Archive for March 2010
How to Address the Customer Service Gap
Copyright (c) 2008 Drew Stevens PhD
Finding Solutions that otherwise puzzle organizations
Organizations believe that they provide exactly what customers desire. Ask any firm and the Paretto Principle prevails. 80 percent of most organizations believe they deliver exemplary customer service. Ironically, less then 20 percent do. According to research by consultancy Bain and Company, only 8 percent of companies really deliver on customer service.
Our present environment exists with a gap in delivering service. There are numerous reasons for the gap, however, we believe two issues contribute to this gap, a) greed and b) the inability of customer relationships.
Greed Many statements by management consultant Peter Drucker are famous. However, in the book The Practice of Management, Drucker clearly states, “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” Organizations today are trumped by two fundamental issues- competition and productivity. The focus is so acute that raising revenue, higher profits and increasing productivity all ignore the necessary myopia of customer concentration.
Exemplars of avarice include Starbuck’s, the airline industry and retail establishments. Anytime an organization believes they can achieve higher growth they raise fees, not one CEO or analysts stops to ask what the impact of the client is. Prior to heightened fees, customer remain for two purposes 1) either first mover advantage in the case of Starbuck’s or 2) value such as American Airlines. Yet when fees increase, customers tend to jump ship for cheaper and more appealing alternatives.
The solution for any firm is to thoroughly conduct an impact analysis to determine potential market losses. New revenue means nothing when you lose a core customer base. Customer dissonance cannot be taken for granted.
Customer Relationships Customer connections are very difficult to build- that is to say unless you are focused on your core asset. First, as mentioned earlier, an organizations entire strategy must exist for the client. Strategic questions to ask are, “Who is the customer? Why does the customer buy? What is the value that our firm provides? How do reach disseminate product, service and announcements to our customers? These questions all told focus all beliefs, all values and all attitudes for the company asset. Further, it is imperative to treat the client as such- an asset. Nothing happens, no one gets paid and the electricity does not provide power to the plants unless a customer is involved.
The 7 Traits to an Exceptional Successful Business
How often have you either referred to or considered the expression, “Success is a journey and not a Destination?” Probably many times, yet often being in a hurry to get there, we forget that success is not an end unto itself, but is instead an ongoing process.
Though some people seem to have the Midas touch and easily turn everything to gold, most of us have to give our endeavors lots of time, effort and the sweat of our brow before seeing things come to fruition. The simple truth is that the majority of us are simply not born leaders, but become leaders by who we are and the actions we take. Consequently, whether or not you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out on your journey, there are particular traits you’ll usually find operating within the exceptional women entrepreneur. In fact there are 7 particular traits you’ll generally discover deeply embedded within the exceptional and successful businesswoman.
If you’ve already taken the plunge as an entrepreneur, you know that it takes a great deal of planning, development and strategic marketing to succeed. At any given time, there are changes to be considered and new directions to examine. In which case, whether you’re the CEO, CFO, Chief Marketer or Chief Solutions Officer of your company, your journey to success is probably full of trials and tribulations.
To support you in your journey to success, be willing to open your mind and sense of reasoning as you consider whether these traits are part of your driving force. If they are not yet ingrained within you, I recommend that you give them some thought.
THE 7 TRAITS TO SUCCESS
1) Successful Entrepreneurs Gain the Respect of their Peers
One of the first and most obvious characteristics you’ll see operating in an exceptional entrepreneur is an equitable and unbiased disposition . Plain and simple the successful entrepreneur recognizes that no one is above or below. With an attitude of respect for others, the successful entrepreneur gains the respect from everyone they encounter. Strategies, attitudes and methods filter down to each person and reflect on all actions and activities. A successful entrepreneur gives everyone the space to be great. No matter how effective or beneficial your expertise, becoming a successful entrepreneur requires building up of your character muscles, traits and habits, which correspondingly make your dreams a reality.
Career Colleges of America-career Education and Medical Schools
As the economy suffers, many people are interested in finding a new career. Sometimes this is a personal choice, and sometimes, like in the case of people who have lost their jobs or have gotten laid off, it is a necessity. There are certain types of careers which become at risk when the economy takes a turn for the worse. A career in the medical field is not one of those risks. If anything, a career in the medical field can be expected to increase in demand overtime, regardless of our economic situation. That is because the medical needs of the population are not necessarily driven by the status of the economy. As the population grows the need for highly trained and qualified medical workers will rise.
The Healthcare Job Outlook for 2008/2009 describes new job growth from 2006 – 2016 as excellent with over 3 million new jobs added for the period. As well, the projected salary increase is 22% compared to just 11% for other industries combined.
The Department of Labor shows similar findings, projecting that medical assistant jobs are expected to increase over 35 percent over the next decade, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. The health care industry is expanding as our population grows and ages, and as technology advances, so will the need for highly trained health care workers such as a surgical assistant medical assistant, vocational nurse, computerized office assist, and so on.
