Category Archives: Customer Service

MY911 LIFE SAVING APP

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In today’s fast-paced world of GPS enabled devices, the possibilities for life-saving technologies available for the everyday consumer have never been more accessible. Much like On-star provides real-time information regarding your vehicle’s status, MY911 will constantly ping your location and status information to the MY-911 platform. While my911 can certainly be used as an AVL like onstar, (although additional (very affordable) hardware is needed), it provides the convenience and flexibility of going wherever your smart phone can get reception!

At first when you look at all of the different options, it can seem overwhelming, but when you remember that you can use them all for the same price, just enjoy the ones you want to use!

Assistance
Accident and Impact Management (patent pending) $10K Abduction Reward
International and National SOS Search and Rescue $30K Coverage
Personal Location Notification Medivac $30k Coverage
24/7 Certified Nurse Line Extensive Online Tracking Management Portal
Roadside Assistance
Geo-Fencing
Weather Alert
Trip Reporting
High Crime Area and Predator Alerts
Speeding Alert
Cyber Alert Notification Management
Incident Tracking and Reporting
Homeland and Travel Status Notification

One of the cool things about this application, is you can go get a 14-day trial to see what it does for yourself.

In order to take full advantage of the software, your smart phone needs to have an accelerometer and a GPS chip.

In a recent conversation I had with the Owner and Founder of My-911, Larry Hurwitz, he confirmed that in addition to the MY911 Android App, the MY911 Blackberry App is up and working, and of course… the “I-911″ version of the MY911 IPhone Application is still on track to be released soon…

Products Change, but Good Service Rarely Does

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I recently reviewed the research work by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry on the Conceptual Model of Service Quality. Their work suggests that regardless of the product or service in question, customers use relatively the same criteria to evaluate the exchange. Although their research was published in the Journal of Marketing in fall of 1985–it may as well have been written in 2010, internet, cell phones and all!

Of course for an organization to take good care of the customers, the employees and workers need to know what that feels like themselves. In other words, for the most part we can step beyond your customers and think about our employees, partners, co-workers etc.

Whether you’re rating on a five star scale, by thumbs up or thumbs down, 1-10, or whatever, the criteria is summarized in the following points:

  • Reliability: Are you delivering what you said you would? Are you doing it over and over? Consistently, accurately?
  • Responsiveness: Are you delivering on time? Are you demonstrating a willingness and readiness to provide the service? What’s the spirit of service you are conveying?
  • Competence: Do you have and can you demonstrate that you have the skills and knowledge to perform the service?
  • Communication: How well do you listen to your customers? How well do you keep them informed?
  • Credibility: Are you believable? Do you demonstrate it in your conversation? Appearance? Marketing?
  • Courtesy: Friendliness of personal. Is the golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated
  • Access: Are you approachable and easy to contact regarding questions? (In today’s world of emailed customer service queries this can be the most frustrating).
  • Customer Knowledge: Do you speak the customer’s language? Do you really know their needs and objectives?
  • Security: Do your customers feel safe? Can they trust you with their financial information, account confidentiality etc?
  • Tangibles: What physical impressions do you leave with your customers? Appearance and condition/quality of facilities? Reports and inspections etc…

What strikes me about this list is two fold: First, the businesses I know that do this well, do business well.–It’s the open secret of customer service. And Second, well, very few businesses do this well :)

Building Utah, 1 Utah Homes at a Time

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It’s always refreshing to hear when new businesses are starting in tumultuous markets. There are few industries that have been hammered worse that real estate. While the Utah real estate market hasn’t been hit near as hard as Arizona or California, there’s no question that it’s seen better days.

New Homes in Utah are being produced by a few very successful builders. A number of elements are contributing to the ability for new home buyers to afford great quality homes at a reasonable cost. Among these factors, reduced access to traditional credit has lowered the cost of sub contractors, building materials and land.

It goes without saying that current market conditions have created the perfect storm for buying a new Utah home. I’ve had the opportunity to see the 1 Utah Homes model from the inside, and the attention to detail, cost and customer service is among the very best of Utah Home Builders.

Expectation Management.

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Customer service is really all about expectation management.

I remember a time I was waiting for a return flight from Atlanta Georgia, when the customer service representative announced that the flight to Salt Lake City had been delayed four hours and alternate arrangements might be necessary for many customers. The dismay of the disgruntle passengers could be heard throughout the gate terminal… About 30 minutes later, the customer representative made another announcement that proclaimed they had worked to expedite the problem and the delay would only be an hour longer. The crowd erupted in cheers. I smiled to myself as I thought how many people still missed their connecting flights but by suddenly exceeding expectations the angry mobs were appeased…

Let them know what to expect: risks, worst case scenario, and more. I’m not saying dwell on it, but mention it as a potential part of the package and if things do go wrong everyone will be more prepared to handle it. When things go smoothly, (which they most often do) your customers are even happier with the goods or services.

Online retail, brick and mortal service retail or door to door sales, the key to long term customer satisfaction remains: let them know what to expect. Manage that and customer service improves, employees are happier and management is happier.