Thursday, September 18, 2014

The True Cost of a Great Customer Service

We used to speak about all possible effects of bad customer service, but seldom refer to the real cost of a good service, that’s because a human being thinks about negative things more than good ones, right?

A few days ago I entered a shop to buy some decorations for the upcoming holiday. I knew what I needed to buy and entered the shop very confident, just the way people behave when they are sure what they want. I was short of time too. It’s needless to say when I left the shop. And only then did I realize what a good customer service can cost. I bought so much stuff, spent all the money I had with me and that was a result of a great service I never met before.

Here you can see how customers respond to good service:

Majority think that customer service is an easy job that can be accomplished by nearly everyone. In fact it’s so, everyone can do it, but how?  It’s difficult enough to prepare a savvy staff for that. That’s why only about 10 percent of companies deliver great customer service. Although 80 percent of companies think they deliver superior customer service.

When you realize the full potential of a good customer service, you do understand that the game is worth the candle. 

Good customer service is a two-way street, where both can be happy – as when you create some value for someone else, you yourself become happy. And don’t forget that it can cost five times more to buy new cus­tomers than retain exist­ing ones.

Remember - customer service starts with you and you can be that change to the better!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

August – another “Google” month!

So many exciting acquisitions take place every passing month! And social acquisitions became an inseparable part of my mentions – Twitter and Facebook continue growing their kingdoms. 
But it’s the second time I call my list a “Google” month, as most important acquisitions occurring in August were Google’s achievements: in May Google had 6 acquisitions, in August - 5, starting from a travel guide to cloud-based software. Who is the target for the next month?

August 1 - Twitter Buys Password-Sharing Startup Mitro
August started with Twitter acquiring password-sharing startup Mitro. Founded in 2012, Mitro’s primary product is a web browser extension that allowed users to store  and share passwords.  Mitro team will join Twitter’s location team in New York, focusing on a variety of geo-related projects!

August 6 - Google Acquires Emu, Texting With Built-In Assistant
Google has acquired Emu - the app creates reminders from messages based on time and location, as well as showing movie times and schedule restaurant reservations from text message.

August 6 – Google Acquires Directr, An App For Shooting Short Films On Your Phone
On August 6th Directr has been snatched up by Google. It helps users and businesses shoot videos that were a bit longer than your average Vine — think ads, or promo clips, or family holiday videos. The Directr product will live on under its own branding, but the team behind it is joining YouTube’s video ad team.

August 7 - Facebook Buys Secure Server Technology Provider PrivateCore
Facebook announced to acquire PrivateCore, a Palo Alto-based secure server technology company. PrivateCore’s early users have included large financial institutions and a Non-Governmental Organization funded by the US government. PrivateCore’s technology, however, could protect Facebook users’ private data better.

August 17 - Google Acquires Smart Travel Guide Startup Jetpac
Google is buying the travel app startup JetPac founded in 2011. The technology is a system of algorithms that can be trained to recognize different elements within photos, creates visual city guides by analyzing photos from social media to infer key information about the places they were taken. Google will integrate the app's artificial intelligence technology into its image search and map services.  

August 23 - Google Acquires Mechanical Engineering Firm Gecko Design
Google’s forth acquisition of the month became Gecko Design, a small, Los Gatos, Calif.-based company specializing in product design for consumer electronics. The five-person industrial design shop was founded in 1996, specializes in developing consumer-electronic products, working with engineers early in the process before manufacturing begins. Gecko’s clients have included FitBit, Logitech , Sonos and H-P , according to the company’s website.

August 26 – Google Acquires Zync To Bring Visual Effects Rendering To Its Cloud Platform
And the final Google acquisition in August was a Boston-based Zync Inc., the maker of Zync Render,“cloud-based rendering software.” That’s software that helps movie studios take simple, computer-generated pictures of things like a giant robot bashing through a wall and make it look real. Zync’s data and technology will be integrated into the Google Cloud Platform, and move off Amazon Web Services.

August 29 – Amazon buys Twitch
Amazon and Twitch have officially announced the deal, which will see Amazon purchase all outstanding shares of Twitch for roughly $970 million in cash. Twitch is the largest live-streaming website in the US, a live video-game-streaming site with more than 55 million users that's like YouTube for video games.