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Tag: Stephen Lynn

Why is Dovetail better? Ask our Customers

July 4, 2010 We at Dovetail Software are in business to make money like other CRM vendors, but I think our approach to generating revenue is different than our competitors. Our philosophy is to take care of the customers and their success will ultimately enable us to maximize our revenue over the long haul. To this end we often provide free consulting to our customers or we might blog about customizations or solutions that might benefit our customers. We just completed a customer installation and another example of this was cited by our newest customer. Since we can’t announce this sale yet, I can’t name individuals, but you can still see what makes Dovetail different. The customer was talking to our installer at their site and said to him: “I can look at your blogging and tell you value your customers and customer…

Ever Wonder What Happens to Your Customer Surveys

June 23, 2010 I don’t know about you, but I would prefer a provider not pretend they care about what you have to say as opposed to claiming they care, and then don’t follow thru. We are conditioned to providers not doing anything after the purchase such that we don’t give it much thought when they don’t. More often than not, I don’t respond to providers’ requests for a survey response, but sometimes, because they have a great way of asking for it, or something really good or bad happened, I do respond. So now the provider has raised the bar, especially when they ask, “Can somebody follow-up with you if they have additional questions?” or “Would you like someone to follow-up with you?” And people remember ….I remember that I had an issue at the Ritz-Carlton, they provided a follow-up survey, I…

Happy Father’s Day to Me

June 21, 2010 You know you are going to have a great day when you combine a day of being waited on along with great customer service. I woke up today to some Father’s Day cards, some presents, and a menu to order from IHOP. When my wife ordered breakfast, she reminded the person on the phone to put the strawberry topping on the French Toast. When the person on the phone asked her to explain, she told the person that last time we got this item, they didn’t put the strawberries on top. When he heard that the previous order wasn’t right, he said, “no problem, they should have gotten it right last time, and this order was on them.” He had no idea whether this actually happened, we didn’t ask for anything, yet this was the way he handled it. Great…

What Does it Take to Provide Superior Customer Service

September 30, 2009 I recently read a blog post on Why Small Companies Are Better at Customer Service by Anthony Tjan. In his post Tony points out, “The key difference in these experiences is the common sense and empathy of the small local company. Too much customer service — especially in large companies — has devolved to standard operating procedures and scripted answers delivered with artificial calmness.”    I agree that the key differences Tony points out are critical, but they wouldn’t completely explain why companies provide good or bad customer service. It also takes the right culture within the company to ensure that customers are serviced well. We are all aware of Zappos and their unwavering focus on superior customer service. They aren’t a small company; yet, many companies attempt to emulate their customer service. So what is it about Zappos that…

Value of Software Maintenance and Support

August 27, 2009 We pride ourselves on the value we provide our customers for maintenance and support, whether it is on our own software products, or on the Clarify software products we also support. I have written frequently about the level of service we provide, often citing customer examples to back up our claim. We are often asked by customers who are considering switching to our Clarify Help Desk Program why we are better than Amdocs. Here’s what we highlight - First, Dovetail charges considerably less than Amdocs charges for support. In tough economic times, this is an important factor. We then talk about our customer service and how our customer support staff is top notch and the service they provide is fabulous (OK, I’m bias, but our references back us up). We go on to say how support cases are immediately handled…

It’s About Making the Customer Successful

August 12, 2009 We have been accused of providing consulting work for free and it is an accusation I am quite proud of. While we are certainly in business to make money, it isn’t all about getting every last dollar from your customers. Take care of your customers, make sure they are successful, and ultimately you will achieve financial success. That is the Dovetail way. We pride ourselves on this approach and I have previously mentioned some examples. But a recent situation was more than just responding to a customer’s request. It was proactive consulting - providing consulting before it is asked for, and then not even charging for it. A new concept. Let me explain. Better yet, let me just refer you to Gary Sherman’s recent blog post, Hiding Empty Queues in Dovetail Agent,  that will give you the details. Thanks Gary,…

So How Good is the Commitment of our Customer Support Personnel?

August 3, 2009 I love talking about Dovetail’s Customer Support. I know it comes off sounding self serving, but if your customer support personnel were as dedicated to the customers as ours are, you would brag about them also. And since I always say “Actions Speak Louder Than Words”, let me use another recent example to demonstrate the level of commitment of Dovetail’s customer service. A couple of weeks ago, one of our customer support personnel (he prefers that I not name him) was at the hospital  as his wife was in labor and about to deliver their new son. It happened to be 6 am in the morning and his cell phone rang. It was one of our customers so our support person excused himself from his wife (a brave soul at this moment), and left the room to talk to the…

Jeremy Miller’s latest article in MSDN Magazine

July 31, 2009 Jeremy Miller, Dovetail Software's chief software architect, is a regular author for MSDN magazine. In this month's magazine, Jeremy writes about Patterns in Practice. Take a read and let us know your thoughts on Jeremy’s article. Thanks Jeremy for taking your time to contribute to the technical community. Until Next Time, Stephen

Customer Survey – Don’t Ask Unless You Really Want to Know

June 18, 2009 I recently spent a week-end at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas. It was a lovely week-end, the staff was fabulous, we had a great room, and the restaurant was superb. About a week after our stay I received an email from the hotel asking me to complete a survey about our stay. I completed the survey and told them about one problem we had at the hotel. I thought it was important for them to know, and I even filled out the section where it asked if I wanted someone to contact me so I could elaborate on the issue. This is where their customer service broke down. I never heard from anyone. If constructed well, a customer survey can be very valuable to an establishment, especially one that prides themselves on their top quality service like the Ritz-Carlton. They especially…

Jeremy Miller Travels the World to Speak at Norwegian Developers Conference 2009

June 15, 2009 It wasn’t enough that Jeremy Miller, Dovetail Software’s chief software architect, has spent a lot of his time participating in the technical community in the United States; now, he has taken his knowledge overseas to Norway. Jeremy will be speaking at the Norwegian Developers Conference this week in Oslo. For those of you who live in that part of the world and can participate in the conference, you are lucky as the conference has a really interesting agenda and a great list of speakers. Thanks Jeremy for taking your time to spread your knowledge to others. Enjoy the beautiful country. Until Next Time, Stephen