revealed - A Simple Formula For Success! Exceeding Expectations Delight = Customer Expectation plus 1. This was the simple formula for delighting your customers that Ken Blanchard informed us of in his book "Raving Fans" For me this is a great formula, but in itself it also raises a number of questions. Customer Service - Winning Customer Experiences Winning Customer ExperiencesMuch research has been done on what the makes a winning customer experience. What is it that makes customers come back to your business instead of going to someone else's? If your repeat business is low, what is it that you are doing to drive your customers away? There is a consistent theme that emerges across the research - winning customer experiences are built on consistency. Why Communication Skills Dont Work In Customer Service Every time my firm conducts communication skills training, we know someone is going to object."That doesn't work. The Art of Giving Great Service Sales is tough to get right, and depends on retaining those customers, yet people do it badly and unprofessionally all the time. It's really not difficult to learn the art of good service, and if you get it perfect, you will see those rewards. We Got It Wrong: Never Under Promise & Over Deliver You know how it is, you believe something for so long, everyone agrees with you, all the books tell you it's true and then suddenly you have a blinding revelation - we've all been duped! You know like my gorilla mates were? (If you're not sure about my gorilla mates then you really need to read the book - we've got a great offer on at the moment!)And you feel such a chump - how did I ever fall for that - the logic just isn't there - I must have been a fool. Let me explain. 10 Customer Service Quality Statements to Measure up Against It might sound quick and simple, to say how well your business does in satisfying it's customers. Hearing such as:-"We're increasing our turnover by 14% year to date""Our customer complaints are now less than 4% or our transactions". It's Customer Service Stupid: Delivering Customer Service Training That Sticks "Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense."This Ralph Waldo Emerson quote opens one of the most impressive works on customer service: Michael LeBoeuf's book How To Win Customers and Keep Them For Life. Moments That Matter Many years ago, I was a first year apprentice assigned the task of pressure washing a set of condensing coils on the roof of a grocery store on Capital Hill in Seattle, an upscale part of town.It was a 90-degree day, in late August. The Death of the Loyal Customer One of my classes in management focused on the repeat customer. The course stressed the importance of the repeat customer to the financial welfare of the business.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
