Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

Highest customer satisfaction from the top 100 e-Retailers

Adele — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:00:11 +0000

Foresee conducted its Spring Top 100 edition of the ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index, an analysis of customer satisfaction with the top 100 online retailers in the United States. Amazon is tops again and four points ahead of its nearest competitor, Apple. Amazon not only maintained its lead, it increased its score by 3 points from 2011, breaking the record for the highest score ever achieved using this index and leaving it in a class by itself. Amazon is now THE benchmark to beat. The report provides some excellent statistics on the benefits of customer satisfaction and some root causes that could improve an e-Retailer's score.

Is the IRS Customer Service Plan Improvement on Target?

Adele — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:00:23 +0000

In an earlier post titled Obama endorses improved Government Customer Service, the expectation was set that each government agency had to produce customer service plans. To quote a US Government website, " The American people deserve a Government that is responsive to their needs". Four initiatives from the Department of Treasury are covered. Recently the US IRS (Internal Revenue Service) was highlighted as having poor responsiveness during US tax season. This issue does not seem to be addressed in the Department of Treasury plans.

Improving the Front End of a Customer Service Call Center

Adele — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:45 +0000

Fonolo has an interesting application that allows consumers to navigate a company's voice response menus on a PC or an iPhone, enter a number for a call back and get called back by the next available agent. This front end can be implemented without changing an organization's entire system. Customers may like the alternative to waiting on hold, increasing customer satisfaction and agents may be more productive handling problems they are trained for , without having to transfer customers.

Will Customers Forgive Mistakes? Temkin Forgiveness Ratings

Adele — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:00:45 +0000

Every company makes mistakes. When they do, they seek forgiveness from their customers. Customer may vary in their willingness to forgive and forget. Having a high 'forgiveness' index is an asset to a company trying to keep customers loyal and satisfied. Temkin, a research company has created a Forgiveness rating from 10,000 US customers across 208 companies and ranked the best and the worst, most improved and biggest losers.

Irate Customers Complain on Twitter about Long Hold Times

Adele — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:00:04 +0000

Customers have been turning to social media to complain about companies on Twitter for a long time. Many businesses monitor Twitter for mentions and respond to irate customers. A new focus on Twitter is customers to complain about how long they have been waiting on 'hold' to access customer service. They use the hashtag #onholdwith. And a website, OnHoldWith.com tracks these tweets and reports them.

Customer Loyalty Measurement – Customer Effort Score

Adele — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:00:29 +0000

Customer Effort Score is a customer service measurement created by a the Corporate Executive Board, a firm offering research and advisory services to executives in large and midsized corporations, government, and financial services organizations worldwide. They have written a Harvard Business Review article which you can obtain for free describing this measurement and the study they used to derive it. They contend that this score is a better predictor of customer loyalty than any other customer satisfaction or customer service score.

How to find the Gems from Customer Satisfaction Survey Data

Adele — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:00:57 +0000

Most customer satisfaction surveys are made up of more than one question. Using data analysis, it is possible to determine what areas an organization should focus on; what to fix and what to continue doing well. Find the key drivers for customer satisfaction and make them part of your management focus.

Gripevine, a new service for Disgruntled Consumers

Adele — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:00:17 +0000

Does the name Dave Carroll ring a bell with you? How about the song 'United Breaks Guitars'? If you have been watching the development of social media, you are, no doubt aware of the situation Dave Carroll, a musician found himself in, with a broken guitar, damaged by United Airlines and a very stubborn airline that refused to budge on compensation. Dave Carroll, wrote a very catchy tune, posted it on Youtube and the song went viral, attracting the attention of CNN. When CNN phoned United Airlines, they had a different response than Dave Carroll was able to obtain on his own. Dave has decided to become a consumer advocate and with partners has created a new site called Gripevine for consumer complaints.

Best Buy limits Returns and Exchanges: Angers Consumers

Adele — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:00:18 +0000

Would you alienate 1% of your customers on purpose? It appears Best Buy and some other retainers have done that with a service that checks 'frequent returners'. If you happen to be a person who buys and returns purchases, even with a receipt, you can get a black mark on your name that will limit your ability to return or exchange products at retailers for 90 days.

Killer flaw in a Ford Customer Satisfaction Survey Program

Adele — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:00:11 +0000

The Consumerist, an online resource for consumers to learn and report about their issues, recently exposed a situation at a Ford Dealership where a customer was advised that if he didn't rate the service he received as satisfied, the personnel at the dealership would be financially impacted. In addition, there was an implied threat that the customer would no longer be able to get good service for his car at that dealership in the future, if a bad score was given as they would know about his complaint.