The iPhone 4G – Changing Everything, All Over Again
June 8, 2010
The iPhone 4G – Changing Everything, All Over Again
The new features the iPhone 4G will bring to you…
http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/
Facetime - 2 camera views, so you get the flexibility you crave.
Retina Display – for cimages as clear as your eye sees them.
Multitasking – thank God its finally here.
HD Video Recording And Editing – editing convenience in the palm of your hand.
5 Megapixel Camera With Flash - no more poorly lit photos.
The new iPhone 4G‘s design video – excellence at work.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/#design-video
The new iPhone 4G‘s gallery
http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/
The Greatest Golf Ever Played – Understanding The Mindset Of A Winner
June 5, 2010
The Greatest Golf Ever Played – Understanding The Mindset Of A Winner
Form is temporary… greatness is forever.
Service Standards – StanChart pledges service within 8 mins
June 3, 2010
StanChart pledges service within 8 mins
FROM tomorrow, customers at Standard Chartered branches can expect to be served within eight minutes.
The British-based bank has pledged to contribute $1 to charity and participate in community work for every customer not served within the eight minute time frame it has set itself.
The clock starts ticking when a customer retrieves a queue ticket and stops when the number on the ticket appears on the screen which alerts the customer that it is his turn to be served.
‘We will improve our service turnaround time as we strive to get the basics of banking right,’ said StanChart’s Singapore head of branch sales and service Lai Pei-Si.
extracted from http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/My%2BMoney/Story/A1Story20100601-219522.html
Customer Service Excellence Saluted
June 3, 2010
Customer Service Excellence Saluted
Recognizing excellence in customer service amongst district businesses, the Rainy River Future Development Corp. unveiled the winners of its 2010 Customer Service Champion awards last Wednesday.
This year’s top 10 champions, named during the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s “Business After Hours” deck party at La Place Rendez-Vous, were (in alphabetical order) Boston Pizza, Cloverleaf Family Foods (Emo), Fort Frances General Supply, Kreger Sales & Service (Rainy River), Northern Lights Credit Union (Rainy River branch), Northwoods Gallery & Gifts, Service Ontario (Fort Frances), Super 8 Motel, The UPS Store, and Warehouse One–The Jean Store.
Bill Gushulak of Fort Frances General Supply said his businesses has participated in the program every year, and he still finds it “reassuring “ to be among the top 10. “It’s something that we do not get tired of receiving,” he remarked. “We’re very proud to have received it again. “We’ve spent a lot of time, energy, and money to encourage customers to come and see us, and we feel we can repay them with good customer service,” added Gushulak. “If people are still happy with what we’re doing, we’re pleased to hear that.”
As of this year, Fort Frances General Supply has received a Customer Service Champion five times in a row. “We’re quite proud and pleased with that,” Gushulak reiterated. “We compliment our staff for doing a good job and keeping the people that walk in the door happy.”
While they had participated in the challenge back in 2008, this was the first time The UPS Store was named a Customer Service Champion.
Franchisee Lillian Gerley said she was proud to be named among the top 10.
“It means we’ve improved in the way we do things,” she noted, adding the point of signing up for the challenge this year was to see if they had improved, and if they hadn’t, get feedback to see where they needed to step up their performance. “It’s really important. It’s a great tool for businesses to use,” Gerley said.
She stressed customer service is key to doing business at The UPS Store.
“We advertise, but we also rely on customer satisfaction,” she explained. “We treat each customer as a unique individual—their needs are unique.
“It’s important to have a conversation with them, and find out what it is exactly they’re looking to get and make sure that they’re satisfied when they leave the store, because we want them to come back—and tell their friends.”
extracted from http://fftimes.com/node/234131
A Great Example Of How Great Service Ratings Are Great For Business
June 3, 2010
A Great Example Of How Great Service Ratings Are Great For Business
PRESS RELEASE
June 1, 2010, 8:30 a.m
CommVault announces its 2010 benchmark for excellence in technical support by achieving a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating, based on the results of the company’s fiscal 2010 technical support services survey.
– In contrast, customers who received support from vendors of a similar size to CommVault (e.g., vendors with more than 10,000 customers) reported an average 75 percent customer satisfaction rating, according to HDI’s 2009 Practices Survey. HDI is the world’s largest IT service and technical support membership association as well as the industry’s premier certification and training body.
