Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

These two videos  review why your organization or business needs to be watching over social media, what its impact is, 3 major shifts in customer feedback and what you should do about it.

A text version of these videos can be found on as a guest post on Folkmedia.org. Read the rest of this entry »

On Aug 26, 2010, Toyota announced two recalls affecting Corollas and Matrixes, one for engine stalling problems  and one for the power brake issues. Customers are already outraged at the plans to deal with the power brake recall. These new recalls are negatively affecting Toyota’s Quality Reputation. Toyota’s stock has dropped 25% since the beginning of the year.

1. Engine Stalling problems

The Engine Stalling recall affects 1.13 Million 2005 – 2008 Toyota Corolla and Matrix front wheel drive models with a 1.8 liter 4 Cylinder Engine (type 1ZZ-FE) in the US and Canada. An engine control module may have been improperly manufactured and a crack may develop on certain parts used to protect circuits against excessive voltage. The result could be
a. Check Engine light may light up
b. Driver will notice Harsh Shifting
c. The engine may not start
d. The engine could stop working while the vehicle is being driven. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you checked out Google Maps? It is a very convenient service to help you find directions to where ever you are going, including in many locations, a street view of the place you are planning to visit. But there are more features on Google Maps than just finding your way. Did you know customers can leave reviews of sites they visit on Google Maps? Here’s an example.

I did a search on BT Tower in London. Aside from the map, look carefully at the entry on the right of the map. Read the rest of this entry »

Pownum:

Pownum is a complaint aggregator located in Northhampton, England. As with many internet sites, they come with a global reach. They have some interesting twists in their value proposition, that were not mentioned in a earlier article on complaint aggregators.

Pownum (short for Power in Numbers) collects complaints and provides ratings and reviews of organizations: businesses, governments agencies and not for profits On their website, they claim to have tens of thousands of companies on their data base. Users can add any new organization they want. Pownum’s complaint site adds a few extra twists.

1. The organization that is the subject of a complaint or a bad rating, has the ‘right of reply’ but businesses have to pay a fee (based on the size of the organization) to be able to do so. (Government agencies and not for profits do not have to pay a fee.) Fees range from $375.00 per year USD for companies with revenue less than $3.75 Million  USD up to $15,000 USD a year for companies earning $750 Million USD  in revenue and up. Once the fee is paid, their ‘right of reply’ section can also be used for general communication with the public. Read the rest of this entry »

In my previous article on managing skill levels,  I described why customer satisfaction can be impacted by having  people with the right skills. Clearly having staff with the wrong skills can hurt a customer’s perception of the organization, and impact sales of its products, its ability to deliver valuable services or provide needed support. But what skills should be measured?

Here’s a software organization example. The staff in this part of the organization are responsible for selling and ensuring the software is successfully installed and being used productively but do not program the software or develop the fixes for defects in the software. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the root causes of customer satisfaction problems is the skills of the people on the front line, dealing with customers. One of the techniques to ensure that customers are well served, is to ensure that there is a method to regularly check the skills of the front line staff and a training program to maintain the right mix and level of skills. The concept is called a Skills Inventory. Read the rest of this entry »

Seth Godin is a prolific writer and successful author of many contemporary marketing books. He spoke at a conference a few years ago on the topic of ‘Why are So Many Things Broken” and the 20 minute video is worth watching to remind ourselves of why we must be vigilant as customer satisfaction advocates to the customer’s view. Always look at the products and processes from the customer’s perspective.

In his video, Seth talks about the 7 kinds of ‘broken’ with many humorous examples. I think many of these are root causes. Read the rest of this entry »

Toyota issued a new recall on July 29, 2010 for its Avalon and Lexus LX 470 brands. In total 480,000 Avalons, Lexus LX 470s and Land Cruiser 100s are being recalled worldwide with Steering problems. Toyota is now erring on the side of disclosing everything which is a positive step in restoring its image. But this recall tarnishes Toyota’s reputation in a new way.

Read the rest of this entry »

More and more organizations are embracing Social Media as an add on to their existing customer service strategies. Gatwick airport is a recent example.

London Gatwick Airport has recently implemented a Twitter account @Gatwick_airport to receive feedback from travelers. According to Samantha Holgate, the Head of Airport Communications, “…the instantaneous nature of Twitter means that a lot of problems or concerns will be brought to our attention quickly.  Problems and concerns that we will ideally be able to do something about.”

A prominent sign appears next to the Check Information screen announcing the Twitter address. Read the rest of this entry »

In an earlier blog post, I highlighted that  Tony Hayward, BP CEO had been removed from being the spokesman for the BP Oil Spill. I speculated that there would be soon be a change in BP Management. Politically, BP had to wait until the well was capped so that a new executive would have a chance to prove himself with the press and the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Randy Schum produced an excellent over view video on Social Media statistics. It is oriented towards executives and marketing departments. But there are lessons for Customer Satisfaction, customer service and public relations professionals as well.

Some key messages: Read the rest of this entry »