Chicago Sun Times
September 17, 2009 by Yuval Brisker
Chicago Sun Times ran a good short story covering the TOA Cost of Waiting Survey announcement.
Archive for the ‘Customer Interaction Management’ Category
Another Nightmare Waiting Story…
August 31, 2009 by Yuval Brisker
Every time I go to a place where people don’t know me or what I do – and then find out… I am always inundated with “waiting” stories: people who want to tell me about their nightmare “waiting at home for something or someone to arrive and deliver something or do something” stories. It’s amazing how this is subject gets people talking. If you give people an opening – and by the very nature of what we do, I do – they can recount their horror stories to the minutest detail.
It’s always interest to me as someone who thinks about innovation in customer service…why this particular event… waiting for the cable guy, waiting for the gas person, waiting for the furniture or air-conditioner to be delivered… why this is so memorable to the finest details and gets people talking…
My conclusion: The combination of the loss of control and a sense of helplessness which is all translated into a loss of freedom.
I call this the ‘Cog in the Machine Syndrome”
In these situations, when there is nothing you can say or do that can affect a positive change for you. You have to relinquish your time, your freedom; and become part of “The Machine” it’s a rude reminder that maybe you are not as unique as you feel and think. That you are just one of the Billions.
That sense – whether or not you are being treated as a unique individual; whether your being processed as just another account number… that sense is the defining emotion in the customer perception of terrible, good or great customer service.
A smile, an extra courtesy call, a little token of appreciation sent to you via email (and if it’s tailored to you as an individual, how revolutionary) that all goes a long way. The long wait window with no recourse – death by service. Service and Goods providers – you may choose to violate this sensitivity. But you do it at your own risk.
At the end the brand can either rise or fall on this issue alone.
Wasting your time…
August 27, 2009 by Yuval Brisker
Laurie Brown wrote a great piece in the Examiner about the problem that TOA solves (with a few excerpts from an interview she conducted with me.
Customer Service Gets SaaSy!
August 11, 2009 by Yuval Brisker
“As products commoditize, the world becomes flatter, prices go down, what’s left? Well, it’s how we take care of our customers. Companies are wrestling with how do they match constrained budgets with this need to increase customer satisfaction.
“We’re finding that consumers want choice in how they contact a company. All the avenues have to be open, whether it’s chat or e-mail or phone. In fact, consumers are differentiating less. They might start an interaction via e-mail and then escalate to a phone. So companies need systems in place”
The idea of a flatter world means that customer service differentiation strategy and execution is going places never before seen by a CRM system … (This is good news for the consumer).
And, at the end of the day, like mobile computing and communications, there is a sense of impending ubiquity in the world of enhanced customer service powered by on-demand software. Let’s face it — now that we have SaaS that can provide companies of any size with a solution for enhanced customer service – what makes the big guys stand out from the small guys? And vice-versa? Customer Focus and Choice.
Customers expect and should get both.