– The CommVault(R) survey, which is administered to customers following the completion of technical service incidents, also measures the knowledge of the support team and how quickly the customer’s problem was resolved.
– The survey results revealed that more than half of all incidents were closed within 24 hours of when they were reported. This feat underscores the effectiveness of CommVault’s distributed support methodology, which differs from the industry convention of working a “trouble ticket” during a call center’s business hours and then requiring the customer to re-open it again with another support center. CommVault employs a best practices approach to automatically distribute outstanding incidents to its five globally dispersed support centers to assure rapid problem resolution.
– CommVault also offers a full spectrum of services and support capabilities to help its more than 12,000 customers optimize the access, protection and management of business-critical information while minimizing needless downtime, as well as reducing data management cost, complexity and risk.
LESSON FROM THIS… GET GOOD AT PROVIDING SERVICE AND THEN SHOWCASE IT TO THE WORLD AND HAVE IT IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS RESULTS
Developing The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization by Manoj Sharma
June 3, 2010
Developing The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization by Manoj Sharma
You know that increasing customers’ expectations have escalated the stakes for your organization. Furthermore, you’re also aware that in a price and time sensitive world your people, product, and process attributes have becoming exceedingly transparent. To compete and have your organization excel, you need…
a) A new breakthrough “Total Service Proposition” at “All Contact Points” that makes a huge difference and restacks the odds to your advantage,
b) To Develop The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization, and have it make a huge immediate difference to your top and bottom-line instantly.
To kick-start the above, you need to re-shift your organization’s focus and promote a “Strategic Customer Centricity” by working directly on your organization’s “soft-ware”. And naturally you need to start on this by paying attention to the “Overall Customer Experience” your organization creates.
You see, Develop The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization is like painting a masterpiece. You simply cannot do it as a beginner, overnight. There are foundational mind-sets that need to be developed, significant effort in skills development that needs to be put in consistently over time and a unique style that needs to be invented. And here are 3 pointers on how you can get started on it.
1) Create A Unique Experience
Start by creating a unique experience. You can only start on this if you have a good appreciation of the difference between selling a product, providing a service and creating an experience. Ponder over the fact that it is easiest for your competitors to compete with you when it comes to your product and tougher to match a high level of service, while it is almost impossible to compete when it comes to experience.
To give you an example are you aware that the experiences created by Universal Studios Theme Parks and Walt Disney Theme Parks are unique to them both? And while both compete in the same marketplace, they both offer a uniquely different experience their various fans are addicted to, that no other theme park provider in the world has been able to replicate? What is the unique experience of your customers’ interaction with your organization? If you don’t have one, isn’t it time you created it?
2) The Conductor Leads The Orchestra
Creating an experience requires performance and performance needs to be orchestrated. A Conductor conducts the orchestra and the orchestra regardless of the talent in it or not in it, is only as good as the Conductor.
Service in your organization is exactly the same. Countless are the number of times, I have heard phrases uttered to this effect by people at the top of organizations – “we don’t need to attend a service initiative, its our middle and front line staff who need to”.
Developing The Art Of Service Excellence cannot be instilled from the bottom up. It has to start from the top and a “Conductor” is needed to orchestrate the performance at every level. Just take a look at the difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and its effects. Steve Job’s Apple creates products of beauty that catalyze passion in his “evangelists” and are completely focused on the user’s experience. Does Microsoft stir your emotions in the same way? The Conductors, in both cases, are predominantly responsible for the experiences their organizations create. Like the members of an orchestra watch the visible gestures of the Conductor and take their lead from them, in the same way your staff while listening to your talk, pay more attention to your walk and then, WALK YOUR WALK.
To Develop The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization, first develop the Conductor and then develop the orchestra in conjunction with the Conductor.
3) Factor In An Outside-In Approach
Do you real know the total experience your customers and potential customers want from you? Develop The Art Of Service Excellence starts with listening to your customers. If you do not have a world-class “customer listening technology” that benchmarks you across your industry, consider using the Rate Your Experience service from the Singapore Service Academy. It will give you clear indication of what your customers think of your “People”, “Products & Services”, “Processes, Procedures & Policies” as well as “Other Components”. From that you will get a great sense of the experience your customers really desire so you can factor it into the operations of your business. Only from that point forward can you factor in an Outside-In Approach towards Develop The Art Of Service Excellence Across Your Organization.
Take action on these 3 things immediately and see how great a competitive service advantage it can create for your organization.