The Daniel Group Blog
Donuts, Videogames, and Customer Service
June 13, 2013 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Strategy, Understanding Your Customer , add a commentTwo stories caught my interest this week. Both stories deal with customer service situations from different angles but with both lessons can be learned and actions applauded or condemned. First, the story of a customer who thought it would be okay to vomit racial slurs at a Dunkin Donuts employee because she believed she had [...]
Consistency and Customer Service
May 30, 2013 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Strategy, Understanding Your Customer , 1 comment so farA conversation with a client this week prompted some thinking on my part about the importance of providing consistent customer service. This particular client has been on our ServiceConnect program since 2006. Like most clients, their performance was not spectacular for the first few years. However, somewhere around five to six years ago, it improved [...]
Pizza and the Illusion of Perfection in Customer Service
April 25, 2013 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Strategy , add a commentPizza is one of my favorite things and being a recent college graduate it is a tough habit to kick. But recently I had an incident where a delivery guy asked me to give him all “5s” on a customer service survey and this worries me. I placed the order online and a short [...]
Passion Shouldn’t be Your Only Motivator
April 4, 2013 Posted by The Daniel Group in : General, Strategy , add a commentThe article “Thomas Keller on Why Passion Shouldn’t Drive You” at Fastcompany.com really got me going today. It discusses Thomas Keller’s opinion on how passion is very different than desire. The author, Mark Wilson, does an excellent job describing it as “haunting– in a good way!” Thomas Keller is an amazing and world famous chef [...]
The “Givens” When Improving Customer Service
October 7, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Service Improvement, Strategy , add a commentThrough the work we are doing with ServiceConnect, we are learning what I think are “givens” that are essential to improving customer service. I want to discuss the more critical points that are essential to improving customer service in this post. A focus on the customer and a focus on the employee go hand-in-hand. We believe [...]
Who’s Doing Your Social Media?
August 13, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : General, Strategy , add a commentSocial media is more of an important marketing element than ever. Following is an interesting article from INC regarding who and who should not be doing your social media. http://www.inc.com/hollis-thomases/social-media-dont-put-intern-in-charge.html. While younger employees often understand the ins and outs of modern social media, they may be missing some of the more practical aspects of your business. [...]
Trust as a Competitive Advantage
June 21, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Service Improvement, Strategy, Uncategorized , add a commentI have written in the past about the importance of trust between customer and provider. I ran across a book, Extreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage (by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers). The book was published in 2003 but a lot of the findings still apply. We have also published a white paper entitled [...]
Western States: Values and Customer Service
April 16, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Service Improvement, Strategy , add a commentWe are pleased to have Western States as a client. This dealer provides Caterpillar construction, power systems and truck products and services and agricultural equipment (AGCO) and services to Idaho and portions of four other surrounding states. They are noted for providing good customer service and are working to make it even better. One of [...]
Surprise Customer Service
March 29, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Service Improvement, Strategy , 4commentsA friend forwarded me this post from Fred Reichheld, the primary developer of the Net Promoter concept. He highlights some really simple ways to Wow customers with some simple customer service steps. He calls them “frugal wows.” There are two points that stood out to me in this article. First, the two examples illustrated in the [...]
B2Bs it’s time to Up Your Social Media Game
March 27, 2012 Posted by The Daniel Group in : Strategy , add a commentFirst, I must apologize for my brief hiatus. School has been quite hectic lately. Second, for those who don’t know the North Carolina State University WOLFPACK made it to the Sweet Sixteen. . A friend of mine sent me this article the other day and I thought it was fascinating. “Why B2B companies need to [...]
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