What Tiger Woods, John Edwards, and Toyota Have In Common (And Wish They Didn’t!)

It feels like not a day has gone by over the last couple of weeks without hearing or reading more disturbing and incriminating news about Toyota. Just yesterday, it was Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood making (controversial) news by telling Toyota customers not to drive their vehicle, then later correcting himself by specifying that he was [...]

Be Realistic When Setting A Target For Your Customer Satisfaction Score

I came across an article this week that talked about the “relevance” of Customer Satisfaction for some industries or businesses (“When Customer Satisfaction Might Not Matter, And When it Does” – http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/72074-when-customer-satisfaction-might-not-matter-when-it.htm). While I didn’t find the article particularly informative (basically, Customer Satisfaction is relevant in competitive markets, not so much in monopolistic conditions – [...]

AT&T U-verse TV Marks 2-Million Customer Milestone; So Why Are They About To Lose My Business?

AT&T U-verse just celebrated its two-millionth customer. That’s great news overall, because it means that more consumers now have at least one alternative to cable TV – particularly if, like me, they are married to someone who refuses to install a dish on their roof! Unfortunately great news doesn’t always translate into great experience. Since [...]

Top 5 Reactions You Don’t Want To Hear In Response To Research Findings

Goethe said it better than anyone, more than 200 years ago: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply!”  Seems like he must have known some of the organizations I’ve come across over the past few years! As I mentioned in my previous post, collecting data and analyzing it constitute the easy steps of implementing a [...]

Implementation More Than Measurement Key To Success For Customer Satisfaction Programs

For the past few years, I have had the opportunity to lecture to MBA students at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business about how companies use Customer Satisfaction measurement programs – and what distinguishes those who get a high return on their investment in Customer Satisfaction from those who don’t. Much has been [...]

Black Friday Retail Sales Show That Offline Retailers Must Battle For Consumer Spending

The results are in, and by all accounts, consumers visited shopping malls in droves over the Thanksgiving weekend. The key word though is “visited”; yes, store traffic was significantly up, but spending rose by a meager 0.5% compared to last year, which was 8% lower than 2007. Of course, adding to the confusion is the [...]

Are you listening?

Listening to what customers are saying about their experience with their grocery store, wireless provider, newspaper, lawn service, airline, hotel, municipality, government agency, sports club, movie theater, restaurant, public shool, etc. should be of the highest priority to any organization. Why? Well, common sense, if nothing else. With the choices available today in most sectors of the [...]