Customer Service Videos

Crowdsourcing channels the collective skills and knowledge of your customers. So what is crowdsourcing? And how can it apply to your workplace communication?

Take advantage of spontaneous fun at work opporunities at work, break the rules to add more fun with your customer service, and a contest to win a free humor in the workplace workshop.

By viewing customers as people with needs and goals, we can form long-term relationships with them, rather than trying to make a quick buck.

It was a beautiful day in our area on Sunday so we decided to go for a drive. There s an outlet mall about thirty minutes from us. So we stopped and shopped! We like to combine work and play. While we were playing, we got a couple of ideas for post, including this one today. ___ ___ Where are your customers from? As we made a purchase, the clerk asked us for our phone number. She said, We like to know where our customers are from. Isn t that an important thing to know about your customers? Geographic area This is what the store we were at wanted to know. This may or may not be important to your business. It may be useful for targeting areas for your marketing. Marketing activity Unlike large companies, small businesses can t afford to invest a lot of money on building their brand. When we spend money as small business owners, we need to see a return in the short-term while also building our brand long-term. So discover what marketing activity is driving people to your business. While this is an inexact science, you want to determine as closely as you can if the time and money you re spending on various activities are paying off. Consumers often segment the research and the purchase. They may do some research on you as a result of one marketing activity. Then they may respond to another one to make a purchase. The first activity may be important to the process but doesn t get the credit it deserves. ___ Prior to Bigg Success, my businesses relied on inbound telemarketing. In other words, our customers called us to schedule projects. Our Customer Service Reps might ask this question, How did you hear about us? Later in the process, we might also have them ask, How did you get our phone number today? We often got a different answer from the same caller! ___ ___ Isn t that amazing? You don t want to annoy your customers with too many questions. You do want to get as much information as you can as a natural part of the conversation you re having. ___ Demographics There are a number of factors that may be important to understand about your customers. What is their level of education? How much money do they make? What is their occupation? Obviously, you may not directly ask them some of these questions. You may survey them anonymously. This information helps you target your products and services better. It s also highly likely that your future customers will be a lot like your current customers. So it helps you qualify prospects. Where are your customers going? It s arguably more important to know this one. What are your customers trying to accomplish? What problems are they having trying to do that? How can you help them? Retailers The type of business you have will dictate how you find this out. Let s say you re a retailer serving lots of customers with relatively small purchases. While they re checking out, you may ask them if there was anything that they didn t find. You may want to keep a list of their requests. When you start seeing something over and over, you may want to add that item to your inventory. Consumer services For a consumer service business, the question is very similar. Is there anything else that I can help you with today? We used a version of this in my service businesses and it was amazing the projects we would uncover. For instance, we often learned that they were considering a remodel from this simple question. Business services ___ If your business serves other businesses, the best way to find this out is the hard way talk with them! This is what we do. It takes a lot of legwork to keep in touch with your customers at this level. But it s the best way to find opportunities. ___ Nobody likes to be sold. People like to buy. Discover what your customers are trying to accomplish. Uncover the problems they re having getting there. Then show them the solution you can provide and you ll be a bigg success! ___ Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly it s FREE! ___ Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we ll celebrate a bigg milestone. Until then, here s to your bigg success. Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file: http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00519-111109.mp3 Related posts Beware of Being Too Kind to Your Customers The Trick to Keeping Customers (Image in today s post by LotusHead)

http://www.gnomedex.com - Frank Eliason is THE Comcast Cares guy on Twitter. Thanks to his work and that of his entire team, Comcast has proven that they really DO listen to their customers. By asking "how can I help?", Frank has used Twitter (and other social media outlets) to set a new trend in customer service. http://twitter.com/comcastcares - http://twitter.com/chrispirillo

Justin will discuss how and why Sprint chose to use Social Media at the corporate level. Learn how putting social media in your employees hands promotes open communications and equips them with the best possible story to tell about your brand. Hear first hand why Sprint believes that if you re not joining the online conversations about your brand, you re ignoring your customers and potential brand advocates.