Tag Archives: north carolina

Oct 24 2012

What’s Truly Unique for Fans in the Seats

I’ve been fortunate to have been a season ticket holder for a professional football team for 15+ years, so when my company consults with pro sports teams on season ticket holder (STH) retention and fan relations, I can talk as a strategist and researcher or…as a fan.

And I love talking as a fan. One key point that those in the sports industry need to remember is that the game day experience is – to many fans – far beyond what the smart phone experience or television experience could ever become.

As a fan, when I go to the game, there are certain aspects of the experience that I could never get on TV. I feel and am a part of the emotion of 70,000+ people (FYI – I’m a Carolina Panther STH). And even when that emotion is negative, it’s raw emotion, at times it’s yelling, at times it’s tense silence – but it’s almost always a roller coaster of emotion for 3+ hours.

And unlike the fan at home, if I want to watch a defensive end for a couple plays, I can focus just on him. If I see a wide receiver wide open 20 yards downfield, I can yell “He’s open! He’s open!” at the same time that a TV watcher is being shown the quarterback standing in the backfield. I can think to myself – “that pass is going to be intercepted” before the TV cameraman even focuses on the receiver and cornerback.

You see, I can see what I want to see. It’s in my hands (and my eyes) to focus on anything going on, whether in the field of play, on the sidelines, or in the stands. The customer has the power – a power that cannot be duplicated by television.

Television is a wonderful thing and is constantly expanding its capabilities, but these expansions of capabilities erode the gap between the game day experience and the home experience.

So to maintain gate receipts, STH retention, and enthusiasm for attending the games, game day professionals and pro sports teams need to address this key point – we need to leverage, improve, and market the two greatest aspects of being at the games: (1) Being a part of the experience with tens of thousands of other fans, and (2) Controlling one’s own perspective on the event.

To keep fans coming to the games, enhance the “group experience,” and find new ways to help fans gain more from their unique view of the event.

Interested in improving your team or club’s fan relations? See more at our new website! http://cssamerica.com/csssport.htm

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

Jun 20 2012

Linked at the Hip – Business Retention and Long-term Thinking

If you care about winning a battle, focus on today. If you care about winning the war, think beyond tomorrow.

In far too many businesses, companies focus too much on today’s battles. They get so immersed in making this one sale, in closing this one transaction, in getting through these operational steps, that they find themselves with the same one sale, one transaction, and one step-orientation the next day.

So what’s the problem with that? The problem is that caring almost exclusively about today doesn’t help you to plan for tomorrow, to think strategically, to think long-term, and to succeed long-term. It doesn’t help you to research, study, and anticipate what you customers will do, how the environment will change, and what your competitors will do.

This conundrum is no different in the world of economic development. Too many communities are too focused on new business acquisition and don’t invest enough resources or planning on how to retain and grow the companies already located in their jurisdiction. This is where effective Business Retention & Expansion programs come into play.

Communities that care about the long-term, realize it’s not all about the hunt, the new business, the relocation. It’s about keeping what you have and growing them. It’s about having strategies to ward off other jurisdictions recruiting their businesses. It’s about becoming as vital to the businesses as the businesses are to the community.

Mooresville, NC economic development groups created ‘Moving Mooresville Forward 2017′. According to a recent article, the strategy has 5 key initiatives:

  • Business retention/expansion/acquisition
  • Creating an environment for small business growth
  • Workforce development
  • Transportation planning
  • Creating a business environment and quality of life that fosters individuals’ and businesses’ desire to stay.

Note how these initiatives are focused mostly on what you currently have – your businesses, your environment, your employees, your infrastructure, your quality of life. Mooresville realizes that it must create an environment that fosters retention and expansion, and that same environment would be of interest to companies seeking relocation options from elsewhere to Mooresville.

When you want to succeed for the long-term, plan how to enhance, retain, and grow what you have instead just focusing on today’s sale, today’s transaction, and today’s task.

Check out our BRE News Research Services: http://cssamerica.com/cssbrenews.htm

Listen to our latest podcast episode on “Delivering the WOW Experience!”

