When it comes to customer service and targeting a specific client base, some companies hit the bull’s-eye better than others. Temkin Group, J.D. Power and Associates, Forrester Research and Zogby Analytics partnered up with MSN Money to release a brand new list of the top companies that make customers happy. Let’s take a look at highlights from the list and see what lessons we can take away in our own efforts to provide the best service – in conjunction with the best call center solutions – to consumers.
A warehouse club with exclusive membership, Costco shows us the value of making customers feel special. One of the largest retailers in the United States, the brand boasts over 174,000 employees, as of 2012.
Like Costco, Sam’s Club is a membership-only warehouse club. Owned by Walmart, Sam’s Club used to cater exclusively to small businesses, but the brand changed its approach in order to accommodate and acquire more customers. This tactic seems to be paying off, as the company reported an 8.4 percent sales increase in 2012.
Founded in 1956, Marshall’s is a go-to stop for affordable clothes for people of all ages. By keeping their prices low, Marshall’s has kept its customers quite happy.
After the sad closure of Border’s stores a few years ago, Barnes & Noble has been the only major book chain retailer left in the United States. Barnes & Noble allows customers to hang out, drink coffee and browse through books and magazines without ever being asked to leave (until closing time, of course).
Founded in 1922 by U.S. Army officers who worried that they wouldn’t be able to acquire auto insurance because of the perception that they were a high-risk group, United Services Automobile Association (USAA) today offers banking and insurance services to former and current Armed Forces members, as well as their immediate families.
Despite its niche market and humanitarian business approach, USAA took in 2012 revenues of $20.729 billion. Founding your business for a good cause, having revenue in the billions of dollars and keeping customers happy? That’s quite an accomplishment, indeed.
In less than 20 years, Amazon has become a go-to online retailer of the modern era, bringing the term “e-commerce” to the masses and becoming a competitor with (and often overtaking) any company that has the ability to ship products. By acquiring a number of companies since the 1990s (including Zappos, Audible.com and GoodReads, among others), Amazon has been able to offer the lowest prices across a number of industries.
By shipping to all parts of the United States – and often all over the world – from its giant warehouses, Amazon offers customers everything they could possibly want shipped at the lowest possible price. What’s better than that?
For the call center industry, a number of lessons can be surmised from what these companies do to make customers happy. Whether it’s low prices (Amazon), a noble mission (USAA) or exclusivity (Costco & Sam’s Club), the main take away for every call center manager looking to implement the very best call center solutions is that customers want to feel that what you’re offering them is something special, something personal and something that they can’t get for a better deal anywhere else.
