The Timeshare Bubble Bust
It’s like falling in and out of love. At first, you get starry eyed with all the promises. Then you fall deeper into the idea once you start using your property. Everything seems to work out as you imagined it to be, until a series of unfortunate events begins to happen one after another. Now, you regret having allowed yourself to go for the ride in the first place.
The first blow comes with the rising mainte
How Music Saved a CSR
The other day, I was on the phone with a very intractable customer. The point of contention was that it would take at least 7 days to fix her issue (because a tech team needed to visit her address) whereas she wanted it fixed NOW. No amount of rebates, promises or even offers of a Sears coupon or gift card could sway her.
All this time, I could hear music in the background. Not knowing what else to say, I asked,
The Price of Patience
Tuesday was the day I had to renew my driver’s license. And as everyone who lives in Connecticut knows, the state has this new SelectCT program going on, where you have to show “historic proof” of your identity through an original birth certificate or passport AND your social security card.
So off I went to Line 1 to get the application forms. Line 2 was where you dropped the forms.
Oh so there
Customer Service Requests, From Customers
One of the most perplexing tendencies in business is for people involved in it to forget that they, too, are customers. This leads to a tendency to view the target market as fat wallets to be milked at a rate that is sustainable only in the sense that the customer can still pay for basic needs once they’ve bought what the company has on offer. Obviously, people don’t like being seen this way and would a
3 Simple Things That Online Customers Will Appreciate
They say that web-based customers are the easiest kind of clients. For one, interaction is kept to a minimum. If your online sales process is working as it should be, then there’s no need for a sales rep or even any living, breathing staff to process the orders. Two, there’s no need to cater to them while they make their purchase decisions: no need to lock for stocks, recommend other products, or help t
When Your Software Really, Really Has To Be Right
From the “This Shouldn’t Happen To Anyone” department: Earlier this year a Swiss national by the name of Behar Merlaku was visiting a small casino in the small Austrian town of Bregenz. There is no data on whether or not the 26 year old Merlaku is a serious gambler, but I am sure that surprise and delight will not begin to describe his feelings when the slot machine he was playing began ringing an
I Want Simplicity
The world is being saturated by various media, all pushing information that a customer might not want. Even a simple product jingle for kids is packed with information. Unfortunately, the customer has to work with this information if he or she wants to get by, whether it is searching the home shopping channels for the perfect brand of kitchen appliance or going toe to toe with insurance companies on misleading
The Importance of a Good Website Layout
So you finally have a snazzy website, one to reach out to customers in this increasingly net-driven world. You’ve got a great logo, sharp graphics and compelling content. You even have a cool Flash animation on the homepage to impress the most jaded online visitor.
And yet, all that effort didn’t translate to higher sales figures. Sure, you got customers than when you didn’t have an upgraded domai
Building a Prospective Business
A business has all the key components that should make an individual successful, and that all business owners look forward to success. However, a harder pill to swallow is that a “business” takes more work to manage than ever realized! What happened to the learning phase that taught most business owners how to become successful?
The answer is impartial; one that the information never has changed, and two, the i
What the Online Customer Wants
If you had to decide what type of customers to serve, you would probably select the ones that are bringing in the most profit for you. In the modern day, this means that you would be selecting the customers that you have on the internet. These are the ones that are going to be the most active customers available to you. At the same time, they are going to be the ones that are the most likely to spread the word abou
