Customer Service Secrets from Zappos

In the latest Customer Creation podcast, Blake Landau interviews Maura Sullivan and Rob Siefker from the Zappos call center management team.

Maura and Rob have both worked for Zappos since the early days when there were only a few dozen people in the call center.  Due to the company’s phenomenal growth, today Zappos has more than 350 people in the department.

"Zappos is all about service," says Siefker. "Everything we do is based upon customer experience."

The company and its call center operate differently than most — they ignore traditional call center measurements.  Customer service representatives don’t use scripts, have quotas, or try to get customers off the phone.  In fact, Zappos actually encourages customers to call the contact center.

The formula seems to work.  While many retailers have struggled this year, Zappos continues to grow in 2009.

When asked about the secret ingredient behind Zappos’ success, Sullivan replies, "I don’t think there are many secrets to it — it’s about empowerment and being friendly and helpful."

"At Zappos we really want everyone to be themselves and be able to put their personality into their work," Sullivan continues. "We don’t think that can be achieved if we give them a script to read or if we told them they can only have two minutes with each customer.  If we really want to provide the best service, then we need to allow people to be helpful and friendly over the phone, email or chat."

That’s just a few of the many Zappos lessons you’ll hear in this podcast.  So make sure you listen to this fascinating interview at http://www.customermanagementiq.com/podcenter.cfm?externalid=136.

Courtesy – Randy Saunders at Perfect CEM

Let Me Sell You a Nickel for a Dime

What Does Your Company Value More: Trust or Transactions?

The Truth about Value-Based Pricing

Impatient with stalled sales cycles, protracted lead generation programs, and competitors who bundle services or related products, companies are throwing down pricing too quickly to clinch deals and leaving money on the table as a result.

This may get a few deals closed yet it doesn't really fix the more fundamental problems that lead to maverick pricing overtaking sales cycles in the first place.

At the center of pricing becoming the competitive weapon of choice is the fact that businesses seem to have lost touch with what really makes value-based pricing work. Being able to anticipate their customers' needs and develop solutions for them quickly – earning a higher value-based price as a result is what matters most. Not just putting prices into freefall but anticipating and responding with exceptional value is the solution.

What Does Your Company Value More: Trust or Transactions?

Keeping deals going forward and selling is of course the life blood of any company – yet there are way too many companies sacrificing their innate value to just get the next sale. It's time to stop and think: "Are your pricing strategies setting the expectation you will always bend on price?" or "Will your pricing strategies redefine your channel management programs due to price protection and co-op changes?" These are important questions to confront when price becomes the weapon of choice.

The Truth about Value-Based Pricing: Art Form in Enterprise Software

The enterprise software industry has had the inside track on value-based pricing for some time. Some would argue this industry has turned it into an art form.

I recall discussing value-based pricing with one pricing vendor and their unique contracts with a major PC manufacturer that re-set the value levels every fiscal year. In other words, this PC manufacturer would re-evaluate the contribution of the software vendor yearly and cut them a royalty check based on the value delivered.

The software vendor was indexing online sales and upsells through the customers' global websites and had been able to index down to each channel they sold through. Value-based pricing measured to the multi-channel level. It was impressive and they could clearly quantify and communicate their value.

A business intelligence (BI) vendor heard about this practice and attempted to migrate their customers off of maintenance pricing to value-based pricing. You can imagine this caused a revolt with customers adopting competitor's apps that had migration support for this vendor's data models.

So between these extremes – the foresight of the pricing vendor and their ability to anticipate value delivered over time through multichannel strategies on the one hand – and the BI vendor who tried to play hard ball with its customers and failed. The answer lies in the depth of insight these two companies had into their customers and how they were changing.

Bottom line: Value-based pricing has more to do with knowing your customers' unmet needs so well you can anticipate them and be right the majority of the time – earning the value they are willing to pay. A sure sign a competitor is out of step with the needs of customers is to see their pricing go into freefall.

Courtesy – Louis Columbus at Expert Access

New Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study Finds Leading Companies Increase Customer Experience Investment in Tough Economic Times

Strativity Group has published their 2009 Global Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study that finds savvy companies increase investment in customer strategies during tough economic times to build competitive advantage.

In an economic downturn, the first thing companies are conditioned to do is cut costs. But this new study indicates that they should be doing just the opposite.

“The biggest surprise in the study was that certain companies decided to INCREASE their investment in customer relationships rather than decrease it as the majority do. These companies reap the rewards already through more profitable business with their customers," offered Strativity CEO Lior Arussy.

Despite the uncertain economy, 80% of executives surveyed said that customer experience strategies continue to be a more important part of their organizations’ agendas than in the past three years.  In fact, over this time period:

• 48% report that their companies have increased investments in customer experience by 10% or more
• 17% reported increasing investments by 20% or more

The dividends for companies that have invested in customer experience are significant.  The study finds in contrast with organizations that invest less than 2% of revenues on customer experience, companies that invest 10% or more:

• Have significantly lower customer attrition rates
• Enjoy referral rates that are twice as high
• Are twice as likely to have customer satisfaction scores of 81% or more

When comparing companies that increased customer experience investment over the last three years with those that decreased spending, the former:

• Report satisfaction scores that are 60% higher
• Are 30% more likely to have attrition rates of 5% or less

You can download the complimentary executive summary of this report at:
http://www.strativity.com/products/2009-experience-management-benchmark-study.aspx.