A career in the medical field has been referred to as “recession-proof.” Few industries can boast this kind of employment outlook. If you’ve been laid off in another work field, this should not be a concern for you in considering starting training in a medical career. It is highly unusual for medical layoffs to occur.
And if you are considering a career in the medical field, even if you have no medical training, or even a GED, it is best to get started right away, in order to take advantage of this growing industry. Medical career college courses are available for every type of lifestyle. You will receive hands on training, job placement assistance, and in some cases even financial aid. The career choices are nearly unlimited, from vocational nursing programs, to diagnostic medical sonographer training, to pharmacy technician careers, and so much more. Take your first step towards that new career today!
Better Customer Service
Better Customer Service is Not Optional
Providing better customer service is an obvious competitive strategy that creates the platform to achieve success in your market. For that reason, is is almost unbelievable that customer service is so poor from so many businesses. Most business owners I talk to want to provide better customer service. However, their attempts to develop customer service policies and behaviours throughout their business are often frustrated. In this article, we highlight why providing better customer service is not optional if you want to achieve business success and some ways to achieve better customer service, by approaching the topic somewhat differently than you might anticipate.
Provide Better Customer Service by Identifying Unmet Needs
One reason many businesses fail at providing better customer service is that they try to compete head-to-head with their competitors. They take them on at their own game. This strategy is difficult to make work, because of competitor reactions. Both you and your competitor either get stronger at customer service, or someone tries to take a shortcut and ends up undermining the reputation of everyone in the industry. A better approach is to try to identify unmet needs within your market that no competitor is paying attention to. This is a strategy that can propel your success to market domination like no other.
One company that used this strategy and grew from a neighborhood outlet to a world-wide phenomenon was Domino’s Pizza. In a commodity market such as pizza restaurants, where they were getting killed, Tom Monaghan identified a need that no one was paying much attention to – home delivery. At the time, home deliveries were seen as a way to top up the down times when the eat-in restaurant was a bit quiet. As a result, home deliveries were given low priority and often the customer received their pizza order after a long wait, by which time it arrived cold and unappetising.
Guarantee Better Customer Service to Achieve Market Domination
Monaghan saw a way he could provide better customer service by targeting this unmet need. He came up with a strategy to deliver to this market “fresh, hot pizza in 30 minutes, or it was free.” He saw a need and used a powerful guarantee of better customer service to gain a foothold in this market. His strategy was so successful, that the market for pizza grew phenomenally, as he created a whole new market of pizza lovers who preferred home delivery who would not eat at a pizza restaurant. He not only changed his business’s fate from a struggling also ran to a hugely successful multi-national operation, all on the strength of a uniquely audacious guarantee that no one else had the courage to copy.
Customer Service Principles
What do these companies have in common, Southwest Airlines, Neiman Marcus, Marriot, Disney, and Enterprise Car Rental? They are all customer service pioneers. Each company has forged a new path through their commitment, dedication, and innovations, to become known as leaders in delivering excellent customer service. Serving the customer is more than some fancy words on their company mission statements. Customer service truly represents the very essence of each companyâ??sâ?? existence.
These companies, along with hundreds more, have already done the hard work; they have laid the ground work, set the examples, and blazed the trails for other companies to follow. They have demonstrated how to achieve success by serving the customer.
Why then, donâ??t all companies follow this proven path to success?
Do they not know the core principles these companies follow?
To borrow a concept from the Late Show with David Letterman, this is a top ten list of principles all companies need to implement to achieve service excellence.
Number 10: Focus â?? The customer should always be the number one focus of any company. All decisions, services, and products should be based upon satisfying the needs and expectations of the customers.
Number 9: Take Action â?? The best laid plans will never come to life, without action. If you are going to talk-the-talk, then you must walk-the-walk. When companies, which brag about the importance of customer service, fail to deliver outstanding service, customers and employees lose faith and trust in them.
Number 8: Create Happy Employees â?? Your employeesâ?? beliefs, attitudes and behaviors determine the quality of the customer service provided. The quality of customer service will never exceed the quality of the people who provide it. Happy employees create happy customers.
Number 7: Develop Employees â?? The three key words in employee development are training, training, and training. Teach your employees how to serve the customer, equip them to serve, and then empower them to serve with excellence.
Number 6: Establish Relationships â?? Customer loyalty is achieved by having a relationship with your customers. The stronger the relationship, the more loyal your customer becomes. Relationships are built upon trust, communication, and interaction. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to further enhance communication and improve trust.
Number 5: Measure Performance â?? If you canâ??t measure it, you canâ??t manage it. Measuring customer satisfaction, customer feedback, and employee adherence to customer service standards is paramount in delivering exceptional customer service with any degree of consistency. Always inspect what you expect.
