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Ideas, tips and techniques for new generation selling and customer support.
Category Archives: customer service
2010
“Textaurant” Improves the Waiting Experience
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Everyone loves the Cheesecake Factory. The problem is everyone loves the Cheesecake Factory: customers can wait up to two hours for a table. A packed bar, lobby and waiting area might be good news for the restaurateur, but it’s certainly bad news for the customers. Who likes to stand around waiting?
2010
Turn These Business Resolutions Into Reality
New Year’s Resolutions we’ve collected for doing business in 2010:For the past two years businesses have dug in, deepened the trenches, reduced staff and cut costs to the bone. Now, in 2010, economic progress reports suggest the time is coming to start building and growing again.
But you don’t need to hire new employees or add a lot of costly equipment to turn these resolutions into realities. Every one of them has been attained by real companies using web-based appointment scheduling software. Read their stories in our case study library, and then make some resolutions for your own business in 2010.
Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team
Public domain Image by Ivan Akira courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Filed under: appointment scheduling software, customer retention, customer service
Tagged: appointment scheduler improve customer service, appointment scheduling, appointment scheduling software, customer care, customer experience, customer retention, customer satisfaction, downturn, improve customer service, improving customer care, more with less
2010
Tipping Point: How Long Will Customers Wait?
Three separate studies into the psychology and behavior of people waiting in lines, on the phone and on the web all agree – people are impatient and don’t want to wait.
Paco Underhill, consultant and author of the book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, notes that 90 seconds is the limit to how long a customer accurately perceives the duration of his wait in a line. After 90 seconds, perception goes off track, and two minutes seems like three and three minutes seems like five.
At a certain point, Underhill says, waiting will be seen as a separate activity rather than part of a process, such as making an appointment. Underhill notes simply: 90 seconds or fewer = success. More than 90 seconds = not success.
People online have an even shorter attention span – about 4 seconds. Picture a potential customer waiting for a page to load on a website. After four seconds, according to research conducted by web consultants Akamai and Jupiter Research, customers start to leave a slow website. The only things consumers like less than waiting are high product prices and expensive shipping.
According to a post in callcentermanagement.com, call center operators shouldn’t concern themselves with how long people will wait before they hang up the phone when trying, for example, to make an appointment. It is far more important, according to the site, to track and manage first call resolution – the percentage of callers taken care of with just one call.
What lesson can we draw from all this? The key to customer satisfaction – whether on the phone, on line, or in line, is to take care of them fast and get it right the first time.
Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team
Image Credit: InMagine TEMP2341
2010
What’s Wrong with Manual Appointment Scheduling?
Appointment scheduling the old-fashioned way can easily turn into a hassle for both the customer and the service provider.
Customers want convenience: a quick process to book an appointment that matches their schedule.
Service providers want bookings, as many as possible. But the busier you get, the harder it is to take time to take calls.
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Filed under: appointment scheduling software, customer service
Tagged: appointment scheduler improve customer service, appointment scheduling, appointment scheduling software, customer experience, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer service, improve customer service, improving customer care, online scheduling
2010
How Amazon Uses Technology To Redefine The Customer Experience
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In the 1992 Presidential campaign, James Carville famously hung a sign in then Governor Clinton’s campaign office saying “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” Today’s companies probably need a similar sign with the word ‘customer’ in the place of the word ‘economy’.
2010
Fight Back Against Online Merchants: Offer Online Customer Service in a 24/7 World
In a 24/7 world, how can brick-and-mortar businesses compete with “always open” online merchants? By offering everything they can do online.
- A national portrait studio chain offers online appointment scheduling. Result: more than 20% of their business comes in while they’re closed. (That’s a 25% increase. What would you do to boost business 25%??)
- Sprint uses TimeTrade to let you self-schedule advanced support for your smartphone, 24/7. Imagine: no more queues – no lines, no waiting!
- Sonora Quest lets patients schedule quick appointments for blood tests etc. Result: 22,000 people a month self-schedule. They all get seen within five minutes – and think how much staff time would be needed to schedule those appointments manually.
Filed under: appointment scheduling software, customer service
Tagged: 24/7 business, always on business, appointment scheduler improve customer service, appointment scheduling, appointment scheduling software, customer care, customer experience, customer satisfaction, customer service options, efficiency, improve customer service, online scheduling, retail
2010
Mercedes Works Hard To Earn #1 Retention Rating
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Two of three Mercedes-Benz owners that bought new cars in 2009 bought a Mercedes again. In a remarkable 8 percent increase over the previous year, Mercedes earned the highest customer retention rate – 67% – since J.D. Power started measuring the number 7 years ago.
2009
Hot New Products Can Only Take You As Far As Your Customer Service Rating
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A new Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey has been released about the cell-phone market, stating that out of 50,000 users in 26 major cities, AT&T was ranked lowest in 19 cities despite being the exclusive service provider for the iPhone – a product with a 98%-satisfaction rate. Verizon, with higher basic-service prices, came out on top.
2009
Customer Care Goes High Tech With Appointment Scheduling Software
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While some may think that automated technology diminishes customer service, the opposite can be true. Appointment scheduling software has actually been proven to help businesses streamline processes and deliver better customer service.
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