Courtesy – Randy Saunders

Of to Singapore…

I am of to Singapore today and will be back on 21st June, 09. Hence may not be able to post any new posting. Another new country which I will have an opportunity to visit in this life time.

Have a great week and don’t loose an opportunity to help others. You never know when this may be valid for someone who can help you.

Take Care…

The End of Marketing and PR?

FACT 1:

There are 1,000,000,000,000 + (one trillion plus) unique URL’s in Google’s search index.

Do you have one? If so, you’re lucky.

FACT 2:

Each day there are approximately 2,000,000,000 (two billion) Google searches by people trying to find information, ideas and insights to help solve their problems.

Do you or your business have good answers to offer for some of these problems? Answers that can help create new sales, customers and a hopeful future in these challenging economic times?

If so, you’re lucky.

For Detail Problem and Answers Click Here

What John Allsopp Saw…{Thanks}

On my recent post on “What do you see?” John Allsopp gave a wonderful feedback. By no means I can less agree with this comments. Thank you so much John for those wonderful words. John,this post of near to my heart and now with your comments you have given it a new dimension. Hence I would like to share with the readers (though limited) of my blog.

John’s Comment:-

Shiraz,
a moving and confronting post -just as the image is moving and confronting.

It might sound self indulgent, or cliched, but when I see that child, I see my daughter. She has similar big beautiful eyes. So physically, she reminds me of my child. Bit more than that, I think any parent, especially those with similar aged children, will see at least something of their child in that image.

But the greater challenge is what to do in the face of that?

I think the tradition of "charity", as noble as it is, is merely a band-aid. It maintains the status quo, alleviating some of the worst of human suffering (but only some, and often only the photogenic) - but for whose benefits, those who need the help, or those of us who feel bad about the suffering.

But I'd say we need systemic change. Investment, like micro-financing, and the transfer of skills and expertise which are as much or more a part of privilege than wealth.

I also wonder whether the likes of Tata, with their much more affordable housing might bring about structural change in many indian (and elsewhere) cities?

There's no doubt china has lifted enormous numbers of people out of incredible poverty in the last 50 years. Many many remain there of course, hidden from view, as we see the "economic miracle" of the growth of urban China. The same transformation has taken place in many other parts of the world over the last several centuries, and decades. Afterall, much of western europe was a place of benighted serfdom 200 years ago, and in many cases much more recently. Urban Britain of the middle 19th Century would have seen sites like this child. So it is more than possible for these transformations to occur.

But how? I guess that will play out step by step. And quite possibly unlike in China, from the bottom up. I very much hope so at least.

This shows the power of “Us” and if we or us can join hands, of course not only to showcase to the world but actually to do something in our own ways, through our own means, through our own style…..to help others and make (maybe) a small difference in someone's life. It could be as easy as giving a smile to a kid on the road.

Of course I am waiting for my next big car, my next big jump, my next big something…..is that what I will remember on my dead bed. I am sure about it….a big NO. I will only remember a ride on a rickshaw with my love on a rainy day from a small streets of Vrindavan, I will remember of those people whom I just wanted to say Sorry, I will remember people who gave me hope & love, or even I may also remember a movie that I missed.:)

Just like most of people on their dead bed I will never think that could I have spent more time in office or making the next big bug, but I will think could I have spent more time with people I loved and wish to meet in the next life.

I am sure I might be sounding a little intuitive but I guess that could be an effect of leaving of the airports. But this is not what I think, this is what I believe.

“Help others to help yourself”……have and make a Happy Day!

Eight Guiding Principles for Creating Marketplace Conversations

1. Don't Pay It Forward

   When trying to establish or create marketplace conversations always start with the end in mind and work backwards. Ask these questions:

   What do we want prospects to think about you 12 months from now?

   Where would like to be?

   When you can envision and answer those questions create an Integrated Marketplace Conversation plan that will help you get where you want to go.

   

   Conversations require content and everyone at your organization needs to collaborate on new content strategies ... news, video, audio, web, blogs, documents, Twitter tweets, Facebook channels, etc. ... each designed to keep prospects engaged with you and move them into awareness and from there into interactive relationships that lead to qualified leads and pipeline activity.

