BNGIowa

What is Customer Service?

Customer service is partly about the buying experience. But the customer service that really reveals the true colors of a company is the complaint experience. Last week, I contacted the a company about some defective solar lights. I called the 800 number and was directed by a recording to leave my call back information. The recording indicated that someone would "call me back shortly." I waited two days, no call. I used their online customer service contact process and left my information again. The form indicated someone would "email me shortly." Nope, no email. I am not a happy customer and will likely not be a repeat customer.

Most companies are realizing that they must train all the employees to provide excellent customer service. A great book that shows how this leads to success and a better world, is The Disney Way, by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson. Check it out, I recommend it for anyone truely interested in your customers.

I am not done with my efforts to contact Brinkmann. Let me know if you have a good idea for my next step.

I'm On LinkedIn--Now What?

I remember when I first found out about LinkedIn.  It was a couple years ago.  I thought "WOW!  I can upload all of my contacts, see if they're on here, invite the ones that aren't, and I'll be on easy street for the rest of my career doing business based 100% on referrals.  I quickly got to 20 connections, got no business after a week, so I quit working it.  Over a year later, I got a request to connect from someone.  I searched through old emails and finally found my login.  I connected to them and then spent an afternoon searching for other people I knew.  I built my network to about 50 people and then left it alone again.  I just couldn't figure out how to make this work for me.  I was connected to 50+ people, the majority of whom had 3-5 connections with one being me.

Then I stumbled across this book called "I'm on LinkedIn--Now What???"  I finally read it a couple weeks ago.  Now, I've not buried my head in the sand when it comes to social media.  I have a blog.  I'm on Twitter, MyBlogLog, MySpace and a few others since I've signed up on just about every networking site that I've been invited to join figuring I'd be able to pick my favorite and then get everyone I was connected to on the other sites to join me.  Wrong!  That's like going to a networking function, meeting someone you like, and then telling them you'll exchange business cards only if they attend this other function you really like that's happening later in the week.  Doesn't make much sense, does it?

So, back to LinkedIn.  Social media is  all about conversations that are happening all around us.  Just like an in-person conversation, you either have something to add or you don't.  On LinkedIn, the conversation is taking place in the 'answers' section.  You can read through questions on a particular topic and, if you can provide a relevant answer or contribute something, then you spend a few minutes taking part in that conversation.  If you have a question, post it and you will get plenty of answers.  The person who asked the question (you or someone else) chooses the best answer.  The more best answers that are credited to you, the greater your online credibility.  The greater your credibility, the more likely it is that people will want to do business with you.  That's it.  No requesting to connect or begging for introductions.  The winner's in social media are those that know how to be a resource to others without worrying about what's in it for them.

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