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Oct 19 2011

Great Service Still Exists

When the customer visited the Oreck store on Hanes Mall Blvd. in Winston-Salem, NC, earlier this month, she needed service on a vacuum. It wasn’t an Oreck. It wasn’t purchased at the store. It was only one month old.

The customer brought it to Oreck because the manufacturer said not to ship it back to them for repair – instead the customer should bring it to a local repair center. The customer had driven past the Oreck store before and was familiar with the quality of the brand, so that was the first place that came to mind.

The cord wouldn’t unwind fully, so a vacuum that should be able to clean several rooms without plugging and unplugging could barely do one room. It was a vacuum that would run, but it was a hassle to use.

The Oreck store asked if they could hold the vacuum and work on it later, and the customer said that was fine. Later, an employee from Oreck called the customer and said the cord issue was resolved. He had worked on the cord, getting it untangled and testing it about 10 times to confirm it worked well.

“How much do I owe you?” the customer asked.

“Not a thing,” the employee replied.

The customer had an issue; the company provided a resolution, and it didn’t cost a dime.

Sometimes great customer service isn’t about what happens during the sale or even what happens after the customer leaves your store. Sometimes truly great customer service is about your taking the effort just to do something for someone else. It’s about caring more about meeting the need of a customer than making a nickel off a transaction. It’s about taking a situation that presents itself – like a customer you’ve never met who needs help – and doing what’s right for the customer.

Take a lesson from this Winston-Salem Oreck store. Focus on what’s in it for the customer first, and worry about what’s in it for you second.

And who knows, you might get some positive word-of-mouth out of the experience.

Read our New Book – “Ask Yourself…Am I GREAT at Customer Service?” http://www.amigreatat.com/

Listen to our latest podcast episode of “Stepping Up Service” on The MESH Network at http://themesh.tv/stepping-up-service/

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more at our new website! http://www.cssamerica.com/

Aug 24 2010

A Day at the DMV

The thrill of victory…the agony of the DMV.

For the first time in 5 years, I had to get a new driver’s license. Being out of practice at this activity, I got to the DMV office right when it opened – a colossal error! With this being the best day of the week on my schedule to get the driver’s license renewed, when I arrived at 8:00 a.m., there were already close to 100 people in line; unfortunately, my schedule wouldn’t let me leave.

If patience is a virtue, then there were hundreds of very virtuous people experiencing the DMV today.

But why the wait?

Too few employees for the number of customers. Too few offices for a city the population of Charlotte, NC. Too many steps in the process. Patrons not educated on the best day-of-week or time-of-day, how they needed to prepare for the visit to the office. I could go on and on.

I stood outside for nearly 2.5 hours, entering the office just before 10:30 a.m. When my number was finally called 30 minutes later, it took about 4-5 minutes to do the test. Then I had to wait again for my picture. I left the office at 11:15 a.m. So I had over 3 hours of wait time for about 7 minutes of activity.

What’s worse is that I was just renewing. There were 30+ people who entered the office before me who were getting a permit or a new license, at least 25 of which were still there when I left.

We can all learn from our experiences – good and bad. Learn from my experience to reduce steps in a process, staff appropriately, educate customers in advance, and create fast-track processes for people with minor needs.

Learn from my nearly half-day at the DMV.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Check out our new customer service book at http://www.amigreatat.com/

Jun 18 2010

Be an Everybody Business

Pizza…Yum! I was getting a takeout order at Hawthorne’s Pizza in Charlotte, NC, for the first time. As I walked in, the hostesses greeted me with a smile, asked how they could help, and showed me to the counter where I could pick up my order. As I approached the counter, two staff walking by made eye contact, smiled and said hello. I was greeted by an employee at the counter who asked how he could help – he smiled, confirmed my order, noted he’d get my order together and get right back to me. As I stood for a few seconds, I noticed that ALL the employees were moving, working, processing orders, taking food out to the tables…and smiling.

They were having pleasant conversations with each other and operating efficiently at the same time. Another employee walked up to me and asked if I had been helped. When the individual who was getting my order came back, he took the credit card, engaged me in light discussion, and closed the conversation with a smile and appreciation.

As I turned to walk away, another employee walked past me, made eye contact, smiled and said hello, and as I walked out of the restaurant, the hostesses smiled again, thanking me for coming in, and holding the door open for me.

