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Chip Bell

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Senior Partner, The Chip Belll Group

388 points

The Chip Bell Group helps organizations create a culture that supports long term customer loyalty. CBG conducts customer loyalty research, facilitates customer experience strategy development, provides targeting training and coaches leaders in how to insure effective process alignment with a customer experience strategy.

WEB: http://www.taketheirbreathaway.com/

May 8, 2012

Chip Bell and 13 other people answered this question

How can you reward customers who are effective brand advocates?

One form of advocate recognition that can be effective is providing a special learning experience just for loyal customers. Using the session to also solicit customer input can go far in making advocates feel like partners with the brand. more

Customer Service

Brand Awareness

March 20, 2012

Chip Bell and 3 other people answered this question

How can your on-hold message provides an opportunity for you to market to your customers ?

By providing a customer options while on hold. "Punch one if you would like to hear music during your brief wait; punch two if you would like to hear the latest national news; punch three if you would like to have silence, or punch four ... more

Information Technology

March 20, 2012

Chip Bell and 8 other people answered this question

What are the biggest misconceptions about entrepreneurship?

The myth is that entrepreneurs are self-centered, greedy and only interested in making a lot of money. The truth is that most entrepreneurs are successful because they are visionary, passionate about their dream and determined to work long and hard to make the dream successful. ... more

Entrepreneurship

Nov. 17, 2011

Chip Bell and 7 other people answered this question

What are the unwritten rules to a successful webinar?

From a presenter's perspective from someone who has done a lot of webinars, what listeners value is a presenter who follows five simple rules:
Be real
Be relevant
Be relational
Be resourceful
Be remembered more

Customer Service

Channel Management

Oct. 17, 2011

Chip Bell and 13 other people answered this question

What are the qualifications to be a mentor?

Be careful with the requirement for all mentors to have deep experience in the area they are mentoring. The goal of mentoring is learning--i.e., the facilitation of insight and discovery, not the transmittal of expert knowledge. What should be the experience of a psychiatrist who ... more

General Management

Human Resources

Career Development

Oct. 12, 2011

Chip Bell and 16 other people answered this question

What to do when a competitor snatched your to-be product/feature?

Since you cannot copyright or trademark an idea, it pays to gain protection early. I would recommend examining ways to surround your product with the kind of customer experience that makes product competition not the real contest. What does Ritz-Carlton offer that Four Season does ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Oct. 12, 2011

Chip Bell and 26 other people answered this question

What is the one business characteristic that you would like to mimic of Steve Jobs?

Commitment to Innovation

General Management

Sept. 26, 2011

Chip Bell and 12 other people answered this question

Do 'one-time customers' exist?

There probably are industries that have one-and-done customers...like a funeral home, maybe. But, travel? That seems odd to position it as one shot offering to customers. more

Customer Service

Customer Experience Management

Customer Satisfaction

Sept. 26, 2011

Chip Bell and 19 other people answered this question at this roundtable

The Biggest Sin in Selling: Discounting! [9/22 @ 1 pm]

What if you are selling a commoditized product, what is the best way to differentiate your offerring?

There are many definitions of a product...tangibility might be the most crucial feature. I can touch my dishwasher, but not my checking account. Customers today assume the product or commodity they buy will be of a quality they can trust--a table stake. Without a quality ... more

Aug. 3, 2011

Chip Bell and 3 other people answered this question

How does outsourcing to an international call center effect customer service?

It can work terrific...if the outsourcer can match the tone, style and manner of the service vision for the company. If Disney outsourced call center traffic to Singapore, what would the customer expect it to be like. Language is an obvious requirement...not that customers expect ... more

Customer Service

Call Center Experiences

Customer Satisfaction

July 20, 2011

Chip Bell and 8 other people answered this question

What are your thoughts on Rupert Murdoch's handling of the phone hacking scandal?

Too little transparency and too little retribution too late. His propensity to control and direct (not unusal for most entrepreneurs) may have robbed him of his ability to influence public opinion early enough in the hiccup to shape perception. He could have borrowed lessons learned ... more

General Management

July 20, 2011

Chip Bell and 4 other people answered this question

How do you develop your personal brand?

1. Read Karl Speak's book, Be Your Own Brand.
2. Read it again with a highlighter.
3. Start with the unique features of whatever you are passionate about. When you are happiest in work, what is happening? What characteristics can connect with others?
Extra: Brand is about image ... more

Human Resources

July 16, 2011

Chip Bell and 3 other people answered this question

Is customer experience is affected by the degree of alignment of within an organization?

