Ma. Merdekah Ybanez-Delid

Does this scenario happen? Yes it does.

Over at Harvard Business blogs, Conversation Starter writers, Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy, share instances when customer loyalty is a bad thing.

* when customers are loyal to you because you have compromised the price of your products and services
* when customers demand an excessive amount of service, but are unwilling to pay fairly

Read more…

The article actually makes me think of the other side of customer loyalty. It can be a tricky thing.

How to ensure that loyal customers are oiling your business machine

There’s a saying that goes you cannot love someone you do not know. The same is true for employees. If you do not know them, then you cannot take care of them… well.

The big question now is how do you take care of your remote workforce? I’ve been thinking about that for months now. And here are my thoughts:

• Establish a relationship with them. To do this is to reach out to them regularly through email, chat, or call. You ask them how they are, how they feel about their client, their tasks, their work.
• Be there with/for them during the happy and sad occasions, and let them know that they can count on you.
• Help them do a good job especially that they are working elsewhere. They may not get your instructions correctly, or they may hesitate to clarify things with you. Take the initiative to make things clear.

I believe that it’s important for them to...

Whirlpool has been a trusted brand for household appliances for years now. And the reason for its stay in the business is innovation.

Nancy Snyder has been credited for most of the innovative efforts that Whirlpool have been taking. Under Ms. Snyder, the company took into a bold yet successful initiative.

In an interview with Terry Waghorn for Forbes.com, Ms. Synder reveals how she did it, and how Whirlpool embraced the “embedding innovation.” Some insights from the interview:

First, Jeff Fettig, Whirlpool’s chairman, made a company-wide announcement that encouraged every employee to submit their innovative ideas.

Second, created innovation teams, who had to prove their idea on three accounts: benefit the customer; have that competitive advantage and return value to the shareholders, and able to move into the innovation pipeline.

Third, create software tools to help teams collaborate virtually and publish their work across the...

The peak season for shopping may have passed, but for this year, I'm sure there'll be more opportunities to shop. A down economy doesn't necessarily mean no economic activity.

In fact, I foresee companies going on sale and giving people more avenues to spend. In any case, companies stand to benefit more if they are able to maintain that memorable customer experience, which customers remember when economy becomes better.

An obvious result of a sale season is the great number of customers storming the shops or stores. Often when establishments deal with a huge number of customers, the service suffers, except of course for those who have already a good customer service strategy in place. Otherwise, customers face long slow lines, empty racks, and worse, no available products on the shelves.

Last Thanksgiving, Nielsen out out a Thanksgiving Don’t-Dos. I tweaked a bit the list, and made...