Clik here to view.
Offshoring telesales reduces close rates – why?
I’ve heard from several friends in call center operations that outsourcing inbound telesales to the Philippines has resulted in close rates below expectations. In at least one case that I know of, a...
View ArticleCustomers Are Talking: In Praise of “Customer-Oriented Defiance”
Behind many great customer-service stories is a front-line person who went outside standard operating procedure to solve a customer problem. Now this practice has its own name: Customer-Oriented...
View ArticleFront-line nurses discover small process innovations can cure medication...
Bob Sutton posted on this San Francisco Chronicle article today, but it had so much good stuff relating to areas I’m passionate about that I need to write about it too. The article concerns an effort...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The tyranny of the dashboard
I frankly am beginning to feel that I’m shouting into a void here. Companies are spending more time and money equipping the CEO and team with information, while starving the thousands of ground-level...
View ArticleCustomers are talking: HBR says customer service is a strategic function
The Jan-Feb HBR features the article “Rethinking Marketing,” by Roland Rust, Christine Moorman and Gaurav Bhalla. In it, the authors argue that B2C companies need to adopt strategies that put the...
View ArticleWhen competitors are everywhere, customer service is the ticket
I’m on the road a lot these days, and so I meet a lot of bartenders. Last night, the bartender who served me dinner said she’d been working in restaurants for eight years, but was studying to be an...
View ArticleA big f***ing deal in customer service (hat tip to Joe Biden)
I heard a remarkable conversation recently. A woman, whom I pictured to be in her 50s, was talking to a help line to solve a problem she was having with her internet service. The very polite support...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The customer’s journey
I might have had my last haircut at my long-time salon. I’ve been a customer as long as they’ve been open, but based on what happened on my last visit that may change. It was my fault, of course. I was...
View ArticleThe graph is nice, but what are you hearing?
I’ve been working with a client company and looking deeply into their customer calls to find patterns around why people call, how CSRs handle calls, and what issues customers are having with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A moment of truth
Moment of truth (1932) 1 : the final sword thrust in a bullfight 2 : a moment of crisis on whose outcome much or everything depends (source: Merriam-Webster online) Marketers have been using the above...
View Article