The quality of the service the external customer receives is directly tied to the quality of service employees give each other. Non-alignment creates rocky hand-offs and siloed delivery. It yields units that should be working collaboratively to support the customer working a cross-purposes. Without the ... more

Customer Service

Business Alignment

Customer Experience

July 16, 2011

Chip Bell and 4 other people answered this question

How does chat support help customer satisfaction?

Chat support is vital as the backdoor of self-service. Customers enjoy the accessibility and 24/7 capacity of self-service. But, let it not work or be inadequate and customers can feel like being on s stuck elevator with no phone. Zappos.com is a great example of ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

July 15, 2011

Chip Bell and 13 other people answered this question

Is roleplaying an effective customer service training technique?

What is the best way to learn to drive a car? Let me rephrase. Would you get in the car with a driver who aced the written test, scored super high points at the county fair on those video car driving games, but never actually ... more

Customer Service

Contact Centers

July 7, 2011

Chip Bell and 7 other people answered this question

POLL: what is the best day of the week to send a B2B email?

Whatever day the B2B customer prefers. There is lots of research that show there are no "rules of thumb" anymore since customers do business 23/7. Again, I would ask the target audience and learn from their feedback. more

Customer Service

Click Through Rates

July 7, 2011

Chip Bell and 3 other people answered this question

How can an organization strive to make the customer experience similar across different channels?

Start with a clear and compelling service vision--the picture of the organization's signature customer experience. The vision should be in sync with what customers will value, what employees can deliver, and what maximizes the strengths and opportunities while minimizing the weaknesses and threats of the ... more

Customer Service

Contact Centers

July 5, 2011

Chip Bell and 29 other people answered this question

POLL: Are you in favor of ending tax cuts for the wealthy as part of a deficit reduction program?

Here are 2011 Facts:
In the USA the top 10% pay 45.1% of all taxes, but their net worth (or market share) is just 33.5%. If taxes were completely fair, the top 10% would only pay 33.5%. Will it help the economy if we ask those ... more

July 1, 2011

Chip Bell and 1 other person answered this question

If you were creating a library of customer service, what books would you put on the shelves?

Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service by PRA
I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
The Experience Economy by Pine and Gilmore
The Service Profit Chain by Sasser, Heskett, and Schlesinger
The Loyalty Effect by Fred Reichheld
Discovering the Soul of Service ... more

Customer Service

July 1, 2011

Chip Bell and 11 other people answered this question

How can a company establish a customer service culture?

Start by treating employees exactly as you would have them treat their most important customers. Create a continual learning environment that helps the organization stay attuned and up-to-date with customers' changing needs and expectations, including the channels by which they prefer to be served. Align ... more

Customer Service

Company Culture

Customer Experience Management

Customer Loyalty

June 27, 2011

Chip Bell and 9 other people answered this question

Survey Design: when writing questions, how strict are you with grammar rules?

Surveys are tools to facilitate a candid conversation. Language is the means for acquiring accurate understanding of meaning--what each end of the conversation actually intended. Therefore, grammer, spelling, punctuation are only valuable in the manner they promote candor and clarity. If a survey question sounds ... more

Customer Service

Market Research

June 21, 2011

Chip Bell and 15 other people answered this question

Is customer centricity overrated?

Peter Drucker, the father of management, wrote: "The purpose of an organization is to create and retain a customer." Customer should be the centerpiece of organizational focus. The key is staying clear on what the customer needs and values as well as how they define ... more

Customer Service

June 21, 2011

Chip Bell and 4 other people answered this question

Has American business lost focus on the value of the customer?

There are at least three factors at play--customer expectations are higher (up 33% from last year) making last year's B just a C+ this year. The other factor is the recession has forced organizations to make tough cuts--too often viewing front line servers as an ... more

Customer Service

Customer Loyalty

Customer Service Complaints

Service Untitled

June 8, 2011

Chip Bell answered this question

What are your thoughts on the current state of customer service in the US?

I agree with the statistics. I think we are seeing several things. There is a deeper frustration among customers than we have ever seen in our lifetime. Some of it is driven by the scariness of the recession--making customers picky and fickle. But, a lot ... more

Customer Service

Customer Experience Management

Customer Loyalty

Customer Treatment

June 6, 2011

Chip Bell and 21 other people answered this question

As an interviewer, what is your favorite interview question?

This is great! And, so likely to be true these days!!

Human Resources

Applicant Screening

Following 2 Topics

Customer Experience Management

Customer Service

Following 1 Person

Followed by 22 People

Knowledgeable in 50 Topics

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