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Digest

On the stand

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 30, 2006

Five chances to win over the customer

As anyone who runs a service business knows, the primary source of revenue - customers - is the biggest pain in the neck when it comes to trying to turn a profit. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Frances X. Frei, a Harvard Business School professor argues that there are five distinct parts of any service transaction: when the customer arrives; makes a request of some kind; participates in the interaction (describes the symptoms to a physician, for example); decides how much to participate in the transaction ("an internal accountant may or may not take care to hand over well-organized files to her company's independent auditor"); and judges how well she or he has been treated. At each point, a company can choose to offer four levels of care, with fabulous service on the one end and self-service on the other, Frei writes.

Strategic advice for service satisfaction

No matter how much attention companies give to customer service, something invariably goes wrong. When it does, Laura MacNeil writes in Budget Travel, use a four-step process to get what you want. First, remember that you actually want something to change. "The goal is to be firm and clear, without coming off as insulting or aggressive," MacNeil writes. Second, document everything. "Companies say that having photos to accompany your complaint is unnecessary," MacNeil writes, but "certainly no company wants a photograph painting it in a bad light circulated on a Web site or anywhere else." Third, be persistent. If the first agent you call does not help you, call back and try with someone else, or ask to talk to a supervisor. Finally, if the company is willing to do something, let it make the first offer.

Play political game to get ahead at work

Now that the election is over, odds are you do not want to see another campaign message ever again. But if you think that way, you could be missing a huge opportunity to advance your career, argues Men's Health. "The art of quietly working angles and subtly twisting arms - and then grabbing credit - has been perfected by politicians," the magazine writes.

Among the suggestions:

- The word "imagine" is the most effective buzzword in politics, argues Frank Luntz, who is described as a "GOP language analyst." You should use it constantly: "Play to the boss' dreams: Imagine higher profits. Imagine efficiency. You might just imagine your way to a promotion."

- Fess up. It is not the mistake that is fatal, it is the coverup.

- Share the acclaim. When you credit your teammates for a victory, it makes them want to work with you again, says Al Madison, a political consultant.

[Last modified November 30, 2006, 00:21:23]