Tag Archive - Innovation

Praxisleitfaden Social Media im Kundenservice

July 4, 2011 in Customer Service, Social Media with 0 Comments

I was recently interviewed by MIND Business Consultants, an organization here in Germany collecting best practices and solutions all around providing customer service via social channels. This report has been published and as one of the experts contributing to this I wanted to share this here as well. The document is in German but if you have any questions please contact me either here in comments or via the usual social channels. You can download this report at the link below. This will take you to my SlideShare location.

Praxisleitfaden Social Media im Kundenservice Juni 2011

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Tweeting at the opera?

April 13, 2011 in Social Media with 5 Comments

I tweeted a bit back that I was bored and was watching a baseball game recently. I could see the hot dog and beer sellers in the stands pushing their wares and an idea came to mind. What if those sellers were monitoring Twitter for a specific hash-tag and took orders from their clients? Sure, there are plenty of drinks and peanut sellers walking around the stands so there is little added benefit here but what about other items or services for which one needs to get out of their seat and go get in line, all while missing the game. Continue Reading…

Resistance to Collaboration

January 18, 2011 in Service Please with 0 Comments

Why do some people resist collaboration?

In my 25 years of working with professionals from around the globe I have had my share of good and some less than positive experiences when it comes to sharing. Today we call this and the art of working together collaboration. Some of the groups I have been engaged with spread the globe and include many different cultures and languages but along the way technology has enabled us to “get closer” and gather our ideas and watch them grow.

Over and over I have observed or felt that there are people who resist in one way or another. Who hold back what they are capable of doing and this has kept me thinking, why resist collaboration? This is a point I have been gnawing on for quite a while and feel slowly, that I am coming to a few conclusions.

There are plenty of people who are afraid of the technology

This is in many branches a shrinking group. technology is becoming all the more accessible and easier to handle. be it a chat tool, email or a smart phone application. this is in my world no longer an excuse.

Some do not want to share

These are those folks who abide by the old school. hold on to your knowledge, it will protect you. gosh how many people thought that as their jobs went off shore or were transferred to robots. what you know today is little use the day after tomorrow. get over it.

Others want to hide

So many people are in roles they are really happy with but know they hardly belong there. got there through whatever means and want to keep the calm. when asked to share they feel threatened, attacked and bunker down.

Some have a private agenda

This seems to be a curious group and the hardest to identify. they need to belong as they are there for the ride. there is a path they are following which may not be obvious but it is planned. they need the help of the group to advance but are focused on their objective and nothing else.

So, knowing this helps us how? It let’s us better understand peoples motivations and their fears. This is important for moving past blockages in team work. Our world will become more and more “virtual”; teams will be formed of members from across regions and continents. This can provide the best possible situation for maximum results – if the collaboration works.

“Innovating the customer experience is the ’secret sauce’”

May 31, 2010 in Service Please with 0 Comments

I found this post regarding how Google/Apple have out performed major US Banks in recent years by using some “secret sauce”. Brett King over at www.banking4tomorrow.com recently posted about how innovating the customer experience is bringing gains and how the financial industry is not keeping par.

I recently tweeted about standing at my bank’s terminal on a Sunday evening trying to get cash and the machine running some routine telling me it would be with me shortly. Sure.

So, what do banks as well as insurance companies need to do to “innovate” and engage their customer as well as potential customers? Recent times have seen the move away from the agent or teller providing that all important customer service to more online or automated handling most of which had been created (it seems) during the last century. Not much has improved since then.

“Innovating the customer experience and making “it” really simple to use”

When contacting my bank by phone I am sent down a spiral of IVR prompts suggesting next steps which are usually not the ones I had intended. All the while I am thinking “you have my money. is this what I get in return”. There are not many other providers we contact where the customer has that thought in their heads. This is a unique position of a financial institution as well as opportunity. If this is managed correctly the entire customer experience could greatly improve.

You have all my money, is this all I get?

If only the banks had that in theirs when developing customer service solutions.