I was in the restaurant less than 5 minutes, but one thing was obvious. This was an “Everybody Business.” Everybody smiled. Everybody worked efficiently. Everybody engaged me. Everybody seemed to be having fun with what they were doing and/or with each other.

When you experience an Everybody Business, you have to realize that this is not by accident. It’s by design. To have everybody operating in the same positive manner – naturally, smiling, engaging customers – that happens only because management wants it to happen. They hire staff with that attitude, train them on how to interact, and model those behaviors themselves.

They don’t leave it to chance that you’ll get good service with Employee “A”, but you could get bad service from Employee “B”. They don’t want that risk. They want to be an Everybody Business so that every customer has the same great experience.

Be an Everybody Business.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Apr 29 2010

If we were only treated like our pets…

I went to the veterinarian last week to take in our family cat – the one that had been in a fight with another cat and didn’t exactly win. Squeaky was on the mend, but the vet wanted to make sure that the antibiotics had worked and that her temperature was down.

When we walked into SouthPark Animal Hospital in Charlotte, NC, the two front desk staff greeted our cat like she was their long lost sister. “Hi, Squeaky!” they exclaimed. “We’re so happy to see you! How are you feeling? Are you better?!” Their love of cats (or at least in our mind, OUR cat) was evident. They took care of her, brought her back to the exam room to take her temperature, and when they brought her back out to the lobby, the vet assistant told my daughter and I that “We love Squeaky!”

Wow! It’s just a cat…isn’t it? Not to them…and not to us, either.

Let’s think about how this relates to us human beings. How often do you go into any other business and get a reception like this? How often do people’s faces light up, they smile, their voices convey enthusiasm at the sight of you? How often do they repeat your name? How often do they tell you how much they love (or at least enjoy) caring for you? How often do they enthusiastically give you the impression that you’re the most important person in the world at that moment?

What a great customer service world it would be if businesses conveyed how much they cared about us the way the staff at SouthPark Animal Hospital convey that they care about our pets!

If a business can muster this enthusiasm for Squeaky, let’s try to muster something similar for our 2-legged customers.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Feb 17 2010

WANT to be Good

We used to lease office space at an executive office suite. This was a national company, and when you lease from them, you get a fully furnished office, phone and mail service, and staff available to help with projects. And while the office suite had a great location and beautiful furnishings, there was always something wrong with it.

We have many projects where we need support – keying data, making calls, assembling information for mailings, etc. And it seemed like every time we asked for support (support that we paid an hourly fee to receive), we got pushback, delays, apathetic attitudes, or poor/incomplete work.

It was SO frustrating. This service could have been great for us and for them – great for us in that we only paid for the labor time when we needed it, flexing up and down as the workload fluctuated. It was great for them in that they earned more money. We were being provided with poor customer service, and to make matters worse, their call handling began to fade. They would misroute calls that should have been sent to our office or patched through to our cell phones.

In short, we left.

We interviewed several other executive office suite companies, and settled on Office Suites Plus (www.officesuitesplus.com) – where we’ve been 7 years in Charlotte, NC. All that the other place wasn’t, Office Suites Plus is; they love the projects, they constantly smile, they handle the calls and requests effortlessly, and – if there is an occasional error – they apologize, and we move on.

But one of the best aspects of Office Suites Plus is that when staff turnover happens, they always seem to find someone with a great attitude. You might say they have a gift of hiring people who are not only pleasant but who WANT to help you, who WANT to make sure you have a good experience. But I’ve been in business long enough to know it’s not a gift – it’s an intention.

To consistently hire good people who do good work with good attitudes and who understand what good customer service is all about, a company must WANT those qualities and look for those qualities in the first place.

You need to WANT to deliver good customer service to consistently succeed.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Jan 26 2010

Blackhawk at its Best

The big box home improvement stores have dominated the landscape over the past 10-20 years. They offer more products at lower prices than the “Mom and Pop” hardware stores of the past, and many of those smaller stores have gone out of business.

