I talk a lot about making sure work is worthwhile. And that starts with an understanding of what we would like to accomplish. Then, talking about what value that would provide. And then determining if what it might cost makes it a worthwhile endeavor. I find it easy to talk about this in the context of business but sometimes challenging…
Month: June 2015
Customer relationships are like marriage
Customer relationships are like marriage, they require work. What works at the start of a relationship won’t work 5 years later. When there’s trouble you can either see it as an opportunity to strengthen the bond or you can file for divorce.
Meaningless words
The tech community is overrun with jargon. And there’s plenty of it that serves a specific purpose. But there’s also a lot of jargon that’s become meaningless: Agile – is used for any new idea anyone has about software development processes, and any rehashed idea from decades ago that someone rediscovers The Cloud – seems to be the new way…
You’re not a consultant
Many people confuse being a contractor with being a consultant. The first difference is that a consultant realizes that customers don’t always know what they need but they almost always think they know what they want. Sure, some contractors have figured this out too. The second difference is that a consultant has the integrity to care about giving a customer…
Gaps between mirrors
A while back I explained my frustration with a lack of customer focus at gyms. I snapped a few pictures of gaps between mirrors at my gym. The gaps have been a repeated frustration when I’m working out. I’ve pointed them out to multiple employees but nothing has changed.
After wrapping up the article I realized I had stumbled upon a metaphor.
Is there a gap in your customer’s experience?
Help customers decide if they should shop elsewhere
It’s simply not possible to serve anyone that walks through the door. If you try, you’ll wind up neglecting those you can serve well and you’ll be providing marginal service at best to everyone else. You should know the type of individuals and organizations can help and you should actively be screening the people that you can’t. It’s the right…
PhotoShelter doesn’t get it when it comes to customer service
If “individual photographers rarely exceed their allotted bandwidth” why not take that risk on so you don’t have to pass that uncertainty on to your customers? There are plenty of ways to handle this without anybody outside of “rare” worrying about it. Why make it every customer’s problem?
From this statement alone I can tell you that if I had to call this company with a problem, they would spend all their effort deflecting blame.
Gut priority versus difficulty
Sometimes we have a lot on our plate and we just don’t know where we might want to start first. It’s always good to know that we’re making worthwhile investments, but with a laundry list of things to do, where do we start first? It would be foolish to analyze the ROI of every single item and then pick the…