Marketing Spoonful

I had the pleasure of taking a ride with my mom to the airport in Kansas City tonight to pick up my dad. He was coming home from a trip to New Orleans.
On our way there, we had a chance to talk about a recent speech I had given on the power of great customer [...]

Tags: Customer Service, customer service horror story, food marketing blog, lifetime customer value, mom, Panera

If your business offering is so completely unique that very few other competitors will be you to the punch, you might be able to put off returning calls to potential customers. But that doesn’t make it a wise policy.
Stay with me for a minute while I set up the story.
So there I am. Sleeping in [...]

Tags: Customer Service, food marketing blog, prospecting, return calls, sales tips, snakes in the basement

Recent cutbacks at Web pioneers, such as Google and Digg remind us that it’s not enough to be wildly and successfully innovative. In today’s economy, like perhaps none other in history, you have to run lean. The news of a 10-percent workforce reduction at Digg is especially poignant since the social media site has been busy [...]

Tags: Customer Service, Digg, economic downturn, free ways to grow your brand, Google

We’re entering territory we haven’t seen in some time, with restaurant trips down and customer satisfaction seemingly more important than ever.
So tonight, I’m watching the movie No Reservations, in which Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a neurotic chef named Kate. In one scene, a patron at the restaurant where Kate works complains that the foie gras is [...]

Tags: blog, Customer Service, economic downturn, Food, Marketing, Restaurant

“Quiznos is Italian for slow service.”
Uttered somewhere in Kansas by an unsatisifed member of the Spoon’s friendwork.
Anyone from Quiznos want to try and make right? Contact the Spoon. We’ll try to iron things out.

Tags: complaint, Customer Service, food marketing, Quiznos, slow service

This is the international symbol for customer service: Smiling, good-looking person with telephone headset.

Now, slap yourself or slam your hand in the car door or whatever it takes, and come back to reality.
When customers say, “I just really like talking to a real person,” they’re not saying, “Wow, I really like those nice people at [...]

Tags: anticipate problems, brand experience, BusinessWeek, cooperation, customer experience, Customer Service, customer service champ, Food, Marketing, proactive solutions, reality check, voice of the customer

And no, “weeding” in this case doesn’t have anything to do with gardening or the Black Crowes.
In this case, according to Yankelovich MONITOR, it means being “blackballed” for superficiality in favor of substance and accountability.
In today’s world of myriad choices, it’s easier than ever for consumers to walk away from brands, restaurants and retailers that [...]

Tags: accountability, anticipate needs, choices, consumer relations, customer is always right, Customer Service, customization, hire great people, honesty, segment, superficiality, weeding, Yankelovich MONITOR

Whether it’s Washington, D.C., or Lamar, Colo., (pictured here), Safeway does so many things right. We’ve worked with Safeway for a few years now, but we’re always observing new things.
The small-town version of the store proves you can be small town and still stock the essentials and so much more, from an extensive line of [...]

Tags: beef, Customer Service, Dillons, Eastern Colorado, Family, Henry Winehard, multi-tier branding, O, organic, private label, Rancher's Reserve, root beer, Safeway, savings card, selection, small town, tender, Travel, vacation