Customer testimonials are a necessary part of your marketing strategy, but getting them can be daunting. A good place to start is choosing a dialogue.
2 min read
3 Reasons Calling Customer Support is Still Better than Using the Chat Feature
If you’re like me, you hate contacting customer support – I’ll try anything I can think of to fix the problem before forcing myself to contact customer support. The few times I need to, I wish it could be an easy process, but it just isn’t. Everything a company does should revolve around providing a positive customer experience, but sometimes the customer support doesn’t meet those expectations.
Topics:
Customer Service
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2 min read
None of My Customers Use Social Media
I must hear this 5 times a week. Let me tell you – you are wrong. Maybe the guy signing the check for your product or service doesn’t use a social channel, but his team that is doing the research, reference checking and overall selection filtering are. Guaranteed.
Millennials – Those folks born in the 1980’s came of age connected with the internet and social media. They are in their 30’s now and hold positions of real responsibility. They are the most educated generation ever and they feed on organic trust. The kind you can’t build with advertising. They crowd-source information – reviews, feedback, ideas – and if your product or service is up to par, or they can’t find good things written about by peers, you pretty much don’t exist.
1 min read
Marketing Wanted
There’s a song by Hunter Hayes called “Wanted” – you can watch the video here – and it was really strange because the last time I listened to it, it made me think of marketing.
It’s not about marketing, as you’d probably guess. It’s a love song, and Hunter Hayes wants to make his girl feel … well, wanted.
Topics:
Customer Service
customer experience
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5 min read
Creating Differentiation with Simply Excellent Customer Service
I had to write this post about my recent experience with the folks at Southtree. I was introduced to this company through a groupon. The offer was for $250 in video transfer services for $75, and I, like a lot of folks, have tons of old video and old pictures that I’d like to be able to use on my computer.
But transferring video to digital is a painfully slow process. And for some forms (like slides), you have to have the right equipment. So I figured this was a good opportunity to get some of the work done.
So I cashed in my groupon and boxed up my tapes according to their instructions, and sent them off. Now, trusting the postal service with your only copy of a memory is a little nerve wracking. Yes, they usually deliver, but you never know. So I was quite relieved when I got this message two days later:
DELIVERED
Hello, the team here at Southtree wanted to let you know your memories were delivered safely to our secure processing studio. We know these are very important so we keep every order under lock and key. Our studio is equipped with the latest surveillance, firesafe walls, and security systems.”
Nice! They had anticipated my anxiety, and relieved it immediately. Our relationship was off to a great start. But I sent 19 tapes and 61 slides. Would I get my stuff back? How do they keep track of all those little pieces? Then
2 min read
Kmart's Advertising vs Marketing
Kmart has done it yet again with an awesome commercial that makes me like the company just a bit more.
Topics:
strategy
Customer Service
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3 min read
What is the total experience you are waiting for?
It's a service economy. Or, it’s an experience economy. You’ve heard one of those before, right? Actually, if you own or run a professional practice (MD, Attorney, eye care, CPA, Physical Therapy, etc.), it’s both. You are providing a service and it is the result of the service and the experience around the service that counts.
Let me tell you about my recent dental experience. Wait you are saying – no one likes to hear about the dentist. It is never a good story. Well this one is, and it is illustrative of what I said above.
3 min read
Five Ways to Use Testimonials to Generate Leads
Testimonials from your clients (or partners) are traditionally used in the sales process to help a prospect develop trust. Trust that you or your product does what you say it does. What many businesses miss however, is the opportunity to use their customer testimonials to generate new inquiries and leads.
Topics:
Lead Generation
Public Relations - PR
Testimonials
video
Customer Service
Linked-In
Marketing
Social media
Sales
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2 min read
Train and equip your sales team – PLEASE
I need to rant for a minute on the sales calls I keep getting from companies that have not spent the time or money to properly equip the people they have selling for them.
2 min read
Train and equip your sales team – PLEASE
I need to rant for a minute on the sales calls I keep getting from companies that have not spent the time or money to properly equip the people they have selling for them.
