In a recent white paper from customer support software provider Parature, customer service guru Shep Hyken identifies what he sees as ten ways to provide great customer service. Here's a quick re-cap:
Customer Service is Common Sense: Let's say that you are taking your car in for some maintenance work. Would it be unreasonable to expect such things as prompt appointments, a nice greeting you when you come in and the garage knowing your car's service history? In other words, common sense. Most of us know what good customer service is. It is intuitive: common sense.
The Golden Employee Rule: Whatever is happening on the inside to the employee is being felt on the outside by the customer. In other words, amazement starts inside. Become an example of the behavior you want employees to exhibit to their customers and their fellow employees.
The Awesome Responsibility: Everyone must recognize that at any given time, they represent the entire company; the name, brand, reputation, building and all of the employees.
Customer Service is Common Sense: Let's say that you are taking your car in for some maintenance work. Would it be unreasonable to expect such things as prompt appointments, a nice greeting you when you come in and the garage knowing your car's service history? In other words, common sense. Most of us know what good customer service is. It is intuitive: common sense.
The Golden Employee Rule: Whatever is happening on the inside to the employee is being felt on the outside by the customer. In other words, amazement starts inside. Become an example of the behavior you want employees to exhibit to their customers and their fellow employees.
The Awesome Responsibility: Everyone must recognize that at any given time, they represent the entire company; the name, brand, reputation, building and all of the employees.
Read more here.
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Yes, there are "possible legal and regulatory changes" related to "the natural tendency of the new network to save messages," according to Carl Weinschenk.
He cites to a recent blog post on eWeek by Salvatore Salamone, which points out that "VoIP voice mail messages are likelier to survive than traditional voice mail messages."
Sure - in the old days, as Weinschenk says, "messages simply were recorded over. Today, each message usually ends up as a .wav file and a backup copy made. Thus, deletion of the original isn't as automatic and, even if it is destroyed, a copy often exists."
In other words, whether you intend to or not, your system does take the message.
Are there responsibilities your companies needs to know about to deal with this? Answer this quick quiz to see if you have all the bases covered already: "Is it OK to delete both the original and backup copies? Does the move to IP mean that more is expected of the company in terms of preserving messages? Are there special requirements under The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act? Sarbanes-Oxley? Other regulations?"
Read more here.
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Harish Kotadia has posted an interesting piece on CustomerThink titled "Social Media: The New Front End of CRM System." Run by the boyishly handsome Bob Thompson, CustomerThink has become quite the source for such thought and opinion pieces recently.
Customer Relationship Management systems "have undergone a fascinating technological transformation over the last decade," Kotadia thinks, "starting as client-server apps, followed by web-enabled CRM apps (where users can access CRM application over the Internet using their Web browsers)."
Yes, that's a lot of technological transformation, as well as "progress in system architecture," Kotadia finds, but notes that "all CRM systems essentially record transactional information using pre-determined fields on the screen (front-end) to capture information in the database, and company is in total control of conversation -- should I say interrogation -- with customer at every stage."
In other words, it doesn't matter how you gussy it up or how flash the technology, CRM is CRM. And Kotadia sees an increasing role for knowledge management in this new landscape.
Read more here.
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Bryan Anderson, founder of Autobase, takes an unusual but highly refreshing and necessary tack in identifying six key personnel roles for lead management to succeed.
"Generally speaking, when the subject of automotive CRM is mentioned, thoughts of computers, software, and technology first come to mind and for good reason," he says: "Strong technology is vital. Yet, while the right technology serves as one wing on the CRM aircraft, we often forget the importance of the second, very necessary wing to make the whole thing fly -- the right people."
Such people's support goes well beyond customer support and lead management, and includes "virtually every member of the partnering company who works with the dealer to define and execute what I call a 'Strategy for Success':"
Project management. CRM touches every part of your business, or at least it should. Every store needs a personal project manager to coordinate the many aspects of installation and deployment, externally and internally.
Read more here.
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Industry observer Savio Rodrigues has written recently that the growing demand for mobile applications "is set to challenge the apprehension that enterprise telephony buyers have toward open source telephony offerings."
He reasons that as IT departments strive to meet new mobile application requirements, "they will play a role in driving open source and cloud telephony adoption within enterprises."
As Rodrigues says, much to the surprise of nobody with experience in larger organizations, "IT and telephony departments are often separate departments, if not fiefdoms, within an enterprise." Needless to say this results in two different views on open source, how it should be used and where.
He's correct when he notes that "open source telephony solutions are not new. However, for enterprise telephony buyers, the risk of any downtime is too great to consider open source alternatives to Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, and other well-established telephony vendors."
Read more here.
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