Don’t bring an operations knife to a customer service gunfight: Customer engagement must be the first priority in a connected world

“Why yes, I regularly purchase products from mail order catalogs” said no one in the last 20 years.  Yet 20 years ago, most catalog retailers were thinking to themselves “If only we could improve our operations and reduce our cost of delivery, print, and call centers, we will outprice the competition and really rake it […]

The rocky road to crazy customer loyalty – practical tips to brand freedom

No one can serve two masters, and sometimes the road to serving only one can be rocky and painful. This difficult transition was illustrated to me in colorful detail recently by a shrewd and successful service contractor in the kitchen equipment service industry. During the course of an entertaining conversation, I proclaimed that the role […]

Customer service is a marketing strategy

We’ve been talking about the connections between customer service and its impact on the growth of service contracting businesses. We’re not the only ones who see this critical connection. Read this excellent blog post titled “Customer Service is a Marketing Strategy” by Ben Landers, the President of Blue Corona. In the conclusion, Ben says: “The goal […]

What is great customer service worth? About 20% and $41 billion.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you know that Uber is a taxi service start-up that connects drivers with folks who need a ride. As a business, Uber connects riders and drivers (just as a taxi service does) and they collect a 20% fee on top of what is paid to the driver. […]

Customer service is NOT an accounting function!!

The history of software applications for service contractors is dominated by accounting applications.  Controlling the business was the first priority for computer deployment. I believe the next wave will be about collaborating with the customer via the Internet to deliver amazing customer service. The accounting application – the control point for your business – is […]

Remember when you had a parts business?

Remember the good old days? Before Google and the Internet destroyed your parts business? Remember when advertising was local? When your listing in the yellow pages and the phone number on the side of your trucks would yield calls for replacement parts? The great margins on most of the parts disappeared when everyone could Google […]

Jesse James’ advice for service contractors

Jesse James, Train Robber I have been to multiple events in the past several months where service contractors from many trades (food equipment repair, fire safety, specialty cleaning) lament the insertion of one or more parties between themselves and their customers.  It seems that when they do not directly influence the terms of service with […]

Talk is cheap, and a picture is worth 1600 words

I get lots of comments from prospective customers about “going paperless” using tablets and smartphones.  In many cases, however, they are talking about simply making the technicians in the field type character information into digital forms that otherwise would have been paper.  Maybe if you are going to go “paperless” you should reconsider how you […]