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Archive for the ‘customer service’ Category

So you want to be a sales pro

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Who doesn’t! Well, you ought to get acquainted with with a guy I’ve worked with for about 20 years. He’s moved from one company to another as might be expected. He worked for others, but mostly in his own business. Just like the rest of us, there have been ups and down, high points and crises. On a couple of occasions he has had the rug pulled out from under him. The usual stuff that anyone in sales can relate to. He’s also still works customers who have been with him all that time.

That’s the back story; now for the good stuff:

  • Not once have I ever heard him complain about anything, including customers.
  • He does what needs to be done for customers, no matter what it is. Nothing is beneath him.
  • He doesn’t get upset (outwardly, at least) when something doesn’t go smoothly or an problem arises. He recognizes that stuff happens and the job is to deal with it.
  • He’s a regular at industry trade shows, but he never has a booth takes a booth for his own business. It’s not that he’s cheap. He devotes his time to working along side his customers.

If you met him, you would be surprised to learn that he’s a salesperson, let alone a real pro. He’s quiet, unassuming, patient, calm and appreciative and, believe me, a person of his word. It’s never, ever about him.

If you want to meet a sales pro, look no further than Ed Testa (he never goes by Edward) of Champion Capital, an equipment leasing company.

Frontier Airlines gets customer service right

Monday, April 12th, 2010

It was with some trepidation that I dialed the 800 number for Frontier Airlines. When asked if I wanted to speak to an agent, I said yes and two rings later, there was a helpful fellow on the line. It quickly became clear that he was not authorized to do what I requested so he willingly transferred me to Mike, his supervisor, clearly a bright, customer-oriented professional. When I explained my problem, Mike said he would take care of it––even though it went against their system. It all took less than five minutes.

Unfortunately, this was an unexpected experience––and clearly the exception. I was ready to do battle, but these two guys took the bluster out of my sails! It was a wonderful not feeling it was necessary to go to the mat to get someone to listen to your story––and to get something done. They listened and they responded by taking care of the customer. The big airlines might learn a lot from tiny Frontier. They deserve to succeed.

Comcast is no Apple

Monday, December 21st, 2009

It all started on October 8 and it’s never ended. On that day our company email lost control of its bodily functions. Messages to certain regular recipients began disappearing before they were received. Other originating from several clients never arrived. If an email happened to reach the right recipient, the response was lost in cyber space. Many emails, that had heretofore reached us, turned up in “junk” mail. As you might imagine, it was a nightmare for us and for our clients, who demonstrated inordinate and much appreciated patience.

Our loyal email provider went to work and over time isolated what seemed to be the problem. It was Comcast. Certain of our emails and those coming to us were going through Comcast servers and it appeared that they had ratcheted up their “spam” filters, sending our email hither-and-yon.

Armed with this information, our provider contacted the folks at Comcast to work out the knots. Rather than taking the request seriously, they referred our provider to something called “email clients hosting,” which appears to be their exchange server.

Thanks to an unresponsive Comcast, the problem persists, going on three months. As of now, no one at Comcast has even had the courtesy to try to understand our problem, let alone deal with it.

After having enjoyed Apple’s customer service for many years, there is no excuse for having to endure the way Comcast takes care of concern concerns.