April 18h, 2009

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:

1. If Your Customers Twitter, Should You?

2. I'm my Own Boss Now. Yay!

3. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

If Your Customers Twitter, Should You?

by Erwin Steneker.

Twitter is a fairly new online social community application, used by over millions of users worldwide (and growing). It's also known as "micro-blogging", sharing what concerns you in 140 characters or less.

With so many people firing away on what makes them happy or sad, your customers maybe tweeting (= posting on Twitter) about you, your company, or brand. Are they saying good things or bad things, are they happy with your products? or confused? or disgruntled?

Getting curious already?

You should be. If your customers are out there talking, and you can listen to them... never miss that opportunity! In fact, you should try to talk to your customers as often as possible, as they can tell you what you do right, and what you do wrong.

Twitter is just an ongoing worldwide conversation, and you have the opportunity to listen in on what they say (if you cannot restrain yourself, then do a search on Twitter right now: search.twitter.com. Don't forget to come back here!).

If they're saying really great things about your product or business, it's great for morale. And if they're saying bad things... well, there's even better things you can do with that:

1. Learn from what customers don't like. Change it. Make happy customers. Get more customers.
2. Make right what went wrong. It's my experience that when you apply a helpful attitude, it often turns a disgruntled customer into a loyal fan.
3. Set the records straight. Sometimes, people don't play very nice. A competitor may spread some bad rumors in an attempt to hurt your brand. Some customer go all out on a minor nuisance, and try to paint you black... if you know they are spreading mis-information, you have the opportunity to share your side of the story.

But it's hard to get to the point in less than 140 characters.

But if your customers are twittering, you should keep an open eye on yet another channel where you can be talked about. Even more a reason why you should make and keep happy customers by providing great customer service!

Twitter should most definitely be on your list of channels to check out on a regular basis.

Using Twitter as a help desk channel is a whole different ballgame. As a matter of fact, it's a challenge to handle lots of different channels your customers can use... if you have a physical store, they can come to see you. Or they can call you. Or Skype you. Or send an e-mail. Or use a form on your web site to start a help desk ticket. Maybe they can even have a live chat. And now Twitter.

How do you keep track of it all? That's a real challenge!

It can actually be too much to handle. Especially if you're just a small operation. Even with just a few channels to handle (phone & Internet) I could notice that either one or the other would be given precedence. Not good. On each end of each channel is a customer, and often you can't determine which one to give priority.

But I can't tell you to focus on just a few channels, and do those very well. Because it would ignore an important truth:

In this day and age, a customer is a multi-channel customer. They expect us to make it easy for them to contact us. And so we should. But Twitter, with its 140 character limitation, doesn't lend itself well to get to the bottom of serious customer service issues.

Simple questions, that can be answered by sending folks to a page on your site: Twitter's great for that. Serious issues that arise? Try to get the customer into an e-mail conversation (managed by a help desk application or not) as soon as possible.

But don't ignore Twitter. People are talking, you know...

And you'd better listen!

Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/CustomerLover

I'm my Own Boss Now. Yay!

Have you ever had an itch that needed to be scratched? Sure you have!

My itch was being my own boss. As you may have noticed, I have very strong ideas and vision on how business should treat its customers. Unfortunately, many managers only have eyes for short-term gains, mainly motivated by KPI's and bonuses.

Yes, the same attitude that got the world in this mess called 'Credit Crisis'. :-(

High time my itch was scratched. So as of March 1 this year I started my own consultancy firm, gave my notice, and now I'm officially my own boss. It's amazing really, because I used to believe that 'being my own boss' was not in my future.

Running Customer Service Point has been instrumental in changing my beliefs. In the 5 years of its existence, I've learned so much about what goes into running a business, that I started to see myself as an entrepeneur.

And I have to credit Site Build It! (the tools and method I use to create and maintain the site) for it. Ken Evoy (owner of the company that provides Site Build It!, Sitesell) has created nothing less than an MBA in a box. I've learned so much about what goes into establishing a successful online business (not 'just' building a site), that I finally could see myself as a free man.

Now I am, and it feels goooooooood! :-D

That's why I'm equally excited that Site Build It! has evolved from purely 'Do It Yourself' into 'Learn and Do'. Site Build It! is now offered as an e-learning course, where you can start your own online business by learning the ropes from an experienced SBI-teacher, and doing the necessary steps every week as homework (it won't feel as homework, I promise). When you're stuck, there's your teacher you can ask questions.

At the end of the 12 weeks, you'll have a web site that is perfectly positioned to take the Internet by storm, and you will have all the necessary skills needed to keep it going and growing.

If you ever felt that you could do more, be more... you won't regret taking this online course. It could change your life.

Read more about Site Build It! Elearning

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Back to the old newsletter design...
As you may have noticed, the PDF version of the newsletter is gone. The most important reason was that I received quite a lot of feedback that subscribers didn't like the fact that they needed to open another application for reading the newsletter. Yes, it looked great. But I cannot ignore this.

So, from now on, Customer Servings is back in its original layout. Thank you so much for your frank feedback.

Special Request:
If you like Customer Servings, and know somebody that would benefit from the articles I write, why not click the "Forward" button and send it to that person? Note: do remove the "unsubscribe" links at the bottom before sending... we had some reports of people being unsubscribed by folks they send their e-mail to!

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Customer Servings is the newsletter for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service. The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals.

Customer Servings is for you! If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please contact us. We welcome your remarks!

(C) 2009, Erwin & Marjan Steneker You may use original articles in Customer Servings, if you attach the following bio (including the link): Erwin & Marjan Steneker are passionate about good customer service, check out their website at http://www.customerservicepoint.com/