There’s nothing worse than when technology fails you, but all you can do is hope your customer-service work can save the day.
Head over to Intuit to read about a firsthand story of how Brett Snyder and his service Cranky Concierge got through a technical snafu.
Rick Parrish at 1to1 Media has a great round up of upcoming changes to US federal customer experience, particularly regarding digital access to services and responsiveness. For instance:
The President's fiscal-year 2015 (FY15) budget proposal features customer experience like never before. Although the administration has ostensibly stressed CX since publishing Executive Order 13571 in 2011, enshrining CX in a budget shows it's a real priority. The budget includes more than $900 million to help agencies like VA, SSA, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "launch new efforts to deliver a world-class customer service experience to citizens and businesses." For instance, IRS is set to receive $265 million to improve its phone and correspondence response times and boost its toll-free level of service. The Small Business Administration scores millions for its Business.USA.gov and SBA ONE portals.
Read the full roundup for the other changes coming.
The Government Contractor's Network has spend some time reviewing the twelve benefits of GSA as released by GSA, "translating" them into common parlance. We thought they were quite helpful in looking at things in a practical manner, you may as well. For example:
4. Small Business set-asides are allowable at the discretion of the ordering activity contracting officer helping your organization to meet your socioeconomic goals. It is important to note that 80% of all GSA Schedule holders are small businesses and the simplified ordering procedures for Schedule set-asides are prescribed in FAR 8.405-5, not Part 19.
Translation: In addition to having limited competition by virtue of having a GSA Schedule, your pool of competitors could be even smaller based on your business size! Contracting Officers have the authority to set-aside GSA task orders specifically for small businesses. This is a benefit to your customer because it allows them to reach their Small Business goals. If you are a small business, be sure to always represent your small business certifications on your website and all your GSA related literature.
A number of brands have been recently been changing or experimenting with their brand image. Two notable examples include Olive Garden and Twitter:
Branding changes come with concomitant concerns about making adjustments that aren't favorable to existing fan bases, but can be considered acceptable losses if they come with an accordingly higher increase in new customers. Not only that, but visual storytelling can say much about who you are as a company, and your brand is a cornerstone of that story. What does your logo and your branding say about you?