Customer Service Tip of the Week

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Build Goodwill with Co-workers and Customers - 11/10/26


All relationships are different.  We want to have good relationships with co-workers, after all – those are the people we spend the most time with each week.  We want to have good relationships with customers since they’re the ones that provide the revenue and inflows that allow us to Read more

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

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Be Supportive, Not Defensive – 10/7/25

Posted on October 7, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

[An employee on the phone with a customer…] Who told you that you didn’t have to submit that form? … Bob?  Oh brother!  You see Bob is our “special” co-worker.  He seems to always tell customers the wrong thing to do, and we’re having to clean up after him.  We wouldn’t have half the problems that we do if it wasn’t for Bob.

We have probably all worked with a Bob.  He’s that co-worker who causes of fires that we find ourselves fighting.  Maybe he’s the salesperson that made expectations that operations or customer service know cannot be delivered.  Maybe he’s somebody with the best intentions but communicates them in a way that creates issues for others.  But we don’t want to throw Bob under the proverbial bus.

On the other hand, Bob may be an outstanding employee!  Maybe the customer is totally in the wrong, so it’s understandable that we could be defensive because Bob is unjustly being chastised by the customer in their conversation with you.

Whether the customer complaint is justified or not, that co-worker is as much a part of the organization as you are, so how can we be supportive without being defensive?

Avoiding Defensiveness

One way to address this is to keep in mind that defensiveness is often exhibited through our emotions.  To avoid being defensive, keep the emotions down, keep the tone a little more calm and steady, be intentional about your body language, trying not to raise the temperature with the customer.

Being Supportive

Don’t feel like you have to argue on your co-worker’s behalf in order to be supportive.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to convey what you know and don’t know, note your experience or lack thereof in the situation or with your co-worker, and transition the conversation away from your co-worker and back toward the issue and possible resolution.  Talking to the customer:

I wasn’t in that conversation, so I can’t speak specifically to what Bob said, but I’m sorry you had to deal with it, and I want to help you find a resolution.

I’ve known Bob for years, and I’ll definitely talk with him since that’s not the experiences his customers typically have, and I’m very sorry about what happened in your case.  Let’s discuss how we can resolve this for you.

That’s not how we typically do things around here, so I’m very sorry about the situation.  I’ll definitely share your concerns internally after our call, and right now I want to make sure we can get this situation addressed immediately.

Don’t agree with the customer that Bob was at fault; stay composed; let them know if the situation isn’t typical, and move toward a resolution.

Be Supportive, Not Defensive.

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Some Customers LOVE Predictability – 9/30/25

Posted on September 30, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

I was facilitating focus groups of businesses that utilize local government services.  The phrase that popped up multiple times was “Time Is Money!”  What these municipal customers were conveying was that their time was valuable, and delays were wasting their time.  But the conversations were not just about how long some process would take.  These were builders and developers, these were representatives of organizations that were performing renovations and repairs.

While the total process time was one part of the timeliness equation, one of my learnings from these focus groups was that the other part of the timeliness equation was predictability.

These focus group participants evaluated the customer experience by having an understanding of what that experience was going to be, the milestone dates or timelines associated, and those expectations being met.

The Customer’s Need for Predictability

The customers needed predictability because it enabled them to plan their next steps and timeframes.  It enabled them to understand how the tasks they’re working on fit into the bigger picture schedules.  It helped them to communicate with their stakeholders about timelines and responsibilities.

This also applies to healthcare.  If somebody is having an outpatient procedure, knowing the length of the procedure, how long they’ll be held after the procedure, how much notification lead-time they’ll get before they get discharged – that knowledge helps the patient to understand when to make that call for transportation to take them home.

This applies to pro sports.  We do TONS of surveys for pro sporting events, and sometimes fans reach out to us directly – not about the survey but asking when they’re going to get their tickets for the next event.  They were not told what to expect or didn’t remember, and now they’re antsy because the expectations aren’t known, because the predictability isn’t there.

What this Means for You

When considering how to improve your customer experience, focus on how to improve the predictability of what you do.  Oftentimes there is a predictable nature to what the process steps might be, who’s going to follow-up with the customer, and when it’s going to occur.  But unless that is communicated to the customer, and unless that is delivered as designed, the customer won’t know what to expect.  The lack of predictability can create additional touch points for you and additional anxiety for the customer.

Create more predictability for a better customer experience.

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Find Your Special Sauce – 9/23/25

Posted on September 23, 2025 in Customer Service Tip of the Week Please leave a comment

When I watch a football game and I see a great quarterback (somebody who may be considered a “Star”), he might be an excellent runner, have a big arm, be able to diagnose the defense and get his team into the right play.  But he’s likely not great at everything.  Mistakes occur, interceptions are thrown, there are times when he passes and should have run…and vice versa.

I am wowed by musicians – people who can make incredible music on a guitar.  People who can play 10 different songs on a piano at the drop of a hat during a church hymn sing.  Great drummers who can somehow wield two sticks on drums and symbols while also using their feet to bang the bass drum.  But unless you’re a 1-man band (or Prince!), you’re probably not great at all those instruments.  While you may be great at playing instruments, you may not be the best singer or lyricist.

My point is that stars are stars for what they do, but that doesn’t mean that they are great at everything.

Defining Stardom

I’m sure if you’re reading this tip and you’re in a customer service role, you’re either a customer service star already or you have the capacity to become a star.  Now whether you’re that star athlete or that star musician or that star customer service professional, find your special sauce – those 1 or 2 things where you’re already greater or have the capacity to be greater, and continually strengthen it.

Define YOUR Stardom

Become a star because you know how to calm those irate customers.  Become a star because you have an incredible depth of knowledge about your organization’s products, policies, processes, and people.  Hone your skills as a star in how you engage people with your body language and your tone and how you can read others and – on the fly – adjust your communication approach to meet what will work best with them.

In this day and age, it is way too UNcommon for people to be stars in business writing, to be able to craft communication pieces and e-mails that convey the specific information, make the other person feel heard, and create clarity in a concise manner on what the next steps are, when they’ll happen, and who’s responsible.

Hone your star skills for teamwork.  Not only supporting your teammates but understanding your specific role on the team and learning how to strengthen the traits that make you such an important member of your group.

Be a customer service star by understanding what is unique about you and what you bring to the organization, to the team, to the customer.  Then make a conscious effort to build your star talents, attitudes, and attributes.

Become a Customer Service Star.

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