What To Do When Customer Service Fails

Most companies care about their customers.  Without them a business is “out of business.” The motive to care is really related to survival. Mo matter how hard you try to please 100% of your customers it is not always possible.  What does your company do when caring isn’t enough?

A recent survey placed Comcast customer service near the bottom of the list. Many online stories cover at least one side of the story when it comes to the wrong way to do customer service. Not all customers are created equal, but they are all people and should be treated as such. Some customers spend more, some spend less. Others don’t spend at all. But alienating a customer based on any type of disconnect – be it looks, communication, or any other factor – is a huge customer service fail.

The first principle of creating customer loyalty is “Be the Customer.” “Walk in the customer’s shoes” is common sense insight, but certainly not common practice at some companies. Should “People over Profit” be the core value at your business, given the customer’s emotional toll from a catastrophic event, companies certainly should be more empathetic.

A company could use an event to build brand loyalty by telling its customers they were waiving the cost of any lost any lost unit. Instead it only reinforced the collective customer perception that some companies are the worst at customer service.

What is it with cable providers and their customer service? Another horror story, recounted by Time, comes from former Engadget editor-in-chief, Ryan Block who was given a rough ride by a “customer retention specialist” when he called to cancel his contract with Comcast.

As the recording of the call (or at least, an eight-minute snippet of it) proves, sometimes an agent needs to know when to give up.

In a painstaking call that often feels like a political debate rather than a customer service query, Ryan asks multiple times if it’s possible to arrange to cancel the service over the phone and the unrelenting agent continually refuses to supply an answer, instead coming back with questions asking why he wants to disconnect.

Ryan eventually managed to get disconnected, but the impact on Comcast’s reputation suffered a big blow, and the company was forced to issue a statement outlining its embarrassment at the way the customer was spoken to. The Comcast cancellation story is notorious for the agent’s over aggressiveness.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Choose The Right IT Service Management Software

Is your company or your business in search of IT Service Management Software to help with your internal and external IT management?

SMART Service Desk is a robust and highly flexible IT Service Management (ITSM) application, built on ITIL best practices that help customers and users meet the dynamic needs of a growing business and achieve the highest level of service quality, delivery and performance. We offer the best location or cloud based experience you’ll find in the industry.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, SMART Service Desk Software, is a vendor for ITIL Best Practice & ISO 20000 Standards Service management (ITSM) Solutions, Service Desk, CRM, EAM and support software for medium to large enterprises. SMART Service Desk has key customers, such as Toyata, Mitsubishi Motors, Saudi Credit bureau, Tamer Pharma and Oman Arab Bank. Founded in 2008, SMART Service Desk Software is a privately held firm with offices in the United States, India and Partner offices in UK, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Qatar.

SMART Service Desk is the leader in Help Desk, IT Service Management, Quality Management & Customer Relationship Management Integrated Solutions, which are applicable to a wide range of different service organizations. SMART Service Desk of software solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to suit the customer's systems and business processes. Many our customers have got head start in process definition, to Fast-track your ITIL V3, ISO 9001, ISO 20000 & Other ISO Standardization, initiatives to enhance quality of services and customer satisfaction.

SMART Service Desk will help you to improve service quality and resource utilization across your entire IT infrastructure. With SMART Mobile Custom Applications can access applications from SMART Phones for faster and better-informed business decisions.

Our SaaS solutions on Cloud let you seamlessly manage services, customers and quality improvement programs. Available through any Web browser, our solutions are designed to help you shorten deployment times, reduce risks and lower costs, including support and maintenance expenses.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com

http://smartservicedesk.com

What You Don't Know About Feedback

First, not all feedback is created equal. Feedback comes in several different flavors. Feedback is both internal and external.

There are actions and inactions that could be sabotaging your business success? What if there are few key things you’re missing that could help you get even better results? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by getting feedback, the correct feedback.

Poorly conducted performance reviews and customer questionnaires, harsh criticisms by thoughtless colleagues or customers, and bad experiences with feedback systems all contribute to the temptation to steer clear of feedback if at all possible.

