Skip to main content

Companies & stakeholders: You better take care of the customer

Lest you doubt the importance of customer service in an age of web connectivity, social networking, and halfway-around-the-world call centers, take a look at Howard Lindzon's latest episode of "Momentum Mondays" on StockTwits TV.



Howard usually takes time on Mondays to talk about emerging trends in the stock market and the economy, while also offering his take on the private company market and entrepreneurial trends.

In Monday's episode (flip to the 7 minute mark), he discussed the power of customer service and why this secondary point of contact can make or break your relationship with customers. After all, as Richard Branson noted, for online customers, it's the second impression that counts.

Take it, Sir Richard:

"...In business, creating a favorable impression at the first point of customer contact is an absolute imperative.
Though everyone knows this, many companies still only manage to do a mediocre job at best.

But what isn't widely understood is that in a world where so many transactions are conducted online, the customer's second impression of the brand can be even more important than his first.

The second interaction a customer has with your business usually involves something that has gone wrong -- they're having trouble using the product or service. Handled correctly, this is a situation in which a company can create a very positive impression. Sadly, it's where things often go terribly wrong..."


As customers, we've all known the frustrations of dealing with inept customer service reps or the runaround we sometimes get from company websites ("where's the damn phone number?") and call centers.

What's interesting about customer service quality, is that if we examine it on another level, we find that it also has a profound impact on a company's financial success and
its return to shareholders.

I think this is a big part of the equation for businesses going forward, as Howard outlines in his brief chat on the "decade of choice" for customers. Everyone involved with serving customers, and that includes (by implication) shareholders and the big shots who do the hiring & firing and set the pace for a company, will have to focus on making the customer happy.
Otherwise it's, "hasta la vista, baby".

Popular posts from this blog

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li...

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4. ...