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Category: Competitive Advantage

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Apr 2 2010

Are People The Biggest Impediment to Customer Service?

Online retailers Overstock.com, Zappos.com, and Amazon.com came in 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th in the 2009 NRF Foundation/American Express Customers' Choice survey, right behind 1^st place winner L.L. Bean, the catalog-retailing giant. Television shopping channel QVC came in fifth, which means that none of the top five retailers in this customer service survey is known for face-to-face service.

4 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 4:29 PM

Feb 25 2010

Customer Service Hero: Trader Joe's

When was the last time an anonymous customer wrote a song and produced a music video praising your company? This YouTube video, called "If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's," has been viewed over half a million times.

4 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:17 PM

Feb 12 2010

Bad Service Creates Opportunity

One might think that widespread, credible, instantaneous communication puts a lot of power into consumer's hands, and it does, but one would also have to wonder why bad customer service is still so prevalent.

4 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 5:53 PM

Feb 6 2010

The Eye of the Master

Clearly, Mama D's is a family restaurant in more ways than one, and there are two points that reveal how the business embeds exceptional customer service in its culture. First of all, the owners recognize that inviting you into their business is the same thing as inviting you into their home, so they take pride in treating you like an honored guest. The reference to a "wonderful and memorable experience" shows that Mama D understands she is not in the food business, but in the hospitality business. People can go many places for a plate of food - Mama D promises much more, and her coworkers know exactly what has been promised. As the menu says, "We are here to please you!"

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 5:09 PM

Jan 27 2010

Customer Service Heroes: Zappos

Last May, I wrote about Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh and his devotion to coworker and customer happiness. In July, Amazon acquired the online shoe retailer.

Zappos' success seems to be the payoff for a very big gamble on customer service. In the shoe business, customer satisfaction depends on fit - physical and stylistic - so Zappos goes out of its way to ensure customers get exactly what they want. The company's phone representatives actively encourage callers to order products just to try them on, because Zappos offers free return shipping for a FULL YEAR.

9 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 10:49 PM

Jan 25 2010

Customer Service Heroes: Abraham Lincoln

Contrary to our images of pastoral innocence, the America of Lincoln's youth was a brutish place, and business was governed by the maxim caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. This is why country folk considered Lincoln's honesty exceptional. Lincoln saw that the foundation of good business practices is a devotion to fairness. And the responsibility for fairness rests on the shoulders of the business, not the customer. As Lincoln's honesty became the stuff of legend, it set the standard for ethical business behavior.

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:35 PM

Dec 16 2009

Customer Service Heroes: UPS Driver Daryl Hansen

Few companies live to the ripe old age of 100, and fewer still are more vibrant at 102 than at any other time in their history. United Parcel Service (UPS) was founded by a couple of teenagers as the American Messenger Company in 1907. This week, two events helped me understand why the company is going strong in 2009.

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:08 PM

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