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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

Use What the Customer Gives You - 8/25/26


Scenario #1: The customer sent an e-mail to the general inbox at the company.  The message noted that the customer needed to get a family member added to their account, but they couldn’t tell from the website how to do so. The next morning an employee opened up the e-mail, Read more

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Allow Yourself to Solve a Couple Puzzles Every Day – 6/2/26

Posted on June 2, 2026 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Frank had never been a dog owner before, and when he first got Bosco at the shelter, Frank didn’t really know what he was doing.  He would try to be a good parent – feed the dog, play with it, take it on walks – but he was doing this without any experience or any puppy parent education.

When Frank would walk Bosco, the pup would stop frequently to sniff, and it was slowing down the walk, so Frank tried to keep the dog moving along so they could get in a good, brisk walk.

One day Frank was talking to a friend who had had dogs for many years, and Frank was asking for her advice on how to keep Bosco walking instead of slowing down and sniffing so much.  Instead of giving an answer to the question, the friend educated Frank on the situation.  When the dog is sniffing, it’s like it’s solving a puzzle.  The dog is investigating and evaluating and using its senses to understand things better.

When they sniff (or solve the puzzle), they are getting acclimated to their environment, they are slowing down, they are lowering their heart rate, and becoming less stressed.

Lessons for Customer Service

So, what does this have to do with customer service?  I often find myself trying to get everything done.  Plowing through the work, just grinding through it.  It’s reviewing e-mails, responding to client inquiries, dealing with complaints on behalf of my clients, or working on projects.

And some days you might find yourself running through your tasks just like I do.

But just like Frank’s pup, if I take time occasionally during the day to slow down, investigate a key situation with a customer or a client, dive in a little bit deeper, then I will typically find myself thinking a little bit more.  Understanding the issue a little bit better.  Coming to a solution that’s going to be more well-thought out, more clear in my communications, and which will require less rework.

If I allow myself to slow down a couple times during the day, I focus more clearly, my solutions are better, the heart rate slows down, and stress is lessened.

Allow yourself to solve a couple puzzles every day.

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Address the Expectations that Were Set – 8/26/25

Posted on August 26, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Before the caller ever got to Marco – the customer service representative, the customer had been working with the company for months.  They had read the marketing brochures, had a conversation with a sales rep, reviewed the new customer information on the website, and read all the information e-mailed to them as they began using the services provided by Marco’s company.

All those communications, all that information set an expectation in the caller’s mind.  Now it was up to Marco to respond to the complaint, the comment, the momentary confusion of the customer.  That complaint, comment, confusion were the result of expectations set through all those communications, and expectations not met through the actual service delivered.

For Marco to best handle the situation, he had to know the content of the marketing collateral, the sales conversation, the website onboarding information, and the information e-mailed to new customers.

It’s hard enough dealing with somebody who’s angry or they’re upset, they’re confused or flummoxed, or they’re seeking clarification or confirmation of information. It’s doubly difficult if you don’t know what precipitated all of those emotions and questions.

Luckily, Marco was well-aware of the communications customers receive, and the company is good enough to provide information between the different divisions so everybody can stay aware of the freshest set of information that goes in front of customers.

While being great at customer service often requires us to be great in that Moment of Truth, sometimes the success of those conversations is based on what happens before that customer engagement.

It’s when individual staff like Marco take time during downtime (or they allocate a little bit of time every day) to make sure they understand what’s being communicated to customers and what kind of questions, concerns, complaints can be driven from that information, and how that information and the expectations it sets differ from reality.

To best meet customer expectations, study the information and communication tools that create customer expectations.

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When Technology Fails the Customer – 8/19/25

Posted on August 19, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

Technology is a wonderful thing…until it isn’t.  The website is down, the mobile app won’t work, the system keeps kicking them out of their account, or they received a spoofing phone call supposedly from your department.

If you’ve ever been manning the phones or managing the department inbox, you know that when your company has a technical issue, there’s an escalation in customer contacts.  And usually they’re reaching out to you because they’re confused, concerned, or there’s some heightened sense of consternation.

So how do you respond?

Reassure: Let them know that their accounts are safe, that no data has been compromised, that it’s not a technology issue on their end.  Address their specific concern immediately.

Rectify: Share what the organization is doing to address the technical issues or to deal with that bad actor that is spoofing your phone number.

Respect: Ramp up your messaging that acknowledges their time is important, that appreciates their reaching out to you to share this information.  Reference their name in a professional manner throughout the conversation.

Reiterate: Close the engagement by restating your appreciation of their bringing this to your attention, and reassure them once again that their information is safe.

When addressing a corporate technology fail, Reassure, Rectify, Respect, and Reiterate.

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