Customer service errors are everywhere, but avoid these two big ones! Here’s an example of one: This past Sunday, The Haggler, David Segal “Halving the Portion, but Not the Price.” New York Times, June 23, 2013, wrote about how companies protect their profits by reducing package volume while charging the Read more…
Since 2011, Interaction Metrics has been benchmarking the national quality of customer service. We call this our Quality of Customer Interaction (QCI™) Score. As of June 21, 2013, the score is 52 out of 100; in other words, customer service gets a failing grade. Read about our methodology here. Other Read more…
Bad customer service: we’ve all had it, but why does it happen? In yesterday’s The Haggler (David Segal. Jun. 9, 2013. New York Times), David Segal praises Quicken Loans’ great customer service, which he attributes to their superior corporate culture. We don’t doubt that Quicken Loans provides great service (in Read more…
There is a wide variety of customer feedback tools are your disposition. But how do you know which ones to use? Finding out how your customers feel about you, i.e. collecting customer feedback drives most customer experience improvement; after all, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” So what about social Read more…
Branded customer service is an important aspect of customer retention. When you think about branding you may think about logos, billboards and ads—mostly directed at enticing new customers. But customer acquisition is expensive, and while you are busy attracting new consumers, your current customers could be slipping out the back Read more…
David Segal’s “The Haggler” column in the 2/12/12 edition of The New York Times covered a few horror stories about U.P.S., all of which had one thing in common: a customer’s package was lost, and U.P.S.’s customer service was useless. The haggler conservatively estimated that if U.P.S. is truly exceptional Read more…
Customer service boils down to a simple give and take: customers have questions or problems and companies provide answers. It’s pretty straightforward. But all too often, customers are left befuddled, scratching their heads and wondering: “What did they mean? Were they listening? What do I do now?” Transparency and authenticity are Read more…
Email and chat are key customer service channels. But too many companies think that providing customer service by email and chat simply means sending responses in a timely manner, although that’s a good start. It’s time for companies to step up and provide real answers to customers’ questions, answers that Read more…