confidential

Home  /  A Discreet Twist on Confidentiality – 1/5/16 TOW  /  confidential

How to Avoid “Groundhog Day” - 11/3/26


It’s Groundhog Day, where you’re living the same day over and over and over again. You have heard basically the same complaint from 4 different customers in the past week.  The bill is incorrect or confusing, and you’re having to spend a ton of time explaining things to the customer. You’ve Read more

Beware of Scary Telephone Customer Service - 10/27/26


As we near the Halloween holiday in the United States, it seems appropriate to discuss examples of scary customer service, particularly on the telephone.  Here are a few common issues that frustrate and annoy customers.  These are experiences to avoid delivering, and alternatives to adopt: The customer calls, describes their Read more

The Art of the Successful Script - 10/20/26


You’re the customer.  You go to the store, and they ask if you have a loyalty card.  You call the doctor’s office, and they ask for your birth date.   You walk up to the counter, and they ask if you found everything you were looking for. These are all valid Read more

The Key Building Block for Your Customer Relationship - 10/13/26


An automotive manufacturer gets supplies for their vehicles from all over the world.  They have arrangements, service level agreements, expectations for timing and quality of all the parts.  And when they gather all these supplies, they assemble the cars.  They test the cars.  Then they take pictures of those Read more

Be Flexible to Fill the Gaps - 10/6/26


The non-profit has the expected challenges.  There are only 3 people in the organization, yet, they have the same responsibilities of a larger company.  They have to do finance, sales, marketing; they deliver their services to the community, and they need to keep a pulse on what’s going on Read more

Is This Good Customer Service? - 9/29/26


A friend of mine reached out to me recently as she waited for the electrical technician to show up at her house to do some minor repairs.  She had never worked with this company before, but they sent a text about the tech who was soon to arrive. The message Read more

Ownership when Fixing Others’ Errors - 9/22/26


We were conducting training with a client recently, and one of the participants, Jackie, is in a role in his organization where he goes out to the customer site to investigate issues, address customer complaints, and fix problems.  While he’s at the site, he often gets an earful from Read more

Why “No” is So Important - 9/15/26


The employee told the caller: “I don’t think that is possible.” The customer eventually hung up, and redialed to ask a different employee the same question. The employee responded to the customer: “That’s probably not the best way to do it.”  Then, the customer kept asking question after question, arguing Read more

It’s Not “You,” It’s “I” - 9/8/26


During a business writing course that I took years ago, the instructor had us write an e-mail.  I can’t recall if it was written to a co-worker or customer, but after writing this e-mail, she had us count every “I” and “You.”  We talked about how we need to Read more

It Shouldn’t Make a Difference, But… - 9/1/26


We have this conversation with lots of our sports clients, but the principles apply across all different industries.  Too many service representatives view a conversation with a customer as a transaction.  Just get him off the phone as quickly as possible.  The customer is Joe Public, not Joseph Pendergrass.  Read more

•••••

A Discreet Twist on Confidentiality – 1/5/16 TOW

Posted on January 5, 2016 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment


HIPAA. If you’re in healthcare, you know what that means – HIPAA is all about information privacy. If you’re a parent with a child going to college, you’re probably familiar with the laws protecting your child from having to share their school information with…you!

If you’re in a financial-oriented or retail (or most other) type of business, I’m sure your company is concerned with keeping social security numbers and credit card numbers confidential.

Confidentiality and privacy are embedded in many big corporate initiatives, policies, and laws. But let’s take a twist on confidentiality that’s not simply a governmental or organizational requirement – instead, it’s a component of great customer service.

When thinking about how to best provide service to your clients, consider the term “discreet.” Being discreet with client information means keeping the information and their concerns private unless absolutely necessary. It means respecting them and the details of their situation. It means not sharing the client’s details with others for the sake of sharing; it means appropriately using and sharing the information only for the benefit of the customer.

View “discreet” as holding difficult conversations with customers in a more private room. It means not repeating personal information like their cell phone number, hotel room number, or e-mail address loudly for other customers to hear. Discreet requires that we’re aware of our surroundings and aware of the responsibility we have to be professional and respectful of client-specific information, issues, emotions, and needs.

What does “discreet” mean to someone in your business, and how does that present itself differently when talking with the customer on the phone or face-to-face? In your business, when should you be discreet in sharing one client’s information with other clients or with co-workers?

Take a twist on confidentiality. Be discreet with the customer and their information to provide the best customer experience.

Signup for FREE Tips!    Contact Us    More Resources for You    Visit Our Home Page