2. Each Marketplace Conversation is focused on brand awareness to raise your visibility, using multi-step, multi-media campaigns that integrate:
   • News (multi-media news releases and feature article placements)
   • Opt-in emailed newsletter articles and promotions
   • Direct communications to generate awareness with targeted individuals
   • Direct promotional communications to create qualified sales leads
   • Content creation, distribution and monitoring social media, particularly blogs, podcasts, and video
   • Participation and monitoring of social networks
3. Each Marketplace Conversation to focus on people issues and how they relate to your products.
4. Each Marketplace Conversation is chosen to implant the selected conversations in the minds or your various target audiences.
5. Each Marketplace Conversation is an extended dialogue, with multiple prongs and enhancements to keep it going across an extended time frame.
6. The distribution media will be selected around the target audience for each topic, some will be broad in distribution and others will be slivered around specific prospect segments.
7. Each Marketplace Conversation needs to have attention-getting qualities—human drama, entertainment, controversy, humor or other attention getter so you do not get lost in the clutter.
8. Each Marketplace Conversation to provide validation to support the stories.

Courtesy - Dale Wolf, Perfect Customer Experience Blog

Redefine Your Value Proposition

Many value propositions have grown irrelevant with the passing of each day in the uncertainty of this economy. The assumptions, market conditions and industry conditions many unique value propositions were created to capitalize on just aren't applicable anymore. Yet you can find many examples of companies using their marketing departments to shout these unique value propositions even louder, as if raising the volume will make them more relevant. It's not time to spend more on blaring out the same old message to prospects; it's time to re-think the fundamental value any given product or solution delivers in this economy.

Frugality Is the New Black

It's time to get real about the value delivered to customers who are now seeing the world as a fundamentally different place and will continue to for years to come. Frugality is the new black. Coupons, once seen as inconvenient, have increased in use from 67% to 83% depending on which ICOM Information and Communications study you review. The value propositions created when conspicuous consumption was the norm are quickly becoming irrelevant in this economy for the majority of consumers.

Selling to businesses is even more complex, as the status quo on which many unique value propositions were based aren't relevant anymore either. Today the majority of businesses have the top priority of retaining customers first, trimming costs and staying viable. There's been a complete re-ordering of priorities. The trouble is unique value propositions of companies selling into these companies still don't reflect what's really going on with their prospects and customers.

From Businesses, the Need for Brutally Simple Value Propositions Is Emerging

No one wants to hear about adjective-laded claims that can't be backed up either with case studies or measurable results. What they do want are solutions to the big problems of retaining customers, managing suppliers more profitably and turning overlooked areas of their companies, like aftermarket parts and services, into a bigger profit center quickly.

For the small high-tech distributor, when demand precipitously dropped off in mid 2008, all that matters today is gaining training and insight into how to bundle products and create new solutions fast to sell more. For manufacturers, it's about getting quotes out right the first time, or getting a handle on how to turn aftermarket-products sales into a profit center. For an enterprise software company, it's about selling to the five dominant roles they have found that make or break their sales cycles.

Putting the Value Back into Value Propositions Needs to Happen Now

Let's face it, entire industries are being reordered by this economic downturn. All that is really going to matter is what tangible, pragmatic value you can bring to prospects and customers to reduce uncertainty and increase their ability to compete.

It's time to quickly move toward defining new unique value propositions that address what really matters to your customers and prospects, despite how engrained your existing value propositions are in your company. Consider the following steps to get the value you deliver better aligned with what your customers really need right now:

• Get to the heart of what matters most to your customers now by tackling their biggest problems for them—even if there is no immediate revenue opportunity. Get out and take the pulse of your customers, go visit them, and if you sell to other businesses, go and get customer retention programs started immediately. If your company is going through a slow time, invest your extra time finding out where the difficult, tough-to-solve problems are for accounts and tackle them head-on. It may not lead to immediate revenue, but it does lead to two great things: trust in your company's expertise and lessons learned on how to redefine what makes your company unique today.
• Decide on the one niche or segment to dominate then accelerate product development, engineering, service and support all in this area. Nearly every company I've spoken with has gone through some level of chaos over the last six months, some less than others. The same holds true for your competitors. In that chaos, there is a lack of focus. It's time to choose the one segment, even market niche, your company wants to dominate coming out of this downturn and gain a product generation or two on competitors, strengthen support and services, and go after reference accounts now using retention programs. GE is a master of this, as their CEO Jeffrey Immelt often discusses this strategy at conferences and webinars.
• Rewriting unique value propositions is never a one-and-done exercise. This isn't only about marketing; it's about working to get your company better aligned with what your customers need now. Staying in step with their unmet needs is all that really matters.

Bottom line: The last six months have brought more change than the previous six years to many of your customers; it's time to re-think value propositions to make sure they still matter.

Courtesy – Louis Columbus at Expert Access

The Greatest Words You’ve Never Heard

WORDS

They can make you laugh, or make you cry. Engage or enrage.  Bring joy, bring sorrow. They can herald new life, memorialize lives gone, inspire great acts of heroism – or despicable acts of evil. They can transport you … to other worlds, other times, other places.

WORDS

Surely mankind’s greatest invention.

But many great words have slipped into the mists of history. Some of the greatest.  You know it when you come across them. They stop you. Punch you in the face and say, ‘Look. Listen. Feel. Remember.  It’s important.’

Has that happened to you? Either in your life of business or the business of life?

The link provides selections for some of the greatest words ever spoken, ever communicated. Words you may have never heard of before.

Click here to see the words