But Blackhawk Hardware in Charlotte, NC, offers a couple things that the big boxes can’t replicate including…popcorn. You walk into Blackhawk, and you smell the popcorn coming out of the old fashion popping machine, and anyone can make a bag (or two) for themselves – free! It’s delicious, and it gets you in the mood to slow down for your shopping experience.

But besides this initial unique and filling introduction to the store, you immediately realize that their customer service is the other thing that cannot be replicated. I’ve looked for light switch covers and washers for a kitchen sink pipe. I’ve looked for certain types of hose sprayers and gifts for relatives. After a second bag of popcorn, I’ve looked for unique light bulbs and a vise to secure a rope swing.

It seems that I cannot only always find what I need, but I also have someone pleasant, candid, and helpful aiding me in my search. As a “small box” store, their prices are sometimes higher for some basic items, but the store is constantly jam packed. It’s jam packed with customers willing to pay a little extra for the selection, the free popcorn, and the exceptional customer service.

The next time you’re in Charlotte and near Park Road Shopping Center, check out Blackhawk Hardware.

It’s a great example of how a family-owned business can compete with the big boys using customer service.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Dec 11 2009

Electric Service

Do you have an electrical problem in your house? You know, your front porch light never comes on, or you wake up to find your ceiling fan dangling by a few wires above your bed. Maybe you need a new light installed or you need a lamp you bought at a garage sale to be rewired.

In most communities, finding an electrician that you can trust is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. But in Charlotte, North Carolina, we are blessed with a small firm that has won recognition for their customer service in national publications. The company is Amherst Electric. The reason why were talking about them in a customer service blog is that customer service is what makes them special. They always do the install correctly, and they always fix the problem. And they do so at a reasonable price, where you never feel like the business is taking advantage of your lack of technical skills or knowledge.

What makes them special is that this is the company you call on the phone, and they immediately answer. You ask for advice, and they give it to you over the phone. If you want to try something yourself, they give you some pointers to consider. They schedule the time, and then they actually show up when scheduled. It’s the kind of company that you want to refer to others. It’s the kind of people that are a joy to talk to.

When they are working in your home, they don’t wish you to leave them alone. If you have things to do, that’s fine. But if you’d like to talk to them about what’s going on, they’re more than happy to walk you through the process as they are doing the fix or the install.

There are gems out there in the service world. And usually those organizations are gems not just because they’re technically proficient, but it’s because they understand and live the true value and meaning of service excellence.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

Jul 14 2009

A Great Carolinas Customer Service Example

There are many examples of great customer service in North Carolina and South Carolina. One organization that has a strong presence in these states and delivers outstanding service is Chick-fil-A.  This Southeastern-based organization has a reputation built from the experience of its customers, where you get consistently good service no matter which restaurant you patronize.  You seem to get consistently courteous, respectful, and personalized service no matter which employee you engage in the drive-thru.  You constantly hear their branded slogan “my pleasure” whenever you thank them for something.  They offer their name to you when you place your order at the drive-thru, and they present a very clean and welcoming appearance when you eat inside.

How does Chick-fil-A do this? There are many methods they use, not the least of which is how they attract their personnel.  We’re familiar with how they will proactively go to particular schools or organizations to recruit staff for their restaurants.  This is done so that they have more control over their applicant pool by seeking out those groups more likely to have personable and professional individuals participating.

They have orientation and training which all staff attend which focuses strongly on the organization’s mission and vision to ensure that everybody understands why they are working there and how important the customer is to them.  The mission in part is to ‘have a positive impact on everyone with whom we come in contact.’ That could be the mission statement for any kind of business in the world, not just a restaurant.  It doesn’t say anything about chickens or waffle fries, but it says a lot about the mindset that it wants its employees to have.

To many customers, the fact that they are closed on Sundays is an example of the organization’s values as well.  And it is also a perk to employees.

Finally, it’s an organization with a strong work ethic – they have the motto “if you’re leanin’, you should be cleanin’.”  They try to promote the need for employees to be proactive and look for opportunities to do something positive for the business or its customers, even when the day is a little slow.

Take the Chick-fil-A challenge.  Go to a restaurant today, and see what you can learn from them to apply to your business.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service?  See more information at:  http://www.cssamerica.com/