You may worry that all the feedback will be negative. Many people avoid asking others what they think about their products and services because all feedback will be about negative experiences only. It all depends on how and what you ask about.

The question “What do you like best about your job or shopping experience?” will tend to get positive responses. “Tell us what we can do to improve your…?” should get a variety of honest answers. “Tell us what we did wrong during your most recent shopping experience?” This question will tend to receive negative responses, because that is what you asked about.

You don’t know whom to ask. The person who can offer the most effective feedback on your business may vary depending on when you need the feedback and what kind of feedback you need. You could include a satisfaction survey to every shopper or provide an online method to gather random feedback.

Believe it or not, you can learn to be your own best reviewer, particularly if you practice listening critically. First, think about problems that you know you have had in the past and ask employees how to handle it "when" it arises again.

Whether you like it or not, customers are continuously publishing feedback on your products and services on the Internet and via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. What your customers take time to say is incredibly valuable. Positive feedback boosts your business and criticism can help you to improve your offerings.

Social networking is becoming the norm. Buyers expect a much more interactive experience, and they are less and less impressed with marketing copy. It’s an accepted truth that listening to customers is critical, but previously it was still possible to run a company while ignoring this virtue.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

The New Facts About Feedback

Delivering great feedback is inexpensive, easy to learn, and there’s no shortage of expert advice out there on how to do it well. Nearly 3/4 of employees want more feedback than they are currently getting. So it’s clear that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Before any feedback will be effective, the recipient must see the source as credible for developmental advice. Critically, the person you’re giving feedback to must believe you have their interests at heart. If not, your feedback won’t be effective in driving behavioral change, no matter how well intentioned.

More often, it’s not that employees aren’t aware of the issue, it’s that they don’t know how to respond. So just pointing out that they have a problem isn’t enough to be helpful. To improve performance, constructive feedback must go one step further and provide specific feedback around potential causes and solutions.

From the Harvard Business Review, most employees prefer corrective feedback to praise and recognition. A majority of employees prefer corrective feedback to praise and recognition. In this survey of 900 global employees, 57% of respondents stated that they prefer corrective, negative or constructive feedback, while only 43% stated that they prefer praise or recognition.

Though older workers have a preference for both more positive and negative feedback than younger generations. While this is interesting and provides a strong counterpoint to the millennial feedback myth, it’s worth noting that the research didn’t control for rank or role, so some of this effect is likely to be explained by seniority.

A recent study by the London Business School shows that outstanding performers need more positive affirmation after setbacks. The researchers looked at the performance of top talent after they’ve had a major setback that involves loss of status. The findings show that when previously high performers lose status, their performance suffers. And the very best performers suffer the most. The mediocre performers, by contrast, barely suffer at all.

The research also shows that it was possible to mitigate the effects of this performance drop with targeted affirmation. The academics suggest that this reinforces just how important it is to give your star a break after they’ve bungled something or lost face. As their manager, you have a critical role here in helping your top talent regain their status by letting them know how much you value their work.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

The Difference – Feedback and Feed-forward

Before we compare and contrast these too concepts let’s look at the definitions.

Feedback:
Information about reactions to a product, a person's performance of a task, etc., used as a basis for improvement.

Feed-forward:
The modification or control of a process using its anticipated results or effects.

The easy way to understand the difference between conventional feedback and feed-forward is to think in terms of the past and the future. Conventional feedback is past focused. It provides information about past activity and performance. Feed-forward on the other hand is future focused. It works around information about what a person could do differently in future interactions with your products or services. These suggestions for improvement enable people to make on-going adjustments in how they are executing their job performance.

To properly benefit from feed-forward you must first have and understand accurate feedback from your customers or staff.

The fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred, not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.

Feed-forward is often thought of as guessing what people will do in a future interaction. Feed-forward means using suggestions for the future that might help them achieve a positive change in their selected behavior. If participants have worked together in the past, they are not allowed to give any feedback or actions from the past.

The baseline for feed-forward success is getting your desired results. So you may want to test in small groups before applying the tested technique in wide scale applications.

