It seems like a small thing and adds up
It seems like a small thing to be nice. It seems like a small thing to say “thank you.” And it seems like a small thing to suggest a solution to the problem you found. Yet doing these small things…
Can you measure customer happiness?
A recent post from the folks at the Buffer team got me thinking about the idea of customer happiness, and the ability to quantify it and measure it. In my experience, when you ask service providers if their customers are…
The “Thank You” Effect: Improving Service 1 Step at a Time
I’ve written here before about the effect that one person’s thank you had on me (thank you, Brad Feld!) I believe that “The Thank You Effect” is an example of a small action that prompts meaningful next steps to measurably…
3 Common Customer Service Mistakes You Can Fix
photo by Think back to the last time you called customer service. Usually you call because something’s gone wrong, you don’t understand what has happened, or you do understand exactly what’s gone wrong and you are not happy. When…
Can you turn a critic into your biggest fan?
Photo by Jonathon Colman. Is it possible to turn a critic into a raving fan? Should you ever feed a troll? Should you even engage for fear of starting a flame war? In my experience, the answers to all of…
A Guide to Becoming a WOW-Maker
Photo by Daniel Y. Go. It’s really great to open your email and get a compliment or hear something nice that a customer posted about you or your company on social media. I call that “Customer Wow” and believe that…
What’s a Community Manager’s Secret Weapon?
About 18 months ago I wrote a post on generosity, the secret weapon of a community manager. And since that time one of the best places that has emerged for conversation about Community has been the Facebook Community Manager’s Group.…
The Minimum Viable Beta Program, and how to build it.
Let’s say you’re starting a new company, feature, or product. You have an idea that you want to test with some beta customers. So what would you do today to “get out of the building” (in best Steve Blank Lean…
What’s the point of trying a beta product?
Beta Customers are the Best Test Customers You Have In Steve Blank’s excellent blog post on Startup First Principles, he describes a startup as “an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” A key driver in…
