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Showing posts from June, 2012

Invitation to contribute to Great Customer Service - Manifesto

Dear friends of Great Customer Service! Daily we are reading horror stories about the state of customer services. Especially these negative experiences attract a large audience.  This has been going on for many years now, but it has catapulted since social media enabled this. We, professionals who are passionate about great customer service, cannot tolerate this any longer. We want to take a stand for great service and show companies the huge benefits of providing awesome service. Therefor we first want to co-create a manifesto, which will highlight the need and the approach for great customer service. Together we will then make sure that this manifesto gets huge public attention. Hopefully we will then collectively work on the transformation of customer service. We invite you to contribute to this manifesto. Please send your email details to Jorge Barba ( jorgea.barba@gmail.com ) and/or to Arnold Beekes ( arnold@theproperway.com ). We will use Google Docs to

Personal qualities are key for innovation

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Almost all emphasize is placed on which business and professional skills are needed to successfully innovate. Examples are: communication, teamwork, idea generation, project management etc. These skills are obviously needed, but if ONLY they are there, the impact of the innovation will be very low. Why? Because the real success is dependent on the way people – your bosses/customers/partners/prospects – perceive and experience the innovation. And of course branding can also do a lot, but still the result is to a very large degree determined by your personal qualities. Which energy are you and your employees putting out there in the world. What are the vibrations which you will send out? Those energies and vibrations reflect who you really ARE and what you really MEAN. Do you really believe in the benefits of using your products and or services? Have you experienced your own offerings? This means that it is critical to pay attention to these personal qualiti

Innovation and convergence

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The saying is: where your attention goes, energy flows and where energy flows, things grow. As an example, my mother did buy recently a Renault Clio and what I am continuously seeing in the traffic now are Renault Clio’s. There were there before, but I just didn’t pay any attention. Now, my attention is attracted to ‘convergence’ and thus I am continuously see lots of articles about it. What does convergence actually mean? Here is a definition: convergence |kənˈvərjəns| the process or state of converging: the convergence of lines in the distance. • Biology the tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve superficially similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions. • (also convergence zone )a location where airflows or ocean currents meet, characteristically marked by upwelling (of air) or downwelling (of water). The way I look at it is that it becomes clear to many more people that events (global warming; financial crisis;

INNOVATION AND EURO2012

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A lot of media attention is focused on this huge event, which is both business and entertainment. Clearly football is a billion dollar business. This large business reflects the same behavior as other large companies, i.e. -        A lack of innovation and -        A lack of courageous leadership Lack of innovation The rules by which football is played are already the same for decades (except some minor changes). However, a change in the rules can make the game much more attractive. Think about abolishing offside. This will improve the customer experience a lot, because there is much more speed and there will be (much) more goals. A much smaller sport like (field) hockey has abolished offside some years ago and the number of goals scored per math increased significantly. Scores like 7-3 or 6-5 are no exception. Also there is much more action and no sleep inducing passing anymore. In international hockey games there is the use of technology, like the

Customer Service is business-philosophy, not (only) a department

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There is in essence not much happening in the field of customer service. Okay, there are almost daily articles and researches published. The content is mostly the same, i.e. customers demand better service and are even willing to pay for that better service. Some companies provide sites and/or apps to facilitate the complaining process and to give more voice to the individual. There are still only a few companies who have made awesome customer service their basic business-philosophy, like Zappos ( do you know any new examples??). I think the main reason is that companies see customer service still as only a department, a department that does not generate revenue and only costs money. That is still the prevailing, limited view. If that view remains then the focus on cost-saving will not disappear. And the quality of the provided service will diminish even further. The only way to – structurally- improve the customer service experience is to make it a part