Comments on: Customer Service Leadership? Press 1 for Yes…

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:06:00 +0000

Mike – Thanks for the great feedback. I know exactly what you mean by the “World Class 24/7 Customer Service” tag. I ran into a firm a short while back that used the explanation “our hotline automatically forwards to an on-call member of our development team during nights or weekends when customer service isn’t on duty” to back up their World Class claim. Better yet, when I called in after hours to test the system (3 times), I got voice-mail all 3 times (and one of the guys didn’t even identify his name or the name of the company: “I’m not here now, please leave a message”).

I’m glad to hear that there are still people out there who value Customer Service as a critical component of the vendor/client value chain.

Thanks again for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Fred

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:05:00 +0000

I’m glad to hear that there are still people out there who value Customer Service as a critical component of the vendor/client value chain.

Thanks again for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Fred

By: Mike Massey

Mike Massey — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Fred, I’ll stamp this whole article with an AMEN! Sometimes in my first consulting meeting with a potential new client, I’ll ask them to tell me more (details please) about their service organization. I rarely see a corporate pitch without the obligatory “World Class 24/7 Customer Service” bullet somewhere in the slides, and still find myself shocked that this is the extent that many of them have thought this through.

One of the companies I’ve worked with this year stands out positively in this area, and likewise I find their customers are also nice to work with. If your customers are out there singing your praises without being asked, and they say things like “All others compete for #2 against XYZ Company”, you’re winning the game. I won’t work with a company that wants to talk a mean game, but not actually back it up.

Mike

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:09:00 +0000

Theresa – Thank you for your comments. Tony’s approach of maximizing the customer experience is a great approach, but at the same time you can’t survive without some level of proactive marketing & sales (there is always a balance). Even if you can get your own customers to be your own best advocate, you still have to address marketing issues such as corporate branding, product visibility, etc.

My philosophy has always been to fold the customer support into as many groups with a company as possible, and yes, that sometimes means taking a slice of marketing, sales, engineering (etc.) money and focusing it on enhancing the customer “experience”. I’ve used this for both my clients as well as my own companies (the best way to learn is by doing it yourself).

On a related note, one of the issues that I think many firms also need to address today is Supplier Support. We often take such a forward looking posture that we forget about the source of our own materials, and I can tell you from experience that a disruption to your own supply chain can be a living hell. This includes, btw, both component suppliers as well as intellectual property providers (especially in the consulting/advisory/financial markets where information is a commodity that is bought and resold on a daily/hourly basis). Perhaps there is a future post in the making here…

Again, thank you for your comments – see you in the stream.

Fred

By: Theresa Smith

Theresa Smith — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:44:00 +0000

2010 for me has been the year about Customer Service. Who gets it and who doesn’t. So your take –Good customer service – industry leading customer service – involves all aspects of a company–is one I completely agree with. Zappos’ CEO Tony Hseih’s mantra at Zappos is “Wow. How do we wow our customers and our vendors?” And to Tony that means taking the money that they would spend on advertising and folding it into customer service, because, “we just want to be about customer service and maximizing the customer experience.”

So, I guess the characteristic from the Zappos experience is how is your company delivering the “wow” factor to its customers and vendors?

By: Tweets that mention Customer Service Leadership? Press 1 for Yes... « fredmcclimans.com -- Topsy.com

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:38:28 +0000

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By: what lies at the core of good customer service? | Margie's Library of Marketing Musings and Morsels

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:50:28 +0000

[…] you think about this issue, take a look at this amazing post by Fred McClimans analyzing the qualities of leadership that good customer service requires. Who embodies those characteristics? Who is our role […]