Two posts ago I told you about a service calledShoeboxed.com and I talked about all those stacks of business cards you have sitting either on your desk or in a drawer somewhere. But what I didn’t do was connect the two! 

If you happen to be one of the folks (and if you are, you are not alone by any means) who has stacks or piles or baggies or some other trendy container chock-full of business cards here’s exactly what to do with them. Put them all in a big envelope and send them toshoeboxed.com. They will scan all of those card and send you back a spreadsheet with the contact information neatly arranged to you can do something with it and consequently the person who belongs to the card. The price is very reasonable and the service is relatively fast. Besides, you haven’t done anything with them yet… right? You might as well make contact with them and see where that contact leads you. 

Once you get the spreadsheet back, you can easily import the data into a mail program or a contact manager program. Some common mail programs are, Constant Contact, iContact, Aweber, Mail Chimp, AddressTwo and Infusionsoft. Please note this is not an all inclusive listing of the programs that are available. Depending on your needs and or budget, you can select the one that’s best for you. Some of the contact management programs that are out there; AddressTwo, Infusionsoft, SalesForce, ACT!, and many, many others. AddressTwo is a good solution for many folks. It’s inexpensive and relatively easy to use and the support is really good. 

The reason why it’s important to put your contacts in some type of system versus Outlook or AddressBook because in a system you can segment your list. A segment might be something like, where you met them, the kind of work they do, if they’re a client, friend, resource, source or prospect. We’ll talk about specific segmentation in a later e-mail. The more variables you have, the more ways you can slice and dice your list to be more specific, more targeted in your contact (mailing and e-mailing) efforts. Remember it’s not okay to just put someone in a system and e-mail to them without their previous agreement. If you ask someone to signup for your e-mail list and they give you their information you can e-mail to them. Remember it’s important to get permission of some type before just e-mailing a person.

I know I said I was going to finish the conversation from last entry… But I had two tremendous Customer Service experiences this past week and I just have to share them with you! 

How do you define Customer Service? 

Here’s a good definition that I lived the past week, not by just one individual but two, from two different companies and I want to share my experiences. First, let me say, I think Customer Service is a make or break of long customer relationship. 

The first was with Sheri a Customer Service Representative at Pay-Pal. I hadn’t used my Pay-Pal debit card in some time and when I did I used it three times in a row. After that Pay-Pal figured that someone had taken my card and put a hold on the card. They called but the number they gave me was cut off when the message was given and I couldn’t make contact to rectify the situation. But, you see, I didn’t know all this when I went to dinner to celebrate the kids (Libby and John’s) perfect attendance at school. 

When I went to pay for the meal the card was declined. How embarrassing. I knew that it should work but it didn’t. I promptly called the number on the back of the card and that is when Sheri came on the line. I was pretty mad, embarrassed mostly as you can imagine. Sheri listened to me vent, reassured me that she could fix the situation and then stayed on the line with me until the card cleared at the restaurant. It took me 7 or 8 minutes to find our waiter to run the card (seems only the server that served us could run the card) and Sheri stayed on the line with me the entire time. Patiently waiting until my customer service issue was resolved. Making sure the fix she implemented actually worked and that I was okay. I couldn’t believe it. I have talked to “Bank” representatives before but none, ever, never were as nice and polite and patient at Sheri. 

The second example I want to share was just this past weekend. I had to make a quick trip to Las Vegas to work with a client at a seminar on Saturday. I had been at this particular hotel this past summer and Jason was at the front desk and I remembered him from his quick smile and welcoming attitude. This time I needed some things for the client and went to the front desk. Jason went above and beyond. He anticipated my needs, asked the right questions and made sure I had what I needed to take care of my client. If I needed something, like an extra table and chairs in the room, he made it his job to make sure it happened. The catering staff “hovered” around in the event I needed anything to help make the event a success. 

When you hear, see or feel an outstanding customer service experience that goes above and beyond your expectations you should make note of it. Why? Because every customer service experience I encounter from here on out will be measured against the service these two provided. That’s the same for you too. I will compare, can’t help it, the experience I get from you to that Sheri and Jason provided. Your clients do the same thing. It doesn’t matter if they had a great experience at carnival, they’ll compare it to you, your team and your company. 

We will talk about a contact management system… next time!