Some typical examples of poor service:

1. Government agencies that emphasize paperwork rather than personal service. And many federal offices have almost incomprehensible voice mail systems.
2. Hospitals whose first concern seems to be patients' finances rather than healing.
3. Car dealers who are only open for sales and service when their customer have to be at work.

Many managers take the wrong approach to building customer loyalty. They work on customer service - defined by the organization. But the emphasis should be on customer satisfaction - defined by the customer. To build customer loyalty, you must focus on customer satisfaction.

The only way to know what your customers want is to ask them. Both qualitative and quantitative research is helpful. Build a customer satisfaction model. Ask managers and employees what customers want, and then determine what employee behaviors will deliver it. The next step is to ask customers to review the model and make changes.

Often the internal model is not what customers want. A hotel industry story illustrates this. A seminar group was asked to create a model of the service they wanted during coffee break. Then their trainer asked hotel management and service employees what was important in setting up coffee service.

Hotel people said coffee should be of highest quality and well brewed, served in polished urns with attractive china on a well-arranged table. What did their customers want? None of the above. They wanted fast service - no long lines. And they wanted phones and restrooms nearby. Not a single item hotel people considered important for good service was valued by their customers!

Is customer service worth the trouble? A loyal customer spends about $150,000 over a lifetime with a car dealer. Does it make sense to argue over a $100 part? American Express research says a loyal customer spends about $180,000 over 10 years - employees make extraordinary efforts to keep them happy. Service is so good that U.S. citizens in trouble overseas are far more likely to call American Express than the U.S. Embassy.

Poor service causes 42% of customers to switch banks. Only 14% of car owners switch dealers because of the cars - 68% switch because of "indifference" from sales and service employees.

Good service creates legends - and profit leadership.

• Federal Express spawned an industry by providing a new customer service - reliable overnight delivery.
• Nordstrom's chain of fashion specialty stores saw sales skyrocket 700% in 10 years while profits soared nearly as fast.
• Embassy Suites beats competition almost every way and is growing 10 times faster than the hotel industry. It has been rated first by Consumer Reports readers against both mid-priced and high-priced chains.
• Scandinavian Airlines saw its bottom line change from an $8 million loss to $72 million in profits 18 months later, following a $30 million investment to change its business approach and focus on
  Organized To Be Your Best! - A Book Summary
  The Big IdeaOne of the factors to success is the ability to manage tasks efficiently and systematically in a similarly conducive environment. Practicing time management allows you to accomplish the more important tasks on time; and helps you achieve the goals you have set for yourself.Organized to Be Your Best! gives simple tips on how to get started and maintain good organization practices. Being productive doesn’t have to be difficult. After all, it’s supposed to make life easier for you!How to Be Positively Organized!Being organized goes beyond having a clutter-free office, it also involves getting your priorities in order and finding the time to do all the things you want. Another benefit of being positively organized is that you are able to create a balance between the different aspects of your life such as work and family.In order to do this, you must first be able to identify personal and professional goals you would want to achieve. These goals help you stay on track.Writing down goals is a very powerful technique. Make sure your goals are specifi
The goal of organizations should be to provide value to the customer. But in most organizations, rules and policies are more important than customer needs.

Many managers take the wrong approach to building customer loyalty. They work on customer service - defined by the organization. But the emphasis should be on customer satisfaction - defined by the customer. To build customer loyalty, you must focus on customer satisfaction.

The only way to know what your customers want is to ask them. Both qualitative and quantitative research is helpful. Build a customer satisfaction model. Ask managers and employees what customers want, and then determine what employee behaviors will deliver it. The next step is to ask customers to review the model and make changes.

Often the internal model is not what customers want. A hotel industry story illustrates this. A seminar group was asked to create a model of the service they wanted during coffee break. Then their trainer asked hotel management and service employees what was important in setting up coffee service.

Hotel people said coffee should be of highest quality and well brewed, served in polished urns with attractive china on a well-arranged table. What did their customers want? None of the above. They wanted fast service - no long lines. And they wanted phones and restrooms nearby. Not a single item hotel people considered important for good service was valued by their customers!

Is customer service worth the trouble? A loyal customer spends about $150,000 over a lifetime with a car dealer. Does it make sense to argue over a $100 part? American Express research says a loyal customer spends about $180,000 over 10 years - employees make extraordinary efforts to keep them happy. Service is so good that U.S. citizens in trouble overseas are far more likely to call American Express than the U.S. Embassy.

