Response time

How quickly do you respond to your customers? Right away? As soon as possible?Not at all? Many businesses lose sight of the importance of responding, and responding in a timely manner. The worst case in response time is no response. If a business does not reply or acknowledge customer contact, it most certainly will have [...]

Bad service equals lost revenue

We have discussed this before on Regard ARMA: giving bad customer service has a cost. We know it turns away customers, and makes them not buy from a company again. Further, it has the added “bonus” of spreading negative feedback about the company.  One customer has many associates (business partners, friends, family). So the damage [...]

Is retail customer service getting worse?

There are different types of customer service.  ARMA, for instance, is involved in a business-to-business customer service, where we strive to make sure our clients are getting the support they need, so that they in turn can serve their customers. Most people are exposed to business-to-consumer customer service.  As we have discussed here before, this [...]

Cost and customer service

How much does it cost to provide service to your customers?  Actually, the answer is it depends. It certainly costs time, and effort. But does it cost money?  Again, it varies. Big organizations have customer service departments, with hundreds of employees set to assist customers. These departments cost lots of money to maintain, but as [...]

Daily practice

Customer service is akin to exercise, the more you do it the better it is for you (and for your customer). And, as David Evans, chairman of the Grass Roots group, says, customer service should be practiced every day. Evans, who is interviewed in the article Customer Service to be Practiced Every Day, in the [...]

How do you treat your guests?

Social media expert Chris Brogan has written a very insightful post on his chrisbrogan.com blog, and it has to do with customer service. Brogan normally writes about marketing,  business and social media, but this time he writes about customer service and how it should be renamed guest experience: Disney, where I am this week, has [...]

Saying it nicely

Given a choice in customer service help, would people choose someone that is pleasant or someone that is not pleasant, all other issues being equal? The answer is a no-brainer. Most people choose to do business with people who are pleasant. Of course, if someone is pleasant but inefficient or incompetent, we’d rather put up [...]

Does cost correlate to service?

If you are paying more, do you get better service? Some would expect so, and that is what is worth underlining.  Higher cost or price point may translate into a higher expectation of service. Conversely, a lower cost or price point may create a lowered expectation of service. Let’s look at the airlines. When you [...]