A Home Business Idea That Made Millions
Every person now seems to see the Internet as the Business Holy Grail… ha… ha… ha!
What we find when we look deeper is greed… greed… greed. Sorry, no exclamation. If you believe different then you are naive.
The internet first gave us all great hope that a new dawn was beginning. That here was a great place to be, where everyone could be equal. Where every person could communicate honestly with each other. Where everyone could set their stall to making money any way they desired. That certainly holds true for the crooks and scammers. Sorry, but again, no exclamation.
We get bombarded with emails from what are called opt in lists. We see something we like, so we sign up with our email to get a regular sample of a supposedly new product or information that will change our lives for the better. You must be joking!
Our email address then gets sent about the internet to various joint venture lists, known as JV lists. And then we are called the simpleton list. The easy touch list and many other names.
What is happening now, and always has happened with the internet, reminds me of the old wild west of America, during the Gold Rush days. The old pan handlers had this inner desire to strike gold, much the same now with many people having a desire to win the lottery. Or start a home business online with their great idea. Every person wants to obtain great wealth quickly.
Those old westerners went on a great walkabout, searching here, searching there, searching everywhere for the business holy grail of quick, easy money. They were mostly hard working honest men, desperate to better themselves. And that is what made them easy pray to the vultures of greed. Just like now on the internet.
However, where there is money there is always ingenuity and greed. Some people realised that the gold prospectors would need equipment to search for gold. Some realised that tools would be needed, so they started a tool business and made a lot of money. Some realised that food would be needed, so they started a food business and made a lot of money.
But, the person who probably made the most money was the person who invented the trousers, called jeans. Well… except for the odd miner who struck gold. The people who made great wealth quickly and gave the rest of the gold prospectors hope for the future.
Is that now the same with the internet? Do we see, or more likely read about, some person gaining great wealth because they sold their internet business… and then believe we can do likewise? So how do we start to make money online? That is the burning question we would all like to know. Because what will probably happen is that an internet scammer will get us first.
The greatest desire with most modern people is probably to start their own home business. A business working from home that will give them their own financial independence. A home business where they can make money selling internet goods. However, where do we find such a home business idea that can generate great wealth for us? Or even just a regular above average business income.
First, we need to find something to sell. Next, we need to get lots and lots of internet visitors to our website. Oops, I should have probably mentioned the website first. How can we sell goods online without a website? But, then again, how can we sell something if we do not get visitors to our website? How can we sell something if we do not have something to sell on our internet home business? It is all starting to get rather confusing now. What came first… the egg or the chicken? Who cares. We must keep focused on our business idea. What business idea? I have not found one yet!
The above paragraph probably applies to the vast majority of people who have a great desire to break away from their mundane life and start their own business. However, what most people need to realise now is that internet selling does not only apply to the future. It applies to the here and now. If you want to be successful, then you need to learn to sell online. You need to keep focused and hopefully avoid the internet scammers.
Once you have an idea for your home business and have set it up, you then need to know how to get visitors or traffic to your website. The search engine Google seems to have a monopoly in that area. There are other search engines, like Yahoo and MSN, but for now, Google is king.
But for how long, I wonder? Nothing lasts for ever. Most large businesses start to lose a direction from their original roots with their thirst for expansion and over-expand. That usually makes a business ripe for takeover. A rising business will eventually reach a pinnacle. It can either stay there or meet another rising business on its way down.
What makes Google a lot of money is their ingenious Adwords system. You agree to pay Google a certain amount of money for certain types of keywords connected to your business. Then, when people search Google using your keyword a small ad box will appear, describing your product. If they click on the ad box your website will appear, where you can hopefully sell your product. You will also pay Google the agreed price for people clicking on your ad.
Would it not be fantastic if we could find an idea where we could obtain free ads from Google? A business idea that brings us thousands of visitors to our website from Google for free. Such an idea would save us thousands on ads. It could also make us extremely wealthy.
In 1999 a New York physician did come up with such an idea. Although he was a medical practitioner, he always had a dream of having his own home business. He wanted to work from home selling products instead of having the daily stress of attending to public health problems.
The business idea he brought to the internet originated in the offline business world. It was kept secret for many years by a select few business people, to ensure they made millions from it. What those business people did and still do, was use a simple method to obtain free ads in top class magazines. Ads that would normally have cost their business thousands were obtained free! And 100% legal.
By 2007 this New York physician had amassed a personal fortune of $75million with his free Google ads idea. But he always kept quiet about his free ads system.
Now retired from business, he decided to release his idea in e-book form. You can read how his business idea became a reality by downloading his ebook. It contains 124 pages with step-by-step clear instructions on how to obtain free Google ads.
This is one home business idea that turned into a multimillion dollar empire. The real deal.