Poor service causes 42% of customers to switch banks. Only 14% of car owners switch dealers because of the cars - 68% switch because of "indifference" from sales and service employees.

Good service creates legends - and profit leadership.

• Federal Express spawned an industry by providing a new customer service - reliable overnight delivery.
• Nordstrom's chain of fashion specialty stores saw sales skyrocket 700% in 10 years while profits soared nearly as fast.
• Embassy Suites beats competition almost every way and is growing 10 times faster than the hotel industry. It has been rated first by Consumer Reports readers against both mid-priced and high-priced chains.
• Scandinavian Airlines saw its bottom line change from an $8 million loss to $72 million in profits 18 months later, following a $30 million investment to change its business approach and focus o
  Banking - Inventory Collateral
  This segment will explain the essentials of how a bank evaluates the inventory that is offered as collateral for a business loan or an operating line of credit. As explained in the segment on equity, this is not supposed to be a text book course, but explains briefly what you will encounter in the real world of business finance.These comments are not for the retail business; they apply to wholesalers, importers and manufacturers.The amount of money the financial institution will be prepared to lend you will depend a great deal on the amount and ease of realization of the inventory collateral you can offer to cover the loan, in case there is a default in repayment.It is not just the amount of the collateral, but the quality of the collateral, and whether it would realize enough to repay the loan if there was a liquidation of the business.A typical example might be that your main collateral for a $1 million loan application is your inventory of widgets. The widgets will cost you $1,250,000 and you expect to sell them for a total of $2,000,000 which would gain you a $750,000 profit.
  it. The next step is to ask customers to review the model and make changes.

  Often the internal model is not what customers want. A hotel industry story illustrates this. A seminar group was asked to create a model of the service they wanted during coffee break. Then their trainer asked hotel management and service employees what was important in setting up coffee service.

  Hotel people said coffee should be of highest quality and well brewed, served in polished urns with attractive china on a well-arranged table. What did their customers want? None of the above. They wanted fast service - no long lines. And they wanted phones and restrooms nearby. Not a single item hotel people considered important for good service was valued by their customers!

  Is customer service worth the trouble? A loyal customer spends about $150,000 over a lifetime with a car dealer. Does it make sense to argue over a $100 part? American Express research says a loyal customer spends about $180,000 over 10 years - employees make extraordinary efforts to keep them happy. Service is so good that U.S. citizens in trouble overseas are far more likely to call American Express than the U.S. Embassy.

  Poor service causes 42% of customers to switch banks. Only 14% of car owners switch dealers because of the cars - 68% switch because of "indifference" from sales and service employees.

  Good service creates legends - and profit leadership.

  • Federal Express spawned an industry by providing a new customer service - reliable overnight delivery.
  • Nordstrom's chain of fashion specialty stores saw sales skyrocket 700% in 10 years while profits soared nearly as fast.
  • Embassy Suites beats competition almost every way and is growing 10 times faster than the hotel industry. It has been rated first by Consumer Reports readers against both mid-priced and high-priced chains.
  • Scandinavian Airlines saw its bottom line change from an $8 million loss to $72 million in profits 18 months later, following a $30 million investment to change its business approach and focus o
    Retractable Banner Stands Is Most Sought After Method Of Promotion
    If a business has progressed in the market, then it needs some strategy to promote itself. It is basic aim of every business to make itself popular among the users. For this, the business considers various procedures that can make him extremely popular among the audience. One such method is retractable banner stands what is meant to solve the business purpose. It is one of the popular types of banner stands that employs a superb medium for the purpose of promotion. It is one of the simplest and effective medium to publicize your products or services or any other thing that you want. It reflects your ideas and views through which your business purpose gets solved. Undeniably, every business needs publicity to grow and accomplish big success. So retractable banner stands is one of the highly advanced and one of the sought medium to market your products.Today, you can observe that advertising media has gone through enormous changes with the use of latest technology. Everything is influenced by technology and it is this that has brought modernization in the advertising media also. Advertising industry makes the best us
    mportant for good service was valued by their customers!

    Is customer service worth the trouble? A loyal customer spends about $150,000 over a lifetime with a car dealer. Does it make sense to argue over a $100 part? American Express research says a loyal customer spends about $180,000 over 10 years - employees make extraordinary efforts to keep them happy. Service is so good that U.S. citizens in trouble overseas are far more likely to call American Express than the U.S. Embassy.

