• Learn something every day. Never stop learning.

  • Corporations can work five times harder and spend five times more money to gain new customers, or they can keep the ones they have.

  • Leadership is being the best you can be, and helping others be the best they can be.

  • Companies Don’t Solve Problems.
    People Do.

  • The number one fear in the world is public speaking. “You” vs. “I” messages are powerful tools for capturing your audience’s attention.

  • People are the core strategic asset. To be successful, a company must listen, involve, encourage, nurture, support, empower, and reward all its constituencies.

  • The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes

  • "High performing organizations are constantly focusing on improving their capabilities through learning systems, building knowledge capital and transformational learning throughout the organization.” - Ken Blanchard

  • The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. Vince Lombardi

  • 78% of consumers say their most satisfying experience occurred because of a capable and competent customer service representative.

  • Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Winston Churchill

  • No one of us is as smart as all of us – when teams function well, miracles happen.

  • 25 of every 27 customers who have a bad experience fail to report it because they don’t believe anything will change.

  • The brighter you are, the more you have to learn.

  • The key to building a culture based on Trust and Personal Responsibility is getting all employees to be committed to the organization’s Vision and the Values That Build Trust.

  • It costs 10 times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer.

  • 70% of organizational changes fail and these failures can be traced to ineffective leadership.

  • Change is constant. To implement change you must listen, engage, and empower individuals in the change process.

  • 85% of business leaders agree that traditional differentiators alone are no longer a sustainable business strategy.

  • First, people don’t grow and change much unless they’re in a supportive environment where people know what they want to do and encourage them to do it.

  • 50 – 70% of how employees perceive their organization can be traced back to the actions of one person – the leader.

  • Employee loyalty builds customer loyalty, which builds brand loyalty. It’s as simple - and as difficult - as that.

  • If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow rice. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. – Chinese Proverb

  • Effective coaching is a key method for increasing productivity and profitability in an organization. Recent studies have shown that 85% of the workforce wants holistic coaching so that they can continually improve and grow.

  • It is estimated that 80% of mergers and acquisitions that occur today fail to meet initial expectations.

  • The key to keeping customers satisfied and loyal is to value and train employees while making them an integral part of corporate success.

  • A survey of 350 executives across 14 industries, 68% confirmed their companies experienced unanticipated problems in their change process. – International Consortium of Executive Development Research.

  • Leadership IQ being equal, it is believed emotional intelligence – how we manage ourselves, our emotions and the emotions of others – accounts for 85 – 90% of what separates the most outstanding leaders from their peers.

TMC.net Loyalty Factor's Dianne Durkin on Social Media and Customer Loyalty

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Voice Of The Customer Fetaured Article

Loyalty Factor's Dianne Durkin
on Social Media and Customer Loyalty

   By Brendan B. Read, Senior Contributing Editor

 December 08, 2010

 

One critical facet of social media that has not received too much play is its impact on customer loyalty. To understand this, TMCnet.com reached out to Dianne Durkin, who is president and founder of Loyalty Factor, which provides consulting and training services aimed at enhancing employee, customer and brand loyalty, to get her thoughts on the positive and negative effects of social media on loyalty strategies. We also sought out her recommendations for firms on enhancing loyalty in this social media age.

Durkin points out:

“With today’s social media, organizations should be aware that while engaging in social media may leverage their customer service, it can also destroy it. A poor customer experience can now be more harmful than ever. With the click of a mouse, customers can take their grievance global and change public perception of a brand.”

“Customer care via social media is a viral movement: both positive and negative. Organizations should think carefully about how to use social media as an additional tool to engage their customer. At the same time, they need to utilize the basics of respect and satisfying customer needs when building customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

“Today’s businesses need to take a step back from social media tools and web traffic analysis for establishing employee, customer and brand loyalty. To sustain loyalty, I would recommend organizations take a “back to basics” strategy – and have face-to-face conversations with customers to sustain loyalty.” 

“Rather than automatically defaulting to technical measurements gathered from Facebook, website analytics and Twitter-injected metrics, businesses must redefine corporate culture, image, brand and consumer behavior by building a loyalty advantage from within.   

Durkin says that a good brand can increase consumer interaction and result in increased productivity, higher profitability and lower customer turnover if they:

  • Energize the workforce to promote excellent customer satisfaction and loyalty from within the organization
  • Stimulate a positive outward bound chain reaction
  • Create a favorable brand perception among consumers and stakeholders

“As businesses gear up for the biggest holiday shopping season in five years, customer service departments must ensure that their loyal employees become their Number 1 ambassadors of goodwill – both on social media and in person, “ recommends Durkin.” Loyal customers keep businesses profitable and happy customer service employees —who enjoy their jobs—are on the frontlines to bring in business. Businesses must empower an enthusiastic, motivated sales force to energize customers and deliver sales.”

Whether on social media, face-to-face, or phone interactions with customers Durkin urges businesses to focus on:

Respect

“This is of utmost importance. Treat people the way they want to be treated. Treat everyone equally. Ensure customers know that they are being heard—and recognize their ideas and opinions are valuable.”

Integrity

“[This is] an important aspect of the customer service culture. This means always doing what is right for the customer and the organization. It also means never making false promises. Do what you say you are going to do.”

Teamwork

“[This is] an important component for a successful culture. Having a “not my job” attitude never results in good customer service. Good communications with customers, being proactive and informing customers of situations they may encounter is critical to good service. Lastly, maintaining a consistency in fair and responsible customer service will build and sustain a strong culture geared for success.”

“A combination of culture and training will provide the professionalism for great customer interactions,” Durkin concludes. “Respecting individuals for their personal needs, changing business needs, creating positive interactions, anticipating customer needs, and always acting with respect, honesty and integrity will position an organization for a competitive advantage – both in person as well as on social media.”


This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Erin Monda 

http://voice-of-the-customer.tmcnet.com/topics/voice-of-the-customer/articles/124887-loyalty-factors-dianne-durk-on-social-media-customer.htm

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