Phil Dourado
Phil Dourado
Author, Speaker, Independent Consultant
Founding editor of Customer Service Management Journal in the United States, and of its companion title, Customer Service Management Journal (now rebranded as Customer Management Magazine) in the United Kingdom. He is the author of The 6 Second Leader (Capstone, John Wiley & Sons, 27). www.PhilDourado.com
On Lipstick and Pigs: Sales Promotions and Customer Loyalty
Steve Yastrow, over on the Tom Peters site, asks if a bribe can lead to loyalty and whether 'loyalty programs' can deliver loyalty. Well,...
Customer-Centered Lessons From the End of the World
So, to state the obvious, we're still here, then. But, it did generate a wave of human energy, didn't it, all the media coverage...
The Bank That Changed Its Customer’s Password
Steve Jetley, a customer of Lloyds TSB bank, was unhappy with the service he received. So, he set his online banking password as "Lloyds...
Don’t Make People Wait. In a Downturn, Use Time to Show You Care
I read a great article in Tyler Brule's column in the Financial Times over the weekend. Apparently making people wait for a meeting to...
How to Use Twitter for Customer Service
Interesting slideshare here. Skip to slides 89-95 (-ish) for examples of how Southwest Airlines and Zappos use Twitter for customer service. Micromedia, small interactions...
The One Good Thing About a Downturn
"Good timbers do not grow with ease; the stronger the winds, the stronger the trees..." - Williard Marriott The one good thing about a downturn…
How to Keep Customers in a Downturn
Keeping Customers In Tough Trading Conditions Here's some ammunition to convince the boss or the finance director (or you, if you are the top boss...
The Secret of Happiness Is …
...low expectations. When you have no choice your expectations are lower and 'pretty good' can be pleasantly surprising. (Also, when you are disappointed, the world/supplier...
Beware of Leaving Frontline People With Only Negative Power
When your trading conditions turn down, the knee-jerk reaction is to start to re-centralize again. In a bid to control costs, power is pulled...
Customer Service Is the New Marketing
I've become addicted to Slideshare. I like this (the Slideshare, below), though I think the title doesn't do it justice ('Customer Service is the...
How to Inject Personality Into Automated Customer Service
Jim Sterne, one of my favourite/favorite (that's UK/US spelling BTW) web people (author of Customer Service on The Internet, among other things), got...
All the World’s a Stage: Team Psychology and Performance
I just heard a psychologist talking about how people perform better when they feel they are being watched or 'on show'. It reminded me...
The New Golden Rule
I first learnt this from Ken Pasternak. We're always told to treat customers as we would want to be treated. It comes from one of...
If Jack Nicholson Were Your Customer
I heard the late, great Fred Newell once talk about a Jack Nicholson exchange with a waitress in the movie Five Easy Pieces that...
Disney’s Service Principles; What Are Yours?
1. Pay fantastic attention to detail 2. Everything you do walks the talk 3. EveryONE walks the talk 4. Customers are best heard through many…
Heathrow Terminal 5: When Things Go Horribly Wrong, Sometimes Even the Best Service Recovery Strategy Won’t Be Good Enough
Yesterday, London's Heathrow airport opened its multi-billion pound Terminal 5. If you're not in the UK, you can read below what happened. I'm not going...
Lessons From Toyota in Moving From a “Push” to a “Pull” Economy (in Memory of Joseph Juran)
In the Pull Economy, you respond to customer 'pull' forces, rather than rely on old-fashioned Supplier Push. The market isn't made and shaped by...
Innovating for Customers: Adjacency Innovation
Lee McEwan in his Serendipity Book blog spots an interesting approach to innovating for customers. This is a simple variant of what Vijay Govindarajan...
Starbucks’ Organization Chart
Brand Autopsy's John Moore, who used to work at Starbucks, reminds us that this is the real organization chart. No matter what your over-complicated...
Co-creation: Turkey and Cranberry Soda
Co-creation has been an emerging theme in recent years – where customers move from being passive receivers of your product or service to actively...