Customer Service:
It's Not Just a Department, It's An Experience - October 2011
Welcome to the October 2011 issue of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience." I've been so busy talking to many of you about your customer service experiences, I almost forgot to send out this month's newsletter!
You'd be surprised how many calls and e-mails I receive each month from people wanting to tell me about the experiences they are having as a customer. I've been told that I'm often the first person they think of when they've had a bad experience.
So if YOU are talking about YOUR experiences, it stands to reason that YOUR customers are talking about THEIR experiences with YOU. Yikes. Are you worried about what they are saying? You would be if you heard some of the stories I'm hearing!
Welcome to our many new subscribers and new clients. Our goal is to help you improve the experience you are providing to your customers, increase customer retention and generate additional revenue through cross-selling, up-selling and referrals.
Enjoy this month's newsletter!
In This Issue:
Will You Be a Johnny Today? | From the Mouths of Customers | They Made Me Say "WOW"!
Will You Be a Johnny Today?
This question won't mean anything to you if you haven't seen the video "The Simple Truths of Service" inspired by the story of Johnny the Bagger.
It will mean A LOT to you after you have seen the video.
Oh, and have some tissues handy when you watch it. It's less than 4 minutes long yet has a powerful message.
Watch it, make all of your employees watch it, and then have a discussion about it. I promise you it will change the way you are servicing your customers.
Watch the video here!
From the Mouths of Customers (Maybe Even Yours!)
Horrible!
They called me a liar!
They told me they would call me back last week. I'm still waiting!
Why did they show up at 3pm when I had a 2pm appointment?
NEVER AGAIN!!! I would never recommend them to anyone! The women answering the phones are not only RUDE but very unprofessional.
Employees at the desk and answering phones are discourteous and down and outright nasty. Save yourself the trouble. Spend your money elsewhere!!!!!
Trust me save your time and $$$ and go elsewhere. I wish that someone had given us that advice!
They have THE worst customer service. I have no plans to ever use them again.
Folks, I can't make this stuff up. This is what customers are saying about experiences they are having with companies. If they're telling me, you can bet they're telling others as well.
What are you doing to ensure that these are not the kind of things YOUR customers are saying?
They Made Me Say "WOW"!
And if you know me, you know that doesn't happen too often!
On Saturday night, my boyfriend and I went to a new wine bar that opened up near our place in the Hudson Valley. I had read some reviews about the wine bar on Yelp.com before we went. The reviews were very good so I was expecting to have a good experience. What I had was a great experience.
When we walked in, the bar area was very crowded. We were immediately greeted by a young woman who introduced herself and asked us our names. She asked if we had been there before and we told her it was our first time. She told us she would find us a place to sit and then led us to two cozy chairs and proceeded to ask us what kind of wine we typically drank. She said if we gave her an idea of what we liked, she would bring us samples of wines she thought we would enjoy. She told us we could try as many as we wanted until we found one we liked. That didn't take long! We were pleasantly surprised by her recommendations.
A few minutes later, she came over with a complimentary platter with some snacks. While we were enjoying our wine, the owner came over, introduced herself to us and proceeded to chat with us for a few minutes. It was obvious that she knew just about everyone there (and there were at least 75 people there!).
The young woman who greeted us came by to check on us several times and chatted with us about the wine bar. She made us feel like we were VIPs.
At the end of the evening as we were getting ready to leave, the owner came over, thanked us for coming and told us she hoped we would come back (and she meant it!). She was there to serve her customers and she did it quite well. We'll be back and we'll probably bring our friends with us!
That kind of experinece doesn't happen too often. When it does, and it seems so natural, it makes you wonder why we don't have that kind of experience all the time!
Where's Randi?
I have many speaking engagements scheduled over the next several weeks.
If you'd like to attend a presentation, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the details!
Wednesday, 10/12
NY Oil Heating Association
Queens, NY
Tuesday, 10/18
Fuel Merchants Association of NJ
Wednesday, 10/19
NARI
Delchester, PA
Thursday, 10/20
NARI
Columbus, OH
Thursday, 10/27
Fair Media Council Day
Woodbury, NY
Thursday, 11/3
KIOLI Business Summit
New Hyde Park, NY
In Conclusion...
Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience". It is our hope that you not only get the customer or client, but that you also hold onto them! If you have clients, colleagues or friends who wants to hold on to their customers too, do them a favor and forward them this newsletter.
Until next time, take good care of your customers, or someone else will! See you next month!
Sincerely,
Randi Busse
Call us today to set up a free consultation:631-598-5598
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