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Question Nothing: 3 Examples of How to be Average

Posted by Steve Parker, Jr. on February 11th, 2011 at 4:38 pm

Every single day businesses make fundamental errors in judgment when it comes to customer service, providing said service and communicating clearly and constructively with their customers and vendors.
What follows are three examples of how to be just average.

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Branson Puts Texans in Virgin Territory

Posted by Dan Patterson on December 9th, 2010 at 6:47 pm

Reinventing Domestic Air Travel

Last week Virgin America took its inaugural flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to celebrate its expansion into Texas. Will this airline re-invent its industry through above-and-beyond customer experiences?

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Twitter is a symptom. Not a solution.

Posted by Uwe Hook on June 17th, 2010 at 12:33 pm

Unless you live under a rock, you're aware of the myriad of companies using Twitter as one of their customer service channels. @comcastcares, @SouthwestAir, @RichardatDell, @twelpforce - the list is growing by the hour. Many companies are trying to copy these made-for-social-media-conferences-casestudies and squeeze their way into Social Media. They are busy creating Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and other Social Media initiatives, hoping to "listen", "engage" and "converse". But all this listening and conversing doesn't fix the real issue: Your product/service is terrible. And that's where you should focus on: improving your product/service. Not adding more Social Media platforms to your portfolio.
Case in point: Best Buy.
The retailer has received numerous write-ups about their Social Media initiatives, their @twelpforce and @bestbuyCMO have a strong presence on the Social Web and their Facebook  page has more than 1.1 million "likes". Pretty impressive. But, after my last visit to a local Best Buy, I wonder: Are they listening? Or just hearing? Are they improving? Or just reacting? While Best Buy's social presence is impressive, their store experience hasn't changed over the years:

Silos everywhere and requests for help are still being answered with: "I don't work in this department."
The pressure by associates for extended... Read more

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Are you being shamed into Social Media?

Posted by Uwe Hook on May 5th, 2010 at 12:00 am

The Social Web often reminds me of an unruly schoolyard, filled with brand attention bullies complaining about every little problem they encounter with brands: "Company XY, my shuttle is late. Why do you suck so bad?" or "Airline AB, you lost my bag. Never again."Social Media 'celebrities' use their social graph to put pressure on companies to right a perceived wrong. And then there are the laudable examples where people use their creativity to serve a painful blow to the balance sheet of a major brand.            Let's just take the example of a hotel shuttle being late. You might tweet: "Where is the XY shuttle? The AB shuttle seems to be everywhere. Where are you XY?" What does this individual expect from brand XY? The Twitter SWAT team flying with the speed of light to your location, carrying you in a throne to your hotel room? Reality is, the most one can expect is an apology: "We apologize for the delay. We always strive to provide the best...", well you know the rest. Fact is, that's really all a company can say. Things happen. Maybe one driver called in sick. Flat tire. Whatever. You can't... Read more

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Complain Effectively: 6 Steps to Yield Results

Posted by Daniel Flamberg on February 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am

Every so often a favorite brand infuriates you.  That's when brand loyalty and preference is genuinely put to the test. Saving a customer becomes a matter of swift, compassionate and effective customer service operating against the fading memory of previous good brand experiences. 

Banks are leading culprits. On a good day, banks nibble away at your money. Widely perceived as a necessary evil, these days they are drawing major ire by borrowing large sums from the government and crying poor mouth while simultaneously gouging consumers with a slew of fees and charges. Many banks ratcheted up these bogus fees and changed the due dates and the rules for payments and credit cards in anticipation of new laws outlawing the most egregious abuses. Worst of all the outsourced droids on the phone are neither compassionate nor empowered to solve problems. 

This situation has created a new breed of unhappy customers. They now share their angst on social media and bad mouth miscreants online. But while this releases some of the steam, effective complaining is the most effective form of redress. 

Recently my daughter overdrew her account because she didn't really understand the linkages between her savings account and her debit card. She was charged... Read more

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