Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

A recent survey report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services called The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action covers a survey of 2100 companies across the globe on how they are using (or not using ) Social Media. Eight key findings are covered in the article.

Mobile applications are starting to grow exponentially and allowing users to view complaints or compliments of businesses or products in new ways. Sitckybits allows users to scan a barcode or QR code and attach digital content (like complimentary reviews or complaints) to the code that can be viewed by others who scan the same code. Learn more about Stickybits.

Gatwick Airport is undergoing a major reconstruction project. Rather than unsightly wooden barriers, Gatwick has used the space to engage with users of the airport. On various construction locations, they have a supersized Barcode along with messages for users to scan the bar code on their cell phones and see how the station is being built. An application available for smart phones (iPhone and Android phones) will turn that picture into a link where users of the smart phone can access the Gatwick Discovery Tour. While this is an interesting adoption of new technology Gatwick inadvertently left out many travelers. Read why.

When I first started out in Quality and Customer Satisfaction many years ago, I went to a course run by the Achieve Group. At that time, I was introduced to the ideas in a book called Firing on All Cylinders by Jim Clemmer. The book itself sold over 100,000 copies. It was my first formal grounding in customer satisfaction training. The author, Jim Clemmer, has recorded excerpts from the book and they are now available, free, in a monthly podcast. Check out the topics and link to the training.

Facebook has just announced Deals for Places, a way for local businesses to attract new customers to their location and to reward loyal customers. Using the power of the 500 Million users on Facebook, customers who check in to a business tell all their friends and family where they have been, effectively creating a testimonial for that location. This post covers why a business should be interested, what kinds of deals are available, how to get started and what to do first.

One of the best practices to maintain high levels of Customer Satisfaction is to prevent known problems. This post is the sequel to a prior post called Customer Satisfaction Tip: Notification of Known Problems. The earlier post dealt with why alerting customers to known problems was important and what some key elements of a notification system might be. This post covers the 5 steps needed to set up an Notification system.

One of the best practices for Customer Satisfaction is to prevent known problems. One technique to help with this objective is to create systems to notify customers of issues that might affect them, that are affecting them or that they should be aware of. This post covers why is it important to set up a notification system and what constitutes a notification system.

Gatorade is monitoring it’s brand and its customer satisfaction using a Mission Control Center. Is this the future of customer service? Watch their short video.

Customer satisfaction is the balance between what the customer expects and what is delivered. If your organization counts on business partners (dealers, distributors, retail stores, agents, affiliates, influencers, customer service providers, etc) or some other organization that comes between you and your final customer, then you need to consider your business partners in your customer satisfaction strategy and programs. Read why, what, and how to in this article.