    Poor service causes 42% of customers to switch banks. Only 14% of car owners switch dealers because of the cars - 68% switch because of "indifference" from sales and service employees.

    Good service creates legends - and profit leadership.

    • Federal Express spawned an industry by providing a new customer service - reliable overnight delivery.
    • Nordstrom's chain of fashion specialty stores saw sales skyrocket 700% in 10 years while profits soared nearly as fast.
    • Embassy Suites beats competition almost every way and is growing 10 times faster than the hotel industry. It has been rated first by Consumer Reports readers against both mid-priced and high-priced chains.
    • Scandinavian Airlines saw its bottom line change from an $8 million loss to $72 million in profits 18 months later, following a $30 million investment to change its business approach and focus o
      Better Health With Less Fats - Do Better With Less
      In today’s competitive market, the ones that outlast and survive are those that can do more things and programs with lesser resources. This is why increasingly, we are seeing companies’ budget requiring a reduction in overheads and capital expenditures, whilst profits and revenues are expected to increase. Companies have little choice as the marketplace, the shareholders and the investors dictate this. As with eating, in company less corporate fats really does mean more.Carl von Clausewitz, a nineteenth-century Austrian officer who fought in the Napoleonic wars and is regarded as the ‘father’ of western military strategic thought, wrote in his classic book On War: “War is not the action of a living force upon lifeless mass, but always the collision of living forces.” And Field Marshal Montgomery said during the Normandy campaign in the Second World War: “Battle is not a one-sided affair. It is a case of action and reciprocal action repeated over and over again as contestants seek to gain position and other advantage by which they may inflict the greatest possible damage upon their respective
      ervice creates legends - and profit leadership.
      • Federal Express spawned an industry by providing a new customer service - reliable overnight delivery.
      • Nordstrom's chain of fashion specialty stores saw sales skyrocket 700% in 10 years while profits soared nearly as fast.
      • Embassy Suites beats competition almost every way and is growing 10 times faster than the hotel industry. It has been rated first by Consumer Reports readers against both mid-priced and high-priced chains.
      • Scandinavian Airlines saw its bottom line change from an $8 million loss to $72 million in profits 18 months later, following a $30 million investment to change its business approach and focus on service for the business traveler.
      How do dissatisfied customers behave? Managers still tend to think their customers are satisfied because few complaints come to their attention. Classic research conducted during the Carter Administration revealed 96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain. Smart managers use this research. They know that for every complaint, there are about 25 other customers with the same problem. If the problem is not resolved, they know that people with problems will tell 10-20 people.

      Smart managers encourage people to complain to the company and make it easy for them to do so because:

      • Complainers are more likely than non-complainers to buy from the organization again - even if their problems aren't resolved.
      • 54-70% of complainers remain loyal to organizations when complaints are well handled; 95% will do business again if problem is resolved quickly.
      • Complainers whose problems are resolved tell five others about the good service they received.
      The cost of getting a new customer is 3-5 times the cost of keeping an existing one. Yet most organizations spend 80-90% of their marketing budgets seeking new customers.

      Creating a service organization Building customer loyalty means creating a customer-centered management and staff. Service leaders typically do the following:

      1. Research. Excellent customer service professionals know that you begin with open-ended questions, focus groups and other non-directive methods to find out what customers really value and want from the organization. Common research mistakes include asking the wrong questions. One failure mode is to ask staff to brainstorm a list of service attributes, then turn them into a customer questionnaire. This approach gives you data for developing a service strategy that supports the existing approach.
      2. Develop a service strategy. Create a simple, long-term strategy focused on customer needs based on your research. It is difficult to provide excellent service to more than one market segment. Liz Claiborne and Frito-Lay concentrate on storeowners, not consumers; Scandinavian Airlines and Embassy Suites target business travelers. Shelby Williams Industries sells chairs only to hotels and restaurants. (It owns the largest share-20% - of a tough commodity market.) Every aspect of American Express service is shaped by research. Frequent focus groups and two-hour follow-up interviews are used to develop 4-page customer satisfaction surveys which are sent to 12,000 customers annually.
      3. Encourage two-way communication. It is an essential foundation for building employee and customer satisfaction. Managers and executives must model the behavior they expect from others. They need to learn to ask que