Comments on: 7 Deadly Claims (Part 1) — “Superior Customer Service”

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:26:01 +0000

So many ways to say the same thing with better effect, the only thing is its a bit dangerous to put details when you don’t actually have/do all those wonderfull things.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:28:39 +0000

Florida Web Design,

Great words to live by. The problem with “customer service” is that it’s usually a lousy differentiator / UVP that is impossible to “underpromise” on in any meaningful way. Would any customer get excited about pretty good customer service? If you’re gonna hype customer service as a UVP (and I don’t recommend doing that), you almost have to promise big. And then the whole “Under Promise. Over Deliver” thing goes out the window.

- Jeff

By: Florida Web Design Company

Florida Web Design Company — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:44:36 +0000

I have 4 words:

Under Promise, Over Deliver

People never tend to believe in promises anymore. The primary reason is: too much effective marketing. That said, if you do promise more value than you can deliver, people will hold that against you. It’s a double edged sword.

By: A Blog Worth Following | FutureNow's GrokDotCom / Marketing Optimization Blog

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:50:37 +0000

[...] buyer confidence is everything – without it the sale is lost. That’s why methods of substantiating claims and establishing credibility are frequent topics of [...]

By: MBA Depot

MBA Depot — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:07:40 +0000

7 Deadly Claims…

Jeff Sexton at Future Now identifies and challenges seven common marketing claims, explaining why they are ineffective and offering ideas for making them persuasive.
1. Superior Customer Service
2. Easy to Use
3. Most Experienced
4. We’re #1
5….

By: Max

Max — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:20:20 +0000

Yes, I agree with Scott. Last week I got a spam email saying: “original quality”. What does it mean? That it’s fake, but in an original quality?

By: Scott Salwolke

Scott Salwolke — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:44:45 +0000

Superior is one of those words like quality. They’ve lost any impact on prospects. They want proof of your success. I also think you should also address what you should do if you don’t meet their level of satisfaction. I think it’s why a guarantee is important for most service providers.

By: BJ Wright

BJ Wright — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:20:50 +0000

Excellent Post/series! This concept can really help a company find out how well their customer service really is? Not only by trying to claim how they service their customers, but actually digging into the stats, such as:

- How fast calls are answered
- Answering staff vs. machine
- Customer turnover rate
- Repeat customers
- Resolved customer issues

This will really help our company to dig a little deeper into how well we are currently satisfying our customers.

By: Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter » Small Biz Snafus

Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter » Small Biz Snafus — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:04:38 +0000

[...] More: Jeff Sexton, GrokDotCom: The 7 Deadly Claims (Part One) – “Superior Customer Service.” The local printer’s website says, “You will call it fantastic.” Forget fantastic. [...]

By: Copywriter Andrew Cavanagh

Copywriter Andrew Cavanagh — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:19:33 +0000

Absolutely fabulous post Jeff.

The biggest key here that you point out repeatedly is being very specific with the claims in your copy.

Giving them dimension and making them genuine and believable.

It’s exactly what would work to sell a prospect one on one.

Advertising is salesmanship.

Thank you so much for your insights.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

By: More Outstanding Sales and Marketing Links | Word Sell, Inc.

More Outstanding Sales and Marketing Links | Word Sell, Inc. — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:11:42 +0000

[...] Sexton does not like unsubstantiated assertions. Here he talks about why “superior customer service” are hollow [...]

By: 7 Deadly Claims: #1 - “Superior Customer Service” - CRM Mastery e-Journal - Commentary and Musings on CRM Best Practice and Industry News

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:59:05 +0000

[...] is the first of a series of articles by Jeff Sexton for Grokdotcom, 7 Deadly Claims: #1 – “Superior Customer Service:” The idea for this series, in case you’re wondering, came when I found this list of the [...]

By: Nadie te está escuchando « Javier Godoy

Nadie te está escuchando « Javier Godoy — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:58:14 +0000

[...] pensar en formatos y redactar utilizando un tópico tras otro. Nunca más, como bien comentan en Future Now decir que somos los mejores producirá otra cosa que una risa o un [...]

By: nethy

nethy — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:16:12 +0000

I was thinking about this post when I came across this:

“|_________|is a leading provider of web analytics and consumer-centric marketing intelligence solutions.”
At the top of every page of ’some company’s site’.

Can you fill in the blanks? (only 6-7 possibilities, really)

They should know better. I suppose it fills a dual purpose:
- It tells anyone familiar with the self indulgent (ironically unconsumer-centric)jargon – “web analytics and consumer-centric marketing intelligence solutions”
- It makes an unsubstantiated claim – “leading provider” (even though it substantiatable, they are to my knowledge ‘a’ leading provider)

In their defence the only wasted word is ‘of’.

By: Andrew Goodman

Andrew Goodman — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:28:52 +0000

You’ve hit on the problem, Jeff. Many or most companies don’t have satisfactory “real information” to proffer. So we’re back to the Guy Kawasaki maxim: “Get better reality.”

By: nethy

nethy — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:15:01 +0000

Great Article,

I would love to see some expirementation and testing done on these issues. I believe that there is a measurable ‘banner blindness’ type effect (BS Blindness? going on. IE if you expose consumers to these BS messages, even if centre screen, flashing and in large friendly letters, they will not see it.

I would guess that the addition of a substantial (I mean literally substantial-containing substance) sub-sentence/heading would increase recal by 100s of % maybe even 1000s, and the impact (measured any way you like) of these would probably be even bigger.

“Industry Leading Customer Service”

“Industry Leading Customer Service”
“You’re phone call will be answered by a human being – Fast. We Promise.”