The solutions you create may become an integral part of how your customers feed, clothe and purchase in the near and long term. At one end of the continuum is a clear distinction between providing instruction and providing feedback. However, when feedback is combined with more a correctional review, the feedback and instruction become intertwined until the process itself takes on the forms of new instruction, rather than informing the user solely about correctness.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

How Important Is Your Customer Feedback?

How important is your customer feedback? Do you listen to their voice inside your business? Different types of businesses get different types of feedback. In some cases it can be in your face feedback.  In the very worst case it is just the loss of business that shows the dissatisfaction your customers are feeling.  That is the worst and most destructive type of feedback.

Customer feedback is so important because it provides marketers and business owners with insight that they can use to improve their business, products and/or overall customer experience.

Responding to your customer's feedback is the only way to guarantee you market a product or service that they actually want to buy. Customer feedback is commonly used throughout the product development process to ensure that the end product is something that solves a customer’s problem or fulfils a need.

The most innovative companies in the world are the best at creating products that meet their customers’ needs and exceed their expectations. Think of Apple, Virgin and Dell.

In today’s competitive business world, these companies who can intertwine product development and customer feedback will be the ones that reap strong competitive advantages, have sticky customer loyalty and earn raving customer advocates.

Customer feedback is paramount when determining a customer's needs and wants, particularly when a business introduces new products or services. Companies conduct focus groups, in-person research or customer phone surveys to determine the product features, flavors or styles that consumers want. Customer feedback helps companies determine what's important to their customers.

Customer feedback also is important in detecting certain technological trends among consumers. For example, a new competitor in the market may introduce new and improved technology that potentially threatens the older technology a company sells. If customers indicate they would prefer and buy this technology, the company will need to consider switching to the new technology.

Ultimately, this will lead to better business, better sales, and a better customer experience.” With customer feedback, businesses can make appropriate changes to their offerings to ensure that the product meets the needs and expectations of their customers. Such changes are likely to increase customer satisfaction that, in turn, is sure to improve the profitability levels of any business.

Customers are the most important stakeholders of every business. That’s why it is important to hear their feedback. But collecting customer feedback is just the first step to ensuring a successful customer experience. It’s what you do with the feedback that truly matters.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Which CRM Software Meets Your Needs?

As the Internet of Things grows in its power and complexity which software will help your business stay connected?

There is no question that there are many choices of customer service software for you to choose from. But, like all categories of products they all aren’t created equally. One thing is for sure they have many different price points.

Another area that you have to consider is how much it costs to implement the solution. There are two other related factors.  How long it takes to implement the different products and how long it takes to train your staff (or new staff) to be able to successfully use the product.

There is a solution that is both robust and easy to implement and use. SMART Service Desk is that solution. It is scalable in cost so that no company is too small to benefit from our solutions.

Increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. Our SMART Service Desk solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to meet your exact business needs. Achieve faster implementation, successful change management, and lower total cost of ownership with our 100% configurable, intuitive and affordable solutions.

Here is what one of our customers said about SMART Service Desk; "We needed a tool with automated workflow and easy to use interface. SMART Service Desk’s built-in workflow has made big improvements in our Service Operations - especially having online approval."

Your company can benefit from improved customer satisfaction and life time value from initial contact to post-sales support. SMART Service Desk provides a detailed 360 degree view of your customer interactions. You can improve customer service and delivery operations, maximize revenue opportunities and delight your customers with our affordable and mobile solution.

SMART Customer relationship management (CRM) software, offered both on-premise and cloud-based CRM, help businesses reduce costs and increase profitability by organizing and automating business processes to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty in the sales, marketing, and customer service fields.

Through SMART CRM solutions we deliver outstanding ROI through automation in customer service, and sales force automation. We also offer mobile apps that allow you to manage your customer relationships on your mobile devices, and software integration adaptors that integrate data and reporting from social media directly into your CRM application.

With our solutions your business can foster employee engagement, retention and productivity. Your satisfied employees can help create more satisfied customers and Improve processes, products, and services, and ultimately your organizational profitability.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com