higher education | Customer Service Solutions, Inc. - Page 9

The Secret Sauce for Great Customer Service - 3/26/24


I was working with the League Office for a major American sport several years back, and one of the executives asked me to describe our Secret Sauce that helped our clients improve the fan experience and customer retention.  I gave him a sense of what makes us unique and Read more

The Miracle of an Apology - 3/19/24


Unfortunate but true story… The manager basically lost his mind.  He terminated his employee on the spot.  She had told the customer that there was going to be a delay in the shipment.  The employee called up the customer ahead of time to let the customer know what was about Read more

It’s Not About the 5-Minute Wait - 3/12/24


Robert went into his supervisor’s office to update her on a situation at the payment desk.  Robert said that a customer was about fourth or fifth in line, waiting to be served, and the customer was complaining loudly about the wait.  He was there to make a property tax Read more

Lessons from the Greats - 3/5/24


I was recently facilitating a workshop on the customer experience, and I made the point that it’s usually beneficial to look at your personal life for great experiences; identify what really resonates with you in a positive way in order to uncover ideas to improve your own customer service. So, Read more

The Empathy Roadmap - 2/27/24


For some people, empathy comes naturally.  There’s an innate desire to learn about the other person and to sincerely convey that sense of interest and caring.  But for many of us, sometimes it helps to have a communication plan.  It helps to know what to do in order to Read more

“You’re the Boss” - 2/20/24


Terrence is excellent at what he does.  From a technical standpoint, he knows how to keep the facility clean.  He’s the lead custodian, and he knows that keeping things straight does not necessarily mean keeping things sanitary.  He knows what chemicals to use and not to use, how to Read more

Customer Understanding Leads to Relationship Growth - 2/13/24


We’ve worked with educational organizations at all grade levels over the years.  One special and unique characteristic about the staff who work in these organizations is that there’s a clear intent to know about the students as individuals, to focus on them rather than purely focusing on what’s delivered Read more

Define Customer Service Success Differently - 2/6/24


When I’m watching television, listening to the radio, or listening to a podcast, it’s always interesting when the topic moves to the question:  How can you be a success?  The speakers often discuss the process of becoming a success with the assumption that people believe success is defined by Read more

Care Enough to Give Them a Heads Up - 1/30/24


Nothing bad at all might happen.  Every day in the office could seem like every other day.  Sights and sounds and smells might continue to be the same.  But we have a lot of construction going on around our offices, and the building manager knows the type of work Read more

Be Better than AI Customer Service - 1/23/24


There was a recent CBS Sunday Morning Show story called: How artificial intelligence is revamping customer call centers. The journalist described how artificial intelligence is being used in customer service, and he noted the millions of pieces of information that can be processed in a matter of seconds. There are clear Read more

Learn from Schools without Attending

Posted on in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

Nothing like being in school and getting a report card – that moment of truth when you’ll be smiling or wondering how you’ll subtly get it in front of your parents when they’re in the best mood possible.

Well just like students get report cards, now many schools, colleges, and universities are getting them as well. These report cards are akin to Balanced Scorecards in the rest of the business world, but it’s interesting to note the unique twist that these institutions take in reporting their information. Many elementary schools’ report cards include information on student-to-teacher ratios as well as percentages of teachers who are board certified, and much of this data as well as performance data is listed versus district and state comparatives.

At the 4-year university level, they look at graduation rates, year-to-year retention rates, student loan default rates, student satisfaction scores, measures of student learning, end-of-program assessments, and job placement.

So what can you learn from these educational institutions? From the elementary schools perspective, they offer comparative information. They show how many dedicated resources they have for their students. They note qualifications/experience of their teachers. Do you measure and convey this information to your customers?

From the higher education perspective, they look at retention and loss, they gauge satisfaction, and they analyze impact on the customer. Do you track, measure, and analyze these three key pieces of information?

We all went to school to learn. Let’s take a minute as businesspeople to learn again.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/

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EF Hutton and MIT…

Posted on in Business Advice, Education Please leave a comment

When MIT talks, people listen. Okay, so that’s a bad take-off on the old EF Hutton commercials, but there is a comparison to the old EF Hutton commercials. If you remember from back in the 1980s, EF Hutton (a brokerage firm) had a series of television commercials where one person would be talking to a friend in a crowded place (like an airport, a classroom, a restaurant, a golf course, etc.), and once they stated “EF Hutton says…” everyone around would stop what they were doing and listen intently to the person talking. They wanted to hear what EF Hutton said (to see some of the old commercials, go to www.youtube.com and search on EF Hutton). But I digress…

MIT does something on a biannual basis that all companies should listen intently to and consider. They perform student satisfaction surveys (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/student-satisfaction.html). While that may not be an earth-shattering revelation, keep in mind that MIT is a preeminent university. They have a fantastic reputation and brand. They could operate with the assumption of their own self-worth, but instead they ask students – those 18-21+ year olds – “How are we doing?” They ask “How can we do better?” And they ask their research partner “How do we compare to others?”

They ask because, like their students, they want to learn. And who better to learn from than your customers.

MIT asks about its impact on the student over time at the University (a true outcomes-oriented focus) in terms of the improvement in student’s analytical thinking abilities, their knowledge, their communication skills, their ability to plan/execute projects, their ability to function independently, their ability to relate to others, their self-esteem, and their ability to write.

If the student is – to some extent – both customer and product, than one of the best ways to measure outcomes is to see how that student has grown in these ways and many others over time.

MIT is outcomes-focused. What outcomes do you measure in terms of your impact on your customer?

MIT’s students talk, so MIT can listen. We should listen, too.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/


Customer Service Leads to Customer Involvement in Schools

Posted on in Business Advice, Carolinas, Education Please leave a comment

Several South Carolina schools were given "Red Carpet" awards for excellence in customer service. That’s right, high schools, middle schools, elementary, and other school-types received recognition for being "family friendly." An article (http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/education/article/schools_win_awards_for_family-friendly_atmosphere_customer-focused_service/157334/) published yesterday noted that the winners of these awards received actual red carpets to display in their school lobbies – great form of recognition!

Schools had to describe their "family-friendly philosophies and environments, along with the methods used to promote and self-evaluate those efforts. They also were required to include copies of their school’s communication plan."

Examples of the winning schools included how one school made their library open to the community to use (particularly for internet access); another school opened its gym to community leagues/groups; another ensured it had extra coverage of phones and the front desk during the busiest hours; another increased their bilingual capabilities to match the changing mix of local residents.

It’s wonderful that schools understand and embrace the importance of customer service. The winners realize that they need to create a positive environment through their facility and their people. The examples of winning schools illustrate some key points which apply to any business including: be accessible to your customers to attract them (note the library and gym examples), make sure that you match your staffing to your workload to minimize wait times (note the front desk example), and change your service offerings and the way you do business based on your changing customer base (note the bilingual example).

Customer service is a large part of what customers consider when they’re evaluating any business – even schools.

Learn from these schools to attract customers to you, to minimize customer waits, and to make sure you’re delivering on your customers’ changing needs.

Interested in improving your company’s customer service? See more information at: http://